If I asked you what the “mark of Cain” was, what would you picture?
Most people imagine something physical. But what if that’s not what the text says at all?
The LXX translators chose σημεῖον (sēmeion) for the mark of Cain. And that choice changes everything about how we read this story.
Amazing again! I always had a heart for Cain, and honestly, as a child I interpreted God's protection as a means of prolonging his misery, as opposed to a covenant of undeserved grace.
That's understandable. It's a common interpretation.
Sometimes, especially in the hardest parts of the Old Testament, it can be difficult to reconcile "God is love" with the seeming cruelty we see on the surface.
I mean, there's a reason that the gnostics concluded that there were two different gods.
But the more I dive into the Greek, the more I see that if you put the Hebrew and the Greek together you end up with a very different image of who God is in the Old Testament.
I one hundred percent agree with you! Today I quite literally thought to myself "no wonder the Gnostics made a distinction between the 'demiurge' and Christ." That is, if one takes a surface level approach to Scripture. The more I study Scripture, its various textual traditions, the church fathers, and my own intuitive knowing, the more I realize that everything God did in the Old Testament, He did out of love.
Amazing again! I always had a heart for Cain, and honestly, as a child I interpreted God's protection as a means of prolonging his misery, as opposed to a covenant of undeserved grace.
That's understandable. It's a common interpretation.
Sometimes, especially in the hardest parts of the Old Testament, it can be difficult to reconcile "God is love" with the seeming cruelty we see on the surface.
I mean, there's a reason that the gnostics concluded that there were two different gods.
But the more I dive into the Greek, the more I see that if you put the Hebrew and the Greek together you end up with a very different image of who God is in the Old Testament.
I one hundred percent agree with you! Today I quite literally thought to myself "no wonder the Gnostics made a distinction between the 'demiurge' and Christ." That is, if one takes a surface level approach to Scripture. The more I study Scripture, its various textual traditions, the church fathers, and my own intuitive knowing, the more I realize that everything God did in the Old Testament, He did out of love.
Yes, exactly!