Jealousy in the book of Genesis Essay

The first book of the Pentateuch is rife with Jealousy. It seems a peculiar obsession of those writing in the Lord’s name. After all, such sins as murder, adultery and slothfulness seem so much more damaging to our communities and our selves. Why are the jade eyes of jealously given so much attention in the bible’s leadoff book, especially in the story of the second and third men, Cain and his brother Abel. I suspect that jealousy, being a universal human emotion, one which human beings so easily find themselves sinking into, and one which is so obviously coarse and negative, inspired the writers of the bible to bring attention to it’s dangers very early on in their text. Although the instances of jealousy found in the later narratives of Genesis, perhaps those of Noah and Abraham, present more nuanced and complex manifestations of this all too human frailty, the visceral nature of Cain’s crime and the ambiguity of his atonement must first be addressed, as well as the fundamental differences between jealousy among men and man’s jealousy of God. Cain is assigned to be the â€Å"tiller of the ground† (Genesis 4:2 – NKJV) in the garden of Eden. Abel, his younger brother, the second son of Adam and Eve, was given the more genteel task of tending to flocks of sheep. Both made offerings to the Lord, Cain in the form of the â€Å"fruit of the ground† (Genesis 4:3) and Abel â€Å"the firstborn of their flock and his fat† (Genesis 4:4) which God respected. However the next verse, 4:5, reveals that God did not respect Cain’s offering. Why? The Biblical writers, men knowing nothing at all of God’s motivations (not to mention his existence), don’t feel the need to indulge us with God’s motives or criteria for respecting an offering. We do know that he took unkindly to Cain’s â€Å"countenance†, which â€Å"fell† following his rejection. One could easily see how being rejected by God, who hints at some criteria when he says in 4:7 â€Å"If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at your door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. † Of course, in the very next verse, Cain, after a brief conversation with his brother of which we are told nothing about, kills Abel. Sin came to his door, in the form of jealousy toward his brother and he acted upon it in the most despicable way possible. The biblical writers are trying to dramatize an emotion and its consequences as effectively as possible. Did Cain feel that his offering was superior to his brothers and that he being unfairly judged by God? That God would not accept his offering, regardless of the quality of his fruit? Without more detail, it’s hard to erect any sort of value judgment, within the Christian Lexicon, on the matter of Cain and Abel. God seems a little overbearing and perhaps bears more than a small share of the guilt for Cain’s jealousy. If Cain had toiled that barren mid-eastern soil simply to praise God, rose day and night for his Lord’s glory, than was it perhaps a bit insensitive on the Lord’s part to reject him. Had Abel provoked Cain in any other way? What did they talk about that faithful day? In what language could they have spoken? As you can see, the first instance of jealousy in the Biblical text leaves more stones unturned and more questions unanswered than not. The story of Cain and Abel illuminates the first instance of intra-human jealousy. From the very beginning however, man was jealous of God. God creates man in his own image and makes him humble and stupid. Adam and Eve we’re simply to be in the Garden, lord of the Earth’s other creatures and stay out of God’s affairs, those that concern the moral and scientific complexities of the world. For as God puts it in Genesis 2:16-17, â€Å"Of every tree of the Garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. † Later, after man as created Eve, verse 2:25 exclaims â€Å"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. † A surface reading suggests that man was meant for to remain in a pure, infantile state. Before man erected society, technology or democracy, man was designed to remain pure of the complexities of morality. Yet Adam and Eve, given the free will God had granted them and a base awareness of good and evil, ironically because of God’s edict to stay far away from the tree which allows one knowledge of such matters, had the ability to choose such knowledge, and with a little persuasion from the villainous serpent, they did. Surely the ways of God are mysterious, but why would he set up man with a series of bizarrely attractive ways to subvert his intentions for their well-being? Eve makes a series of evaluative judgments upon the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil when she thinks to herself in verse 3:6 â€Å"So when the woman saw the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, She took of the fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband, and he ate. † Was God setting up Adam and Eve for the fall when he created the tree in the first place? Hoew else to explain an omnipotent God who willfully creates beings who we’re, despite their naivete, are capable of learning and seeing the virtues of something which their creator had made arbitrarily off limits while simultaneously placing being in their midst whose whole obligation is to tempt them? Certainly the rest of the Biblical narrative depends on the jealousy inspired fall – without it, the rest of the story, which culminates with Jesus sacrificing himself for man’s sins and thus offering him redemption, several thousand year before the Earth is destroyed during Jesus’ rapturous return, could not have been constructed by the Biblical writers. Perhaps, if it is out their God wanted to fall. It is simply man’s innocent jealousy, of God’s wisdom and goodness and perhaps his power to arbitrarily, without fear of reprisal or retribution, horde power over his creations, which drove Eve to follow the serpent’s instructions. The instinct to want what others have is as old as man. Surely the omnipotent clockmaker deity that the early enlightenment era Europeans constructed out of King James’ text was aware of this opposition he was creating. It is, after all, just another part of God’s grand design. Bibliography The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Bibles, 1982.