Cain and Abel and the Seduction of Eve
What really happened in the Garden of Eden? Why did Eve state, when Cain was born, "I have gotten a man from (or with) the Lord"? There may be much more to the story of Cain and Abel than modern man has remotely begun to realize!
William F. Dankenbring
We read in the Tanakh in concise, cryptic, mysterious words, "Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, 'I have gained a male child with the help of the LORD. She then bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a tiller of the soil" (Gen.4:1-2). The Hebrew word for "knew" in this verse is yada and often means to know or experience in a sexual sense. The Hebrew word for "gained" is qanithi, which is connected with "Cain."
The King James Version here has, "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD." The Hebrew word for "man" is ish, and means "a man as an individual or a male person" (Strong's Concordance, #376). The same word is used in Genesis 2:23-24 where we read that Adam said, speaking of Eve, "She shall be called Woman [Heb., Isha], because she was taken out of Man [Heb., Ish]. Therefore shall a man [ish] leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Notice that the word "man" literally refers to a "man" or "manly" person, generally to an adult male person.
This comment by Eve concerning her first-born son has stirred commentary from scholars and early Biblical exegetes, and Jewish scribes and commentators, as being very strange. A straight-forward reading of the text would seem to suggest that Adam had sexual congress with his wife Eve, and the logical assumption is that this led to the conception and birth of Cain, her first-born son. But why did Eve refer to Cain, as a swaddling baby, as a "man"? And why, also, does she say that she got him "from the LORD"? And why did she name him "Cain," meaning "acquired," "possession," "get," by translation into English?
The Antiquities of the Jews
Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us in his Antiquities of the Jews, about the story of Cain and Abel. He writes:
"Adam and Eve had two sons. The elder of them was named Cain, which name, when it is interpreted, signifies a possession; the younger was Abel, which signifies sorrow. They had also daughters. Now, the two brethren were pleased with different courses of life; for Abel, the younger, was a lover of righteousness, and, believing that God was present at all his actions, he excelled in virtue, and his employment was that of a shepherd. But Cain was not only very wicked in other respects, but was wholly intent upon getting, and he first contrived to plough the ground" (Book 1, II, 1).
Josephus goes on to tell us of how it came about that Cain murdered his brother Abel in a jealous rage and fit of violent anger. Notice:
"He slew his brother on the occasion following: -- They had resolved to sacrifice to God. Now Cain brought the fruits of the earth, and of his husbandry; but Abel brought milk, and the first-fruits of his flocks; but God was more delighted with the latter oblation, when he was honoured with what grew naturally of its own accord, than he was with what was the invention of a covetous man, and gotten by forcing the ground: whence it was that Cain was very angry that Abel was preferred by God before him [the first-born]; and he slew his brother, and hid his dead body, thinking to escape discovery. But God, knowing what had been done, came to Cain, and asked him what had become of his brother, because he had not seen him of many days, whereas he used to observe them conversing together at other times. But Cain was in doubt with himself, and knew not what answer to give to God. At first he said that he himself was at a loss about his brother's disappearing; but when he was provoked by God, who pressed him vehemently, as resolving to know what the matter was, he replied that he was not his brother's guardian or keeper, nor was he an observer of what he did. But in return, God con- victed Cain as having been the murderer of his brother, and said: 'I wonder at thee, that thou knowest not what is become of a man whom thou thyself hast destroyed.' God therefore did not inflict the punishment [of death] upon him, on account of his offering sacrifice, and thereby making supplication to Him not to be extreme in his wrath to him; but He made him accursed, and threatened his posterity in the seventh generation. He also cast him, together with his wife, out of that land" (ibid.).
Josephus goes on to describe how God "set a mark" upon Cain, identifying him, that he might be known to whomever he encountered, so that they would not kill him. And Cain departed and traveled over many countries, and finally built the first city, called Nod, where they eventually settled down, and had children. Josephus continues:
"However, he [Cain] did not accept of his punishment in order to amendment [repentance and changing his evil course of life], but to increase his wickedness; for he only aimed to procure EVERYTHING that was for his own bodily pleasure, though it obliged him to be injurious to his neighbors. He augmented his household substance with much wealth, by rapine and violence; he excited his acquaintance to procure pleasures and spoils by robbery, and became a great leader of men into wicked courses. He also introduced a change in that way of simplicity wherein men lived before; and was the author of measures and weights. And whereas they lived innocently and generously while they knew nothing of such arts, he changed the world into cunning craftiness. He first of all set boundaries about lands, he built a city, and fortified it with walls, and he compelled his family to come together to it [the first attempt to create a One World Government under man's authority]; and called that city Enoch, after the name of his oldest son Enoch" (chap.II, 2).
