The Byzantine lectionary goes through Genesis 3 - 4 and Proverbs 3 - 6 this week. I'm talking about Genesis in this post, specifically Adam & Eve's Fall at the end of Genesis 3 & Cain's murder of Abel at the beginning of Genesis 4. These are stories known throughout the world.

The stories are so stale nobody bothers to think deeply about them anymore, much like the Temptations of Christ. But there's still much we can learn about God in these verses if we're willing to forget the stale preconceptions we have about them. Let's get started.

At this point in the Genesis story, Adam & Eve eat fruit from "the tree of good & evil," which God declares deadly (Gen 2:17).

All saint-theologians in the Catholic & Orthodox tradition think the tree is a metaphor for the freedom to do evil. Still, they differ on which particular sin the tree represents. There is unanimous agreement the tree was not a literal tree.

Adam & Eve commit whatever evil the tree represents. They convince themselves the evil act will make them gods then "eat of its fruit." (Gen 3:6) Adam & Eve now have personally experienced evil.

God appears, asking Adam, "Where are you?" (Gen 3:9).

God then asked Eve, "What have you done?" (Gen 3:13).

Adam blames Eve & Eve blames the serpent. Neither human confesses or apologizes. God states the consequences: they will now have a life of toils.

They will have to cultivate their own crops from now on. Their time on Earth will be in sweat & sorrow, then they will die. (Gen 3:16 - 19)

"Where are you? What have you done?" That's a curious thing for the All-Knowing, Ever-Present God to ask. He should already know the answer. But He asks anyway.

Why?

Is Scripture hinting that God actually isn't All-Knowing? Or maybe God isn't Ever-Present?

Some readers see moments like this as proof that God changes. Perhaps God is ignorant like creatures, or he has a body he has to move around the universe.

That's the wrong way to interpret what God is doing here. We'll see why it's wrong by continuing on to Genesis 4. Keep these questions in mind as we look at Abel & Cain:

"Where are you, Adam?"

"What have you done, Eve?"

God will ask Abel & Cain the same questions, & the text makes clear it's not because He's ignorant.

Let's move to Genesis 4. Abel & Cain both offer gifts to God. God accepts Abel's sacrifice but not Cain's for reasons unstated. God counsels Cain against anger (Gen 4:5-7), suggesting that God rejected Cain's sacrifice because Cain was already angry with his brother before the offerings.

We know from elsewhere that God cares more about the heart giving the gift, less about whatever object is gifted. God wants a purified heart, not a bribe.

Cain probably hated his brother even before God rejected Cain's offering. That would explain why God was not pleased with it.

Although God rejects Cain's sacrifice, God doesn't act with ill-will towards Cain. God counsels Cain rather than punish him or ignore him.

Compare God's behavior to the Greek gods. If a Greek god rejects an offering, it means they hate you. If they don't strike you dead at their altar, you have a divine target on your back until you satiate their anger.

The Greek gods would act the same way if you stole their property, like, for example, stealing fruit from trees in their sacred garden. The result would be an immediate brutal death or a cruel eternal punishment for you.

Greek gods were vicious. They would hunt you down horror-movie style if you disobeyed them.

But the Trinitarian God is not a Greek god. God counsels Cain, encouraging him to turn from evil and be holy. Then Cain's sacrifices will be acceptable. (Gen 4:6-7)

This is a shocking moment to the pagan reader, because this should be the point where the god destroys the human.

Instead, the god here gives the human moral guidance. God rejects the sacrifice but gives direction rather than destruction.

This is God's first act of mercy in Cain's story. God declines Cain's sacrifice but takes the time to teach Cain what He wants instead.

But Cain does not accept God's counsel. Instead, he murders his brother. Again, God appears & asks the same questions he asked their parents.

"Where are you, Abel?" (Gen 4:9)

"What have you done, Cain?" (Gen 4:10)

Now, the situation is different from Eden since Abel is dead & died innocent. God already knows what happened to Abel because He is with Abel's corpse. (Gen 4:10)

But God feigns ignorance before He reveals that He was present at the murder. We know in retrospect that God already knew about the murder.

So it's not that God has limited knowledge or was absent. God already knew. Scripture says this.

Thus there's no reason to wonder, "Maybe God isn't All-Knowing?" or "Maybe God isn't Ever-Present?" when God asks these questions.

God asks these questions to Adam, Eve & Cain to give them one last chance to voluntarily confess & sorrow over their evil. The evil is done & the natural consequences are already descending upon the humans.

Adam & Eve's consciences are already gnawing at them. They are already acting defensively towards each other. (Gen 3:7)

Cain's brother is dead. His entire family will grieve the loss for the rest of their lives.

The natural fallout is upon them, yet God first responds by offering forgiveness through feigning ignorance. We should see this as a revelation of God's perfect humility.

God could burst onto the scene in a terrifying storm & a thunderous voice, executing them in front of all the angels. That's probably what Zeus would do.

Instead, God arrives with His grandeur hidden, acting like a fellow human. God pretends to be an ignorant creature to provide them with an immediate escape from further evil through confession.

It must be a humiliating role for God to play, pretending to be as limited as a human. But He does it anyway. He already does it twice in the first 4 chapters of Scripture.

We are only a few pages into the Bible. Yet if we read carefully, we see God has already humiliated Himself twice to save humans who have done evil.

God's questions here aren't hints that His power is limited. God is demonstrating His Divine Humility. We can see Christ's Humility foreshadowed here.

