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Text:God's Word to Women:Lesson 21

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== A SPLIT IN THE FIRST FAMILY.==

155. Please note that after Cain, the first-born of Adam, had murdered Abel, and became a fugitive, he seems to have been lost to his parents. Genesis 5:1 begins: "This is the book of the generations of Adam," and proceeds--as though Seth were his first-born. The rationalistic critics assume that a fresh historian takes up the narrative here, who was ignorant of the fact that Adam had had sons previously to Seth. The theory leads away from interesting historical light. At this point we find the first great division of the human family.

156. The descendants of Cain are given in Genesis 4:18-22; the descendants of Seth, in Genesis 5:6-32. Please read these two lists. Notice that some of the names are the same, or very similar—as might be expected in related families—but they do not apply to the same individuals. Lamech, father of Noah, lived at a much later period than Lamech, the father of Tubal-Cain, the murderer and polygamist. Tubal-Cain whetted "cutting instruments," (R. V.) which his father probably used in killing a man, or threatening to kill one, and in intimidating the two women whom he had taken from their kin. He "took,' his wives, in the days when men were supposed to go to their wives to marry them, and to remain in their homes. This implies violence, as it does also where the same form of expression is used in Genesis 6:2. We have pointed out some of the social wrongs growing out of this violation of God's marriage law.

157. Christ said: "What God hath joined, let not man put asunder." Now we inquire, "What did God join, when He gave that marriage law which Christ repeats? First and foremost, he joined a man to his wife's kindred, by the words, "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife." In the second place, God joined the husband to his wife, as indicated by the words,—“and they shall become one flesh.” The R.V.is correct here, in translating, "shall become," instead of "shall be." Both the Hebrew of the O. T., and the Greek of the N. T. say "become," not "be."

158. The next case of violence towards women, after Lamech's, is that recorded in Genesis 6:1-11,—rather, many cases. "The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose,"—runs the story. The late and learned Sir J. W. Dawson has written an interesting article on this subject for The Expositor (Fifth Series, Vol. 4, 1896). We will quote him, as the subject has peculiar interest to women. He mentions three principal theories that have been set forth to explain the obscure phrases, "sons of God," and "daughters of men:" First, Angelic beings entering into matrimonial relations with women of the human race. This is the ridiculous and pagan theory adopted into Jewish apocryphal writings during the "days of mingling," and set forth by Tertullian, which has a fascination for men of a certain cast of mind. Dean Stanley and others make use of it to explain why women were to veil in worship, as we shall show when we come to the discussion of that topic. To this theory Dawson rightly replies: "It is at variance with all the other statements of Scripture respecting angelic beings, and with our Lord's declaration that they [angels] neither marry nor are given in marriage.[1] [It is to be noted, here, that the single word which men translate "given in marriage," conveys no thought of the giving or of the selling of daughters, in the original words of the Bible]. Second, "Sons of God" were men of eminence and position who formed matrimonial alliances with women of inferior rank. To this theory Dawson says: "The second hypothesis appears to be trivial and insufficient to produce the effect assigned to the occurrence," which was the production of a powerful but wicked race of giants. "Giants" (Nephilim) and "mighty men of renown" (warriors, etc.) he argues, are not born of inferior mothers, chosen on this supposition, in preference to superior women of this tribe called "sons of God." Third, they were Sethite men allying themselves with Cainite women. Dawson pronounces this theory "rational and natural," and yet rejects it for a fourth, which, we agree with him, is far preferable to all others.

159. Says Dawson: "I have ventured to suggest that the 'sons of God' (Elohim), in our primitive record are really Cainites, and the 'daughters of men' Sethite women." At first thought, the hypothesis seems untenable. Why should descendants of the murderer, Cain, be called "sons of God" when the daughters of the good Seth are merely denominated, "daughters of men?" "Sons of God" seems better to describe the descendants of Seth. But listen to his explanation: "After the fall, a Savior had been promised, who was to be the Seed or progeny of the woman, and Eve most naturally supposes that the child to whom she has given birth is this 'Coming One' [see par. 79]. From the time of this utterance we may assume that the name Jehovah becomes that of the coming Redeemer, and is associated with that of Elohim (God), who has promised the Redeemer. Thus the name Elohim represents God as Creator: the name Jahve [Jehovah] God as the promised Redeemer. . . The point that we now note is that this distinction existed from the time of Eve, though only in the days of her grandson Enos did men formally invoke [or proclaim] Jehovah as God (Genesis 4:26). This is the testimony of the record, and we are bound to receive it in this sense, whether we believe it or no."