Obviously, Cain became the ringleader of a great apostasy away from the truth and ways of God -- the first great world apostate religious and political leader -- setting up boundaries, confiscating land, and erecting a huge city for his extended family and followers to dwell in. He became the world's first Dictator, Tyrant, and Despot. He inaugurated the first "New World Order" by rejecting the laws and teachings and government of God, and built his own wicked, devilish Empire before the Flood.
The Wickedness of Cain and His Descendants
Josephus concludes, saying, "Nay, even while Adam was alive, it came to pass that the posterity of Cain became exceedingly wicked, every one successively dying one after another, more wicked than the former. They were intolerable in war, and vehement in robberies."
We read of Cain in the New Testament, where Jude, the brother of Christ, says of the masses of false teachers, religious leaders, and worldly people who follow the doctrines, teachings, political institutions, and philosophy of take, seize, get, acquire, grab, steal, rape, pillage, and murder, in order to satiate their own lusts and animal appetites: "Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain . . ." (Jude 11).
The apostle John, in the New Testament, also makes a very strange and striking statement about Cain. We read, "For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning [even from the book of Genesis and time of Creation], that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous" (I John 3:11-12).
What did John mean when he said, in plain words, that Cain was "of the wicked one"? Of course, the "wicked one" here refers to Satan the Devil, that old antagonist and adversary of mankind, the one who deceived, tricked, and seduced Eve in the Garden of Eden!
The Serpent in the Garden
In Genesis chapter two we read that after God created Adam and Eve, "they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed" (Gen.2:25). They seemingly had no awareness yet of sex, and were still discovering and learning all about the new world into which they had been created. They were like newborn children -- full of desire to learn, to explore, to grow. They were, of course, created as mature male and female, but were much like children in their innocence, naivet‚, and simplicity of mind. No one had ever lied to them. They did not even know the real meaning of evil, violence, robbery, seduction, lying. They were true "innocents."
In the book of Jubilees, we read that this state of inquisitive learning and innocence lasted for precisely seven years, before "TROUBLE" entered Paradise in the form of a deceiving, cunning, crafty "serpent." We read:
"And during the first week of the first Jubilee Adam and his wife had been in the garden of Eden FOR SEVEN YEARS tilling and guarding it. And we gave him work and we were teaching him to do everything which was appropriate for tilling. And he was tilling. And he was naked, but he neither knew it nor was he ashamed. And he was guarding the garden from the birds and the beasts and cattle and gathering its fruit and eating. And he used to set aside the rest for himself and his wife. And what was being guarded he set aside.
"At the end of SEVEN YEARS which he completed there, SEVEN YEARS EXACTLY, in the second month, on the seventeenth day, the serpent came and drew near to the woman. And the serpent said to the woman, 'The LORD commanded you, saying, "You shall not eat from any tree which is in the garden."' And she said to him, 'The Lord said, "Eat from all of the fruit of the trees which are in the garden." But the Lord said to us, "You shall not eat from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, and you shall not touch it lest you die."' And the serpent said to the woman, 'It is not [true] that you shall surely die because the LORD knows that on the day you eat of it your eyes will become opened and you will become like gods, and you will know good and evil.'
"And the woman saw the tree that it was pleasant and it was pleasing to the eye and its fruit was good to eat and she took some of it and she ate. And she first covered her shame with a fig leaf, and then she gave it to Adam and he ate and his eyes were opened and he saw that he was naked. And he took a fig leaf and sewed it and made an apron for himself. And he covered his shame" (Book of Jubilees 3:15-22).
The author of the book of Jubilees goes on to describe God took when He confronted Adam and Eve with the deed they had done.
"And the LORD cursed the serpent [Satan the devil, see Revelation 12:9], and he was angry with it forever. And he was angry with the woman also because she had listened to the voice of the serpent and had eaten. And he said to her, 'I will surely multiply your grief and your birth pangs. Bear children in grief. And to your husband is your return and he will rule over you.' And to Adam he said, 'Because you listened to the voice of your wife and you ate from that tree from which I commanded you that you should not eat, the land shall be cursed because of you. Thorns and thistles shall sprout up for you. And eat your bread in the sweat of your face until you return to the earth from which you were taken because you are earth and to the earth you will return'" (vs.23-25).
What Really Happened in the Garden?
What really happened in this encounter with the snake in the garden?