In fact, Saint Augustine speculates that God The Son appeared in Eden to question Adam & Eve, not God The Father. Saint Augustine believes Christ revealed Himself in Eden & offered forgiveness immediately after the first sin.

We do not have to agree with Saint Augustine's speculation. But if Christ did indeed reveal Himself to humanity to offer grace right after the first sin, that further demonstrates the unfathomable extent of Divine Grace.

It also reveals how determined some people are to do evil.

Throughout history, many readers see an angry god in these verses because God judges against the evildoers.

In the first centuries after Christ, heretics like the Marcionites, the Manicheans, & Gnostic mystery cults believed the Old Testament Hebrew god is actually a demon.

They see an angry, vengeful tyrant in these verses. According to them, Christ is a different god who is at war with the Old Testament god.

Lutheran & Calvinist Protestants believe God became infuriated with each & every human the moment when Adam & Eve did their evil deed. God remains furious with humanity from the moment of each conception.

On their view, God will only set aside his anger for a particular human if they accept Christ's Crucifixion as a substitute punishment for their sins. Christ, The Divine Son, is the scapegoat for God The Father's anger.

God the Father empties his rage against Adam, Eve, Cain, and all other human evil throughout history onto God the Son.

Suppose an individual living today does not personally accept Christ as their scapegoat. In that case, God remains furious with them and will remain enraged against them for eternity.

I don't see an angry god in these stories, though. I've already pointed to the moments of Divine Mercy in these stories.

Let's count them so far:

Five acts of Divine Grace in 27 verses (Gen 3:8 through Gen 4:10). That sounds more like the Father of the Prodigal Son than an angry tyrant.

I see a God humiliating Himself to rescue humans from evil. The mercy on display verges on absurd.

God is willing to instantly forgive two humans who slander Him and a brother-murderer. The humans turn down God's Mercy twice. It is then God announces the judgements.

But even His sentences have moments of Divine Grace in them.

God announces Adam & Eve will now have many sorrows throughout their lives. (Gen 3:16 - 18) They will have to secure food for themselves. They will eventually die. (Gen 3:19)

These are grave consequences. I'm not making light of them. But there are elements of grace in these judgements too.

God's sentence against the serpent is a prophecy of Christ's Incarnation & victory over evil:

Adam & Eve are determined to sustain themselves without God's graces in Eden, so God enables food to grow outside of Eden. God graces them a fighting chance of survival rather than inevitable starvation.

In Gen 3:18 - 19, God speaks of tilling fields for grain & eating bread. These verses might be a hint that God inspired them with agricultural knowledge. After all, humans don't instinctually know how to grow crops or bake bread.

Then God gives them proper clothing so they may survive outside climate-controlled Paradise. (Gen 3:21)

Saint-theologians differ on what exactly God did here. Saint Augustine believes evil ate through the couple's original immortal bodies, so God gave them substitute mortal bodies.

Saint Ephram the Syrian speculates that God butchered some of Eden's animals to provide the humans with leather clothes. If that's true, then God also inspired Adam & Eve with knowledge of butchery & clothes-making.

Both theories are plausible, but ultimately speculation. Details about the first humans are lost to history.

Yet my point remains: God obviously did not abandon Adam & Eve. They left Eden with survival provisions.

Just as the Prodigal Son's Father grants him a large inheritance before his son abandons the family.

Let's move on to the judgement against Cain. God announces that Cain will suffer crop famines throughout his life because the land itself will punish Cain's crime.

God says the famines will cause Cain troubles, but there's a translation issue in the last clause of Genesis 4:12.

Most English translations have God say, "you will be a wanderer & a fugitive upon the earth."

In Hebrew, the underlined words above are:

And in Greek, the underlined words are:

English translations give the impression that God is painting a scarlet letter on Cain so that anyone who sees him will instantly know he is a criminal.

The Greek & Hebrew give the impression that God is telling Cain he will inevitably suffer a trembling disease as the famines' natural consequence.

Saints Cyril of Jerusalem & John Chrysostom both read the verse as "Cain will suffer a trembling disease." And George Leo Haydock notes that most saint theologians read this verse as "Cain will suffer a trembling disease."

Whatever the exact details of God's sentence, notice Cain's first response. He panics & asks God to kill him immediately:

"My punishment is greater than I can bear... I shall be hidden from your face... anyone that finds me will kill me." (Gen 4:13-14)

This is another surprising moment. This might be the only ancient story where an evil human begs for death & the god doesn't oblige.

Again, you wouldn't need to ask the Greek gods to kill you if you wronged them.

Instead, God gives Cain an intimidating protective mark. What this mark was, or how it functioned, is up for speculation. Some saint theologians believe the trembling disease is the mark.

Bishop Richard Challoner thought God gave Cain a horrifying glare that would scare away any attackers.

Whatever the mark is, its purpose is clear: Cain panics over death, so God gives him divine protection.

And God allows Cain to settle a new land, found his own city, then have a wife & two children. (Gen 4:16 - 17)

So let's add these graces to the list we started earlier:

We aren't reading acts of an angry god.

These graces actually sound like the Father giving his Prodigal Son an undeserved inheritance. (Luke 15:11 - 32) The Prodigal Son did nothing to deserve what he received, & wasted it anyway, yet he was still showered with graces.

When we read the Parable of the Prodigal Son, it ought to remind us of God's actions towards Adam, Eve & Cain. God is the Father, humans are the Prodigal Sons.

As soon as humans appeared, they rejected their True Father, repeatedly. The first thing humans did upon creation was ask for an inheritance to run away from home.

God the Father has been providing us with undeserved provisions ever since.