We will employ the following hermeneutical tools in this article:
- The Rule of First mention (the first mention of any word establishes the precedent for its use in Scripture)
- The Rule of Complete mention
- Covenant language i.e. “keep my commandments”
- His perfect will for creation
- PaRDeS (THE RULES OF PARDES INTERPRETATION *
- Ancient Hebrew pictograph
- Simple gematria
The four levels of interpretation are called: Pashat, Remez, D’rash & Sud. The first letter of each word P-R-D-S is taken, and vowels are added for pronunciation, giving the word PARDES (meaning “garden” or “orchard”). Each layer is deeper and more intense than the last, like the layers of an onion. (http://www.yashanet.com)
If we want to understand “the Cain mutiny,” then we must examine the entire story of his life and choices. The choices we will see in the Cain narrative have their origin in Gan Eden. How is this possible when he wasn’t conceived until after his parents were expelled from the garden? It can be explained when we consider the behavior of his parents, Adam and Chava, the two trees and the two seeds.
We will begin our study in Ge. 3:1: Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
The purpose of the serpent was to deceive Chava, then Adam and their future seed. The Hebrew word for serpent is “nachash,” נָחָשׁ. In its ancient form “nachash” would read: “There is another heir who will bring division and cause destruction.” The second heir is the seed, the serpent seed, of the adversary, the anti-messiah. The numerical value is 358; 3 + 5 + 8 = 16. Reducing to a single digit, 1 + 6 = 7. The number seven tells us that for seven thousand years the “serpent seed” will operate within the physical realm. His agenda is clear, spiritual destruction. Think about the movement of the serpent. It doesn’t move in a straight line, rather it twists and turns. Likewise is the behavior of the serpent seed, meaning it is meant to twist and turn from truth.
V2 – 5: And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” **In reaching beyond the Tree of Life and ingesting the fruit of the tree of knowledge she altered her own perfect DNA and by extension the DNA of her future “seed.”
V6: So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. **Adam has now altered his own DNA effecting his “seed.”
Like any good and loving parents, the illicit knowledge ingested from the tree of knowledge would have been taught to their sons, Cain and Abel, presenting them with the issue of choice. Good choices merit blessings or bad choices meriting curses.
The Cain narrative clearly shows us he chose the path of rebellion over the path of obedience. The path of rebellion is the path of destruction. It is the wide path.
Ge. 4:1 – 16 with commentary: “Now Adam knew Eve (אֶת־חַוָּה ) his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain (אֶת־קַיִן ), and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the LORD ( אֶת־יְהוָֽה ). Then she bore again, this time his brother (אֶת־אָחִיו ) Abel (אֶת־הָבֶל ).
Adam knew Chava, she conceived twins, Cain and Abel. Chava and both of her sons were born in the “strength of the covenant.” Notice Adam is not connected to the Aleph Tav. The Aleph Tav Cain had an exalted position, in that he was the firstborn twin. Cain’s father, Adam, was the first High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. As the firstborn twin, Cain would have inherited the blessing of the firstborn, referred to as the “birthright blessing,” that being both King and Priest of the clan. Instead, like many firstborns after him, he would choose the earthly realm in lieu of the spiritual realm.
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time (מִקֵּץ יָמִים ) it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. **Cain’s choice of timing was an act of rebellion which earned him a rejected offering.
So the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted (forgiven)? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.’ Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. **Cain’s act of rebellion morphed into anger and jealousy which further morphed into murder. None of these behaviors would have been found in the fruit of the tree of life.
V5 – 7: “…but to Cain and to his offering He did not turn. This annoyed Cain exceedingly, and his countenance fell. And YaHaVah said to Cain, why are you annoyed, and why has your countenance fallen? Surely, if you improve yourself, you will be forgiven.”
There is an interesting word used for “forgiven.” This word is שְׂאֵת which means dignity, exaltation or loftiness. It doesn’t really mean “forgiven” BUT if Cain had chosen to improve himself, he would have regained his exalted position, which would result in “forgiveness.” He would have been able to retain his birthright position.
The question becomes how did Cain know the right behavior from wrong behavior?
Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He said, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And He said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth (אֶת־פִּיהָ ) to receive your brother’s blood (אֶת־דְּמֵי ) from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.’ And Cain said to the LORD, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear!
Cain’s choices have been judged and his punishment issued; he has been cursed. The Hebrew word for “curse” is אָרַר. In its ancient form “arar” would read; “He who was the leader from the beginning is still the first.” This may make more sense when we look at the first mention of “arar” which is found in Ge. 3:14: “So the LORD God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.’’
The serpent was cursed which means his “seed” would also be cursed. The third usage of the word curse is found within the Cain narrative.
Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me. And the LORD said to him, ‘Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.’ And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.”
