The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 155

EXPOSITION. One, why might not Eve have done so in the CHAPTER IV. first 1 (Bonar) ; (2). that if the thoughtq of Ver. !.-Exiled from Eden, o'er-canopied ]!ve had been "!nnmg s_o closely on the iden- hy ism.cc, animated by hope, assuretl of the tity of the commg Dehverer with Jehovah Divme forgiveness, anti. filled with a sweet the child would have been called Jehovah' 0 ~ peace, the first pair enter on their life expe- at least so!11e compound of Jehovah, such as rience of labour and sorrow, and the human Ishiah-ei•~ and illi1'-or Coniah-!'P ancl ~ace. begins its onwa~d course _of development m,,, (Mtirphy) ; (3) si sciyit Mesaiam esse m sight of the mystic cherubim and flaminu cle1:>et Jovarn, quomodo existimare potuit sword. And Adam knew Eve, his wife. I. 2 Camarn esse Messiam, quern sciebat esse ab "recognised her nature and uses" (Alfortl; Adamo genitum 1 (Dathe); and (4) that cf. Num, xxxi. 17). The act here men- while it might not be difficult to account fo~ tioned is recorded not to indicate that para- the mistake _of a joyful mother in supposing dise was "non nuptiis, sed virginitate desti- that the fruit of her womb was the promised natum" (Jerome), but to show that while seed, though, "if she did believe so it is a Adam was formed from the soil, and Eve ~ai;tion to interpreters of prophecy" (Inglis), from a rib taken from his side, the other it 19 not so easy to explaID her belief that tha members of the race were to be produced promised seed was to be Jehovah, since no "neque ex tcrra neque quovis alio modo, such announcement was made in the Prot- scd ex conjunctione maris et freminre" (Run- evangel But ":hichever view be adopted gius). And she conceived. The Divine of !he construction of the language, it is blessing (eh. i. 28), which in its operation obvious that Eves utterance was the dictate had been suspended during the period of of faith. In Cain's birth she recognised the innocence, while yet it was undetermined earn~st and gnarantee o~ the promised seed, whother the race should develope as a holy and ID token of her faith gave her child a or a fallen seed, now begins to take effect name (cf. eh. iii.. 2_0), which may also explain (cf. eh. xviii. 14; Ruth iv. 13; Heh. xi. 11). her use of the Divine name Jehovah instead And bare Cain. Acquisition or Possession, of Elohim, which she employed when con- from kanah, to acquire (Gesenius). Cf. versing with the serpent. That Eve denomi- Eye's exclamation. Kalisch, connecting it nates her infant a man has been thou.,ht to with lr:un or kin, to strike, sees an allusion indicate that she had previously borne dauuh- to his character and subsequent hi..tory as a ters who had grown to womanhood, and that fil;urderer:, and supposes it wns ~ot given to she expected her young and t~nder babe to him at b1rth, but at a later penod. Tayler reach maturity. Murphy thinks this opinion Lewis falls back upon the primitive idea of probable; but the impression conveyed by the ro_ot, to ~reate, to procreate, generate, the narrative is that Ca.in was the :first-born of which he cites as examples eh. xiv. 19 of the human family. 22 ; Deut. x.xxii. 6, and takes the derivativ~ to. signify the seed, explaining Eve's exclal'.ll.- Yer. 2.-And she ag_ain bare (literally, ahon kanithi kain as equivalent to nroa:n added to bear, a HebiaJSm adopted in the roa:ov, genui genitum or generationem. And New Testament; vide Luke xx. 11) his bro- said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. ther Abel Habel (vanity), supposed to hint The popular interpretation, regarding kani- either that a mother's eager hopes had al.reatly thi ns the emphatic word in the sentence, begnn to b~ di~appointed in_ h,er elder son, understands Eve to say that her child wns a or that,, havmg ID he~ firs~ cb1l~ s name given thing achieved, an acquisition gained, either expression to her faith, ID thJS she desired from the Lord (Onkelos, Cnlvin) or by means to preserve a monument of the miseries of of, with the help of, the Lord (LXX., Yul- human life, of which, perhaps, she hnd been gate, Jerome, Do.the, Keil), or for the Lord forcibly reminded by her own maternal sor- (Syrio.c). If, however, the emphatic term is rows. Perhaps also, though unconsciously, J~hovah, then eth with Mo.kkeph following a melancholy prophecy of his premature re- will be the sign of the accusative, o.nd the moval by the band of fratricidal rage, to sense will be, "I ho.ve gotten o. mnn-Jeho- which it has been thought there is an outlook vo.h" (Jonathon, Luther, Baumgarten, Lewis); by the historian in the frequent (seven times to which, perhaps, the chief objections are- repeated) and almost po.thetic mention of (1) that it appears to anticipate the develop- the fact that Abel wo.s Cain's brother. The m,ent of the Messianic iden, and credits Eve absence of the usual expression 11JJ:ll, as well with too mature Christological conceptions as the peculiar phraseology et addidit parere (Lange), though if Enoch in the seventh has suggested that Abel was Cain's twin bro• generation recognised Jehovah as the coming ther (Calvin, Kimchi, Candlish), though thia  78 THE BOOK OF GENESIS, [<11l, IV. 1-18,