[First posted in 2012, one of the first questions we were asked. See how we answered at the end, after asking the Rabbis first but eventually coming up with our own ‘speculation’ for that is all we can offer, after mindful and critical thinking depending on the limited details offered in the text.—Admin1.]
Question:
What was the mark that [‘Elohiym] placed on Cain? With Abel dead, who was around living who would harm him?
Answer1.: Eliahu Levenson/JewishAnswers.org
It was a Hebrew letter from the Divine Name of G-d inscribed on Cayin’s forehead. I’m not sure which letter.
Answer2. : Rabbi Menachem Posner/chabad.org
B”H
a. The word translated as mark is “ot,” which can also mean a letter or a sign. Thus, Rashi explains that G-d placed a letter of His holy name upon Cain, which served to protect him. Alternatively, Nachmanides understands it to mean that whenever he wandered G-d signaled to him the safe way to travel, keeping away from harm. Chizkuni means that G-d showd him an indentified sign of His protection so that Cain would not fear.
b. Scripture is telling us that even though Adam was in the image of G-d, he was given the incredible ability to give birth to a child with that same G-dly image. Some explain that this was the case by the other sons as well, but we are only told this by Seth from whom humanity came forth.—
c. There are different opinions regarding this. Some explain that the atmosphere of the pre-flood world was too thick for enough light to filter through for a rainbow to appear. Others disagree.
• It is important to understand the lessons of the story of Cain and G-d’s response, but we must also do as much as we can to understand the meaning of the texts. This is notoriously hard to do with a translation, which is why our sages mourned the day that the Torah was translated into Greek—seeing that its inner beauty and subtlety was stripped in the process.
• Seth was the one to which all of humanity (via Noah) can trace their lineage. Thus, it is important to tell us here, that we are all in the image of Adam who is in the image of G-d.
Please let me know if this helps.
Yours truly.
Rabbi Menachem Posner
Answer 3: Sinai 6000
In our teaching about how to read any book including Scripture, here’s a point to consider: if the text does not specify, do not speculate . . . why? Because that is a waste of time! If the narrator/author of the story deemed it enough to say that there was an identifying mark on Cain indicating Divine protection, (presumably recognizable to others), then we simply have to settle for that. In fact, did anyone else at that time know that Cain had slain his brother? Was there any law against taking a life?
To us Sinaites, the question begging to be answered should instead be this:
Why did God not judge and punish Cain severely for the evil he had committed against his flesh and blood, his own brother?
Our simplistic answer to that question is short:
No law had yet been given at this point in biblical history
about the taking of a life and it’s consequence.
The Creator God we meet in Genesis progressively reveals Himself through how He interacts with the characters in the story. We learn about Him from His actions, communication and interaction with representative humanity, and we add to the Divine Profile as we continue reading and discovering one more aspect of the Divine Character.
- How else do we gain insight into this invisible God we believe exists;
- and is knowable to some extent through His created world;
- but is not knowable with regard His requirements for human behavior toward Him and fellow-humanity,
- unless He communicates, which He has done in the Torah.
The study of Torah is to get to know the God of Israel who, we have decided, is the God of all nations; otherwise, why are we bothering to read the Hebrew Scriptures?
So how much do we know of this God as far as reading about His interaction with the first two generations?
Go back to Genesis 3.
Remember the warning given to the first parents regarding partaking of the fruit from the forbidden tree? Death. And yet Adam and Eve did not physically die on the spot, in that instant of violation, “sin” if you will. What happened instead?
Speculation:
Something in them was subject to death:
- their physical bodies for sure,
- in due time and not at that instance;
- otherwise, that would have been the end of the human race
- or at least, the nation of Israel
- whose progenitors were constantly identified as a specific line from the descendants of the first couple.
Let us keep in mind that the Hebrew Bible is to be viewed, in one way, as the etiological record of the nation of Israel, the roots and source of the Jewish people; so as it happens in etiological sources, the narrator/author could use figurative speech to make his point in narrative history.
Representative humanity, Adam and Eve — their breath of life which has kept them alive–would eventually be taken from them and return to the Creator:
Ecclesiastes 12:7
Then shall the dust return to the earth
as it was:
and the spirit shall return unto God
who gave it.
According to the genealogical records, Adam died at age 930; we could say, the warning about death did come to pass eventually, when Adam and Eve had successfully accomplished the Creator’s other command, the ‘DO”: that is, populate the earth with their kind.
Sorry for the diversion, we’re making a point: now back to Cain. What was the warning given to Cain?
Genesis 4:7: “If you do well,
will not your countenance be lifted up?
And if you do not do well,
sin is crouching at the door;
and its desire is for you,
but you must master it.”
Well, as the story progressed, Cain did not do well, and that thing called “sin” crouching at the door and desiring him—eventually mastered him instead of the other way around.
Questions:
- Was Cain a “victim” of a sinful nature inherited from his parents after they sinned? If so, then there would not have been a warning given to Cain. After all, he had the same inherent “Image of God” within him, i.e., FREE WILL!
- Could he have ‘mastered’ himself so as not to allow his growing feeling of anger/envy/resentment/hurt from the rejection of his offering, an impulse that his Creator was aware of and warned about? Of course! He was told so directly: “but you must master it.”
- Did he learn from his parents, was he taught about what happened in Eden? The narrative does not make the connection, but what a privilege for humanity to be sought out and talked to by Divinity, eh?
- Was this just another test, this time on the 2nd generation, about the proper and righteous exercise of free will? Absolutely! Isn’t it all about free will, God’s image in humanity, and how it is to be exercised and applied according to . . . His Will, if it is known and revealed and specified?
In the case of the first and second generation, tests are given to determine whose WILL will be obeyed:
- the will of the “I” in the Image
- or the will of the “I” in the I-dol, I, me and myself?
And so the story proceeds, Cain fails to heed the warning and did exercise his free will, but unfortunately, it was toward giving in to his will— by this time, resentment was not only kindled but had blazed into its inevitable peak— rage! Cain made his choice, he exercised his free will, so now what is the consequence?
- Does the text say anything more about consequence if Cain failed to master “sin”?
Reread Genesis 4 and ponder the point we keep harping on in this website: that the reason we even bother to read Scripture is for one thing and one thing only— we want to know more about the God who interacts with humanity, and in the process, learn about Him and how we are to relate to Him as well as how He relates to individuals. Scripture is replete with examples and test cases, lessons for us to learn from.
Does this Cain story point to a God who is a wise and merciful Judge? Or an angry vengeful God who zaps people and sends them to hell after one failed testing?
The first parents were warned, consequences were spelled out clearly if they violated, but obviously they did not understand those consequences at the time. What was “death” to those who had not witnessed anything but life under the Source of Life? More to this in other articles that specifically discuss these issues.
So finally, back to the question: what was the mark on Cain? Who knows, and should anybody care? It was for sure a mark for protection, not a mark of condemnation. Why? The God who dealt with Cain was the same God who dealt with his parents. At this point in the Hebrew Bible, we are just beginning to add to the profile we already know about this God from Genesis 1-3.
Make your own profile, dear reader, and add to ours: Creator, Communicator, Provider, Wise Father, Wise Judge . . . just judging from Divine-human interaction up to this point. Then fast forward to Exodus 34:6-7 where YHWH defines Himself in words that will re-echo throughout the TNK:
[NASB] Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed,
“The LORD [YHWH], the LORD [YHWH] God,
and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;
7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands,
who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin;
yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished,
visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children
and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”…
And that is demonstrated as early as Genesis 3 and 4.
P.S. Back to the original question, check out this link for yet another perspective: https://www.gotquestions.org/mark-Cain.html