Homilies on Genesis 18–45

Homily 20

HOMILY 20 "Now, Cain left God's presence and settled in the land of Nod opposite Eden,'" and following verses. OME [166] NOW, let us once more today take up the thread of the reading and apply to you the teaching from this passage, and let us deliver the customary discourse to you from the book of blessed Moses-or, rather, from the sayings of the Spirit which the divine grace has taught us through the mouth of Moses.2 But, so that the sermon may be clearer to you, it behooves your good selves to recall what has been said already and where we concluded our instruction so that today we may be able to resume it at that point and so touch on the opening words of the reading. You know, of course, that we dealt with the subject of Abel, and showed from the events themselves and from the things which each brother brought as offerings to the Lord how the knowledge of what must be done and what must not be done is implanted in our nature, and the fact that the Creator of all made us independent, that in every case he rewards or condemns us on the basis of intention (on this account, after all, one brother's offering was rejected while the other's gifts were accepted), that thereupon Cain under the impulse of envy rushed headlong to the murder of his brother, that despite this unholy crime and God's wish to summon him to confession of his sins he did not accept this kind of healing remedy but added mendacity to this abominable crime and 1. Gen 4.16. 2. One of Chrysostom's frequent statements of his clear conviction of the fact of inspiration of the biblical authors. His thinking on the charism and process of biblical inspiration, however, as with other Fathers, is conspicuously missing. See my article, "terminology." 35 36 ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM thus drew upon himself that severe punishment, that he rendered himself stripped and robbed of grace from above and thus remains a salutary lesson for everyone in later times, and that through the sentence he received he addresses himself to the whole human race as if to cry out in loud tones, Let none of you ever attempt anything like this in case you incur these penalties. Do you see the love of the Lord, how by means of the punishment inflicted on Cain he intended not only to bring him to his senses [167] but also to teach everyone in future to avoid in every way this brazen exploit? (2) Come, let us now press on to what follows and see what it is today as well this blessed author describes to us, inspired as he is by the force of the Spirit. When Cain received the sentence, remember, "He left God's presence," the text says. What does that mean, "He left God's presence"? In other words, on account of that abominable crime he was stripped of the patronage God afforded. "And he settled in the land of Nod opposite Eden." He tells us also the place where he made his dwelling in the future, and teaches us how even Cain did not live far from the garden, for the reason that by being opposite it he might have a constant reminder also of what had happened to his father because of the Fall and also of the magnitude of the crimes committed by him-though he had failed to come to his senses with the punishment inflicted on his father and had himself received terrible punishment . Now, the very place where he dwelt was an unremitting reminder, not only to him alone but to all future generations, of tossing and trembling. The word Nod, you see, is Hebrew, translated as "tossing".3 So in order that he should find the accusation even in the very place as though recorded on a bronze monument, God settled him there. (3) Then it says, "Cain had intercourse with his wife; she conceived and gave birth to Enoch."4 Since they were mortal, it was fitting that they should give all their attention to propagation of children. But perhaps someone may say: How is it 3. Speiser, Genesis, 31, suggests "wandering" would have been closer; but Chrysostom's lack of Hebrew did not allow him to question his LXX text. 4· Cen 4. 1 7. [18.191.189.85] Project MUSE (2024-04-19 14...