The book of Jubilees parallels the Scriptural account, but adds the details that this event occurred seven years after the creation of Adam and Eve. Eve, we are told, ate of the forbidden fruit which God had commanded them not to eat, and gave to her husband, and Adam eat of it also (Gen.3:6-7).
The apostle Paul uses this example as a warning to true believers and followers of the Messiah, saying, "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent BEGUILED Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be CORRUPTED from the simplicity that is in Christ" (II Cor.11:2-3).
The Greek word translated "beguiled" here is exapatao, and means "to seduce wholly, beguile, deceive" (Strong's Concordance, #1818). This word is composed of two Greek words -- ex which means "fully, wholly, completely," and apatao which means "beguiled, seduced, or deceived." It is a powerful word denoting complete and utter deception -- both morally and mentally, and spiritually!
In the King James account of the garden episode, Eve said to God, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat" (Gen.3:13). Here the Hebrew word for "beguiled" is nasha, meaning "to lead astray, i.e. (mentally) to delude, or (morally) to seduce -- beguile, deceive" (Strong's #5377). Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldea Lexicon defines this word as "to lead into error, to cause to go astray, whence: 1) to deceive . . . 2) to seduce, to corrupt."
Taking these words at their full meaning and value, then, we find out that Eve was "totally deceived," "completely seduced," "utterly beguiled and corrupted," by the influence of Satan the devil in this incident. Is there more to this incident than meets the superficial eye, in reading over these Scriptures? It's time we take a more careful, cautious, complete look into these verses.
What Did Adam "Know" about His Wife?
In many ancient commentaries and books of ancient Jewish and Christian interpreters and theologians, a remarkable case is made that much more may have occurred in the garden than a superficial reading would indicate.
One early question that arose was why did Eve say of Cain, "I have gotten a MAN with the LORD"? (Gen.4:1). Why refer to a newly-born son as a "man"? The word "man" in Hebrew does not simply mean a "male person," and certainly does not mean a "male child." Different words are used for "child," or "baby," or "infant." But "man" means a "man," that is, a "grown-up male." What could Eve have meant by using such a word for Cain?
One interpreter, in the Life of Adam and Eve, concluded:
"And she bore a son and he was lustrous. And at once the infant rose, ran, and brought in his hands a reed and gave it to his mother. And his name was called Cain" (Life of Adam and Eve (Vita)21:3).
Cain was obviously a very precocious, prepossessing child -- very unusual and with unexpected abilities. But, as we know, Cain became the fount of wickedness and evil -- the arch-conspirator and apostate leader of men before the Flood. The question arises, was Cain influenced by Satan the devil from birth?
In Genesis 4:1, we learn that "Adam knew his wife." The word to "know" here does not necessarily mean that he "knew" her in the Biblical sense -- in a sexual sense -- it can also mean that he "knew" or "discovered" something about her.
Remember, the apostle John in I John 3:10-14, John tells us that Cain was "of the evil one" -- meaning Satan, the devil! Could it be that Cain actually was the product of an illegitimate union of Satan, appearing in angelic or beautiful human form, who seduced Eve during the incident when he enticed her to eat the forbidden fruit? Could it be that when she ate that fruit, it caused her to become sleepy, or unconscious, or had a "drug-like" effect on her, and that the devil took advantage of the situation and had sexual intercourse with her?
Did Angels Cohabit with Women Before the Flood?
At first glance, this may seem like a strange thing to suggest. But in Genesis 6:1-4, we read that in the time before the Flood, "The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose" (Gen.6:2).
Who were these "sons of God"?
We read in the book of Job, "Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up thy loins now like a man: for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof? When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job 38:1-7).
Moffatt translates this passage in verses 6-7, "What were its pedestals placed on? Who laid the corner-stone, when the morning-stars were singing, and all the angels chanted in their joy?"
Clearly, the expression "sons of God," in the Old Testament or Tanakh, refers to ANGELIC BEINGS!
We also read in the book of Job: "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them" (Job 1:6). And again: "Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD" (Job 2:1). It is plain that in these Scriptures the term "sons of God" refers to angels and not to human beings.
Human beings, on the other hand, throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, are referred to as "sons of men" (see Psa.4:2; 31:19; 33:13; 57:4; 58:1; 145:12; Eccl.2:3, 8; 3:10, 18, 19; 8:11; 9:3,12, etc.).
As a result of these illegal and forbidden unions, between fallen angels, who rebelled against God's laws, and their human consorts, "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown" (Gen.6:4).
This led to great wickedness in the earth (verse 5), to the point where God says, "every imagination of the thoughts of his [mankind's] heart was only evil continually" (v.5). The corruption became so bad that God had to destroy the entire world, except for Noah -- a righteous man -- and his family (Gen.6:6-9). What was really going on? What great and enormous sins led up to such an impasse, where God was ready to "throw up His hands" and destroy the whole human race? That He said it "repented Him" that He had made mankind?
The Testimony of the Ancients
Josephus, the Jewish historian of the first century, tells us of this ancient time:
"Now this posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue, for seven generations; but in process of time they were perverted, and forsook the practices of their forefathers, and did neither pay those honors to God which were appointed them, nor had they any concern to do justice towards men. But for what degree of zeal they had formerly shewn for virtue, they now shewed by their actions a double degree of wickedness, whereby they made God to be their enemy; for MANY ANGELS OF GOD accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength, for the tradition is that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants.
"But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and, being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their acts for the better; -- but, seeing that they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married; so he departed out of that land" (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, I,3,1).
Further testimony of this fact is recorded in the book of Jubilees, written by a priest about 150 years before the present or common era, in which much very interesting information is given. The author, concerned about apostasy in general among the people of God, gives a history of the human race, back to the time of Adam and Eve, evaluating history from the viewpoint of a priest of the Levitical priesthood. His book is very instructive. Notice what he says concerning the time of God's servant Enoch, who was a great writer, historian and chronicler of the events of his time, who witnessed against the transgressions and apostasy he saw all around him.
"And he [Enoch] wrote everything, and bore witness to the Watchers, the ones who sinned with the daughters of men because they began to mingle themselves with the daughters of men so that they might be polluted. And Enoch bore witness against all of them" (Jubilees 4:22).
In a parallel commentary to the account of the angels marrying women in Genesis, chapter 6, the author of Jubilees writes:
"And when the children of men began to multiply on the surface of the earth and daughters were born to them, that the angels of the LORD saw in a certain year of that Jubilee that they were good to look at. And they took wives for themselves from all of those whom they chose. And they bore children for them, and they were the giants. And injustice increased upon the earth, and all flesh corrupted its way; man and cattle and beasts and birds and everything which walks on the earth. And they all corrupted their way and their ordinances, and they began to eat one another. And injustice grew upon the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of all mankind was thus continually evil.
"And the LORD saw the earth, and behold it was corrupted and all flesh had corrupted its order and all who were on the earth had done every sort of evil in his sight. . .
"And against his angels whom he had sent to the earth he was very angry. He commanded that they be uprooted from all their dominion. And he told us to bind them in the depths of the earth, and behold, they are bound in the midst of them, and they are isolated. And against their children a word went forth from before his presence so that he might smite them with the sword and remove them from under heaven. . . . And he sent his sword among them so that each one might kill his fellow and they began to kill one another until they all fell on the sword and they were wiped out from the earth. And their parents also watched. And subsequently they were bound in the depths of the earth forever, until the day of great judgment in order for judgment to be executed upon all of those who corrupted their ways and their deeds before the LORD. And he wiped out every one from their places and not one of them remained whom he did not judge according to all his wickedness" (Jubilees 5:1-11).
This ancient compilation of history and tradition gives us a great deal of insight regarding the fall of angels and their rebellion, and their decision to marry women. None of the account regarding the fall of angels contradicts Scripture, but adds to the total sum of knowledge presented in the Scriptures.
The Book of Enoch
A great deal more insight into this ancient, hidden time, is revealed in the book of Enoch, which the apostle Jude himself quotes in his own New Testament epistle as a prophecy of Enoch, the man of God who "walked with God" in the days before the Flood (see Gen.5:21-24). Jude, inspired by the Spirit of God, quotes from the book of Enoch, "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him" (Jude 14-15).
Although the book of Enoch as we have it today is not "scripture," Jude found it worthy to quote from -- much as I quoted from a similar book, the book of Jubilees, earlier in this article. Scholars believe much of the "book of Enoch" which has come down to us, preserved primarily in Ethiopia, dates to the pre-Maccabean period, before 165 B.C.E. (before the common era). Latter parts of it appear to be additions made in the post-Maccabean period, down to about 104 B.C.E. It is therefore a composite book representing numerous periods and writers. Portions of it may well have once been oral history and traditions preserved from Enoch himself,, since the apostle Jude quoted him in the book of Enoch, directly.
The text of the book of Enoch extant today, in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha edited by James Charlesworth, translates the passage also quoted by Jude, as follows: "Behold, he will arrive with ten thousand million