In this Scripture, the word used for mark is “owt,” אוֹת. Can this mark be a distinguishing characteristic showing the observer that this is someone who rejected the covenant and the pure seed?
Throughout the Cain narrative, we can see several character flaws. In my opinion, at least one key in understanding the man, Cain, can be seen in the first letter of his name, the Quph. This letter produces a hard “k” sound. In the Hebrew language there is another letter that would produce the same sound, the letter Kaph. With this in mind, we can ask our self why is Cain spelled with the letter Quph when there is another option available?
In other words, if Cain had been spelled with the letter Kaph, the ancient meaning of his name would have changed as well as the numerical value as the letter Kaph means to open, allow or to cover.
The corresponding number to the letter Kaph is 20. A far cry to the value of the Quph at 100.
קַיִן
The name Cain is spelled thus, קַיִן. It is spelled with a Quph, Yud and Nun sofit. In its ancient form Cain would read: “The firstborn became least favored to throw the seed of life.” The numerical value of Cain is 160; 1 + 6 = 7.
The ancient Hebrew picture of the Quph is the “back of the head.” The back of his head would be away from the Father or its juxtaposition would be away from the world. The definition of this letter is behind, last or least. In my opinion, we could also define this letter as “choice.” To go one step further, this letter represents our own spiritual direction, i.e. to be for Him or against Him.
In the words of Yeshua as recorded in Mt. 12:30: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”
It is, in fact, one of the character flaws that are exhibited within the Cain narrative. He turned his back on The Fathers’ offer of acceptance. In the spelling of his name we can also see he turned his back on the future Messiah.
The letter Quph is going to reflect obedience or rebellion. Cain brought fruit as an offering. Is it possible Cain picked the first fruit of his field at the proper time, but failed to take it to be offered? In his tardiness the fruit would have withered and been no longer acceptable. (Lev. 23 gives a detailed outline for wave offerings)
Cain chose to depart from the presence of Yah and head east, to the land of Nod. First of all, The Fathers’ presence would have been on His holy mount, Mt. Moriah. Where then, is the land of Nod?
True to the letter Quph, Cain turned the back of his head toward YaHaVah. In so doing, he was facing the east. What occurs every morning in the east? The sun rises. Since he chose to face east instead of north or south, I would venture to say the reason was exactly that, facing the rising sun.
Before we pass from this generation, it may be proper to remark, that Sanchoniatho, speaking of Cain and his wife, states that they stretched forth their hands to heaven toward the sun: for him they supposed to be God, the only Lord of heaven, calling him Beel-Semin, which, in the Phenician dialect, signifies “Lord of heaven.” (ministrymagazine.org)
Before the fall, our first parents had kept the Sabbath, which was instituted in Eden; and after their expulsion from Paradise they continued its observance. They had tasted the bitter fruits of disobedience, and had learned what everyone that tramples upon God’s commandments will sooner or later learn, that the divine precepts are sacred and immutable, and that the penalty of transgression will surely be inflicted. The Sabbath was honored by all the children of Adam that remained loyal to God. But Cain and his descendants did not respect the day upon which God had rested. They chose their own time for labor and for rest, regardless of Jehovah’s express command. (Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 80, 81.)
Jude 1:11: “Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korach.”
The “way of Cain” is the juxtaposition of “The Way.” First of all, the “way of Cain” was a rebellious spirit, a man who chose a behavior in direct opposition to the Rules of the Kingdom.
What was the attraction in the east, the land of Nod (Elam)? Recall the male, female and their offspring, those who rejected a covenant relationship with The Father, were in locations other than Jerusalem. The east, Mesopotamia, was the seat of false worship that is idol worship. Consider Cain went that direction in order to dwell with his own like kind.
1 Jn. 3:11 – 12: “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.”
Were the rebellious attitudes of Cain passed on to his descendants? Ge. 4:17 records “And Cain knew his wife (אֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ ), and she conceived and bore Enoch. (אֶת־חֲנוֹךְ ) And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch.” **Where did Cain acquire his wife? Consider she was a descendant of the male and female from the sixth day of creation, from those who also rejected YaHaVah and his Seed.
“Even while Adam was still alive, it came to pass that the posterity of Cain became exceedingly wicked, everyone successfully dying, one after another, more wicked than the former. They were intolerable in war, and vehement in robberies; and if anyone was slow to murder people, yet was he bold in his immoral behavior, in acting unjustly, and doing injuries for gan.” (Josephus)
Josephus further describes Cain’s posterity as despicable to the bone—a vile branch that degenerated into more iniquity with each passing generation. (The Genesis 6 Conspiracy, Gary Wayne, pg. 9)
According to the Legend of the Craft, Freemasonry Brotherhood and its legends into the mystery lists the Seven Liberal Sciences: “Grammere, to teach humankind to both speak and write truly; Rhethoricke, to teach humankind to speak in subtle terms; Dialectyke, to teach humankind to discern between truth and falsehoods; Arithmeticke, to teach humankind to compute all manner of numbers; Geometrie to teach humankind to measure the earth and all things (this is the science of Masonry); Musicke, to teach humankind song and the language of musical instruments; and finally, Astronomye, to teach humankind the course of the planets and stars. Rhetoric’s original state was the art of persuasion, while grammar was the molding and education of men through reading. Note how several; pf these sciences were unexplainably credited to Lamech’s children in Genesis and Josephus. (The Genesis 6 conspiracy, Gary Wayne, pg. 9)
4:18: “To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech.”
4:19 – 22: “Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.”
The sons of Lamech were gifted in the work of the fallen angels. See the Book of Enoch Chapter 3: “10 – 13: “And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones. And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all coloring tinctures.
And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjaza taught enchantments and root−cuttings, Armaros the resolving of enchantments, Baraqijal taught astrology, Kokabel the constellationns, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon.”
Mankind was created to be in a covenant relationship with the Father. Instead, mankind, by and large, chose the “way of Cain,” which is rebellion. They were taught knowledge that they should not have learned instead of the knowledge of life. Consider that when Chava chose to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge, she opened a portal, an inroad of sorts, granting permission for the Serpent and his fellow fallen angels to impart their forbidden knowledge. This forbidden knowledge was a form of false worship. Man would learn to depend on himself and this knowledge and not on The Father.
The firstborn son of Cain, Enoch, would have likewise received the birthright blessing. Instead of returning to the presence of YaHaVah, he built a city.
The first city known by archaeologists to exist in Mesopotamia was Eridu. According to the Biblical account, the first Mesopotamian city was built by Cain’s descendants. The city may therefore have been called Eridu after Enoch’s son Irad (see Genesis 4:18) (see 4 on Map 35). In Sumerian, it was known as ‘Nun-ki’ meaning ‘the mighty city’ (a name later transferred to the ‘mighty city’ of Babylon). It was built on an island of slightly higher land situated among the low-lying marshlands at the mouth of the River Euphrates near Basra in modern-day Iraq. (thebiblejourney.org)
The point is this, there could have been a reconciliation to a covenant life-style, and however, the false worship of the nation of Sumer was more attractive. This is the land of Shinar and Babel as well.
Rebellion
The mixed multitude became “the people.” The people experienced the rebellious spirit of Cain during the wilderness journey when they tested The Father ten times.
Dt. 9:7 records: “Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.”
The Hebrew word for rebellion is “marah,” מָרָה. “Marah” is defined as a rebel, rebellious, provoke, disobedient, against, bitter, changed, disobeyed, grievously, provocation, or rebels. To be disobedient toward The Father.
Rebelliousness equals bitterness. Heb. 12:15 – 16: “Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.” **The rebellion of Cain also cost him his birthright.
This is what happened to Cain. He made an ill-fated choice followed by his rejection of the Fathers’ forgiveness and acceptance. This decision allowed a spirit of rebellion to attach itself to him causing the cascade of more ill-fated decisions. The sinful spirit of rebellion can attach itself to any believer.
Is it possible that the decisions of Cain were brought about because he didn’t believe YaHaVah would really forgive him? That somehow, YaHaVah wasn’t true to His word? After all, Cain’s behavior is the opposite of Abraham who believed.
This is the “Cain tactic,” by which Satan steals our highest calling and joy, which is to worship God worthily. Refusing divine correction, rejecting the call to offer the worthy worship that is God’s due, our hearts are poisoned. Perhaps we’re not inclined to fratricide like Cain; in our times, the Cain tactic works more subtly. (aleteia.org)
Using this strategy, after having turned Adam and Chava from the Tree of Life, the adversary was successful again in the choices made by Cain. His choices caused him to forfeit his birthright blessing which would be handed down to Seth, the third son of Adam and Chava.
The adversary’s words to Chava were as sweet as honey but poisoned her own DNA. She surrendered her exalted position and spent the balance of her life among thorns and thistles on a cursed earth.
In conclusion, Cain was supposed to be the second High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, following his father Adam death. He was supposed to inherit the “birthright blessing,” as he was the firstborn twin. In his exalted birth position he would have been both king of the clan and its priest.
Instead, Cain chose to align himself with the serpent seed. Adam and Chava’s third son, Seth, was the actual recipient of the “birthright blessing.” Seth is the ancestor of Messiah Yeshua.
The choices of Cain are with us today. We either choose rebellion which aligns us with the serpent seed or we can choose righteousness which aligns us with Abraham, the seed of obedience.
Therefore, I pray you will choose obedience.