160. It would seem then, that just as today in China the Catholics are known as "Tien Drü people," and the Protestants as "Shang Te people," according to the name they employ in addressing God in worship, so in those ancient times the Cainites who refused to acknowledge Jehovah, and addressed Elohim alone in worship, got the name of "sons,"—that is, worshippers of God. It will elucidate this point yet more, in passing, to explain that members of a guild, or order, are often called "sons" of that order, as "sons of the prophets;" and the worshipper of an idol as the son of that idol (though less often). "Ben-haded" signifies a worshipper of Hadad (1 Kings 15:20; see also Malachi 2:11). The Cainites were then, so to speak, the Unitarians of that remote age. If they pretended even to believe in the Coming One they did not "call on" him. Dawson thinks they did not believe in Him, or rather, renounced Him.

161. Dawson continues: "It is Jehovah who remonstrates with Cain, and after the murder of Abel denounces his conduct, apparently without effect; and henceforth Cain may be said to have gone out from the face of Jehovah, which implies much more in the way of religious separation than mere departure from a local shrine, and at the same time he leaves his parental home and goes forth to found a new tribe of men distinguished from Adam."

162. "In a religious point of view the Cainites are not represented as cultivating the worship of the Redeemer—Jehovah. They probably still retained the nature-worship [which Cain adopted from the first] of Elohim. . . . Of the Sethites, on the other hand, we have mainly the record of their invoking Jehovah while walking with Elohim, of their retaining a hope of redemption from the fall, though it seems certain that towards the end of the antediluvian period they also degenerated, in a religious point of view, probably in consequence of the intermixture with Cainites, mentioned before. This intermixture, however, is stated to have originated in the aggressions of the Nephilim among the Cainites, who captured wives from the feebler Sethites,—feebler because not furnished with instruments of brass and iron. This, I think, is implied in the expression, 'took to them wives of all they chose,' that is, at their own will and pleasure, and without regard to the primitive law of marriage, which provides that a man should leave father and mother and cleave to his wife."

==See Also==
[[God's Word to Women]] |
[[God's Word to Women Table of Contents]] |
[[Foreword to the 1943 Edition]] |
[[Foreword to the 2005 Edition]] |
[[Author's Note]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 1 | Lesson 1]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 2 | Lesson 2]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 3 | Lesson 3]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 4 | Lesson 4]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 5 | Lesson 5]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 6 | Lesson 6]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 7 | Lesson 7]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 8 | Lesson 8]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 9 | Lesson 9]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 10 | Lesson 10]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 11 | Lesson 11]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 12 | Lesson 12]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 13 | Lesson 13]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 14 | Lesson 14]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 15 | Lesson 15]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 16 | Lesson 16]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 17 | Lesson 17]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 18 | Lesson 18]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 19 | Lesson 19]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 20 | Lesson 20]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 21 | Lesson 21]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 22 | Lesson 22]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 23 | Lesson 23]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 24 | Lesson 24]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 25 | Lesson 25]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 26 | Lesson 26]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 27 | Lesson 27]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 28 | Lesson 28]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 29 | Lesson 29]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 30 | Lesson 30]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 31 | Lesson 31]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 32 | Lesson 32]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 33 | Lesson 33]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 34 | Lesson 34]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 35 | Lesson 35]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 36 | Lesson 36]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 37 | Lesson 37]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 38 | Lesson 38]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 39 | Lesson 39]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 40 | Lesson 40]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 41 | Lesson 41]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 42 | Lesson 42]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 43 | Lesson 43]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 44 | Lesson 44]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 45 | Lesson 45]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 46 | Lesson 46]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 47 | Lesson 47]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 48 | Lesson 48]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 49 | Lesson 49]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 50 | Lesson 50]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 51 | Lesson 51]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 52 | Lesson 52]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 53 | Lesson 53]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 54 | Lesson 54]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 55 | Lesson 55]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 56 | Lesson 56]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 57 | Lesson 57]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 58 | Lesson 58]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 59 | Lesson 59]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 60 | Lesson 60]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 61 | Lesson 61]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 62 | Lesson 62]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 63 | Lesson 63]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 64 | Lesson 64]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 65 | Lesson 65]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 66 | Lesson 66]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 67 | Lesson 67]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 68 | Lesson 68]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 69 | Lesson 69]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 70 | Lesson 70]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 71 | Lesson 71]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 72 | Lesson 72]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 73 | Lesson 73]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 74 | Lesson 74]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 75 | Lesson 75]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 76 | Lesson 76]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 77 | Lesson 77]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 78 | Lesson 78]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 79 | Lesson 79]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 80 | Lesson 80]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 81 | Lesson 81]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 82 | Lesson 82]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 83 | Lesson 83]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 84 | Lesson 84]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 85 | Lesson 85]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 86 | Lesson 86]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 87 | Lesson 87]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 88 | Lesson 88]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 89 | Lesson 89]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 90 | Lesson 90]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 91 | Lesson 91]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 92 | Lesson 92]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 93 | Lesson 93]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 94 | Lesson 94]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 95 | Lesson 95]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 96 | Lesson 96]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 97 | Lesson 97]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 98 | Lesson 98]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 99 | Lesson 99]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 100 | Lesson 100]] |
[[Index of Scripture Texts]] |
[[Dictionary]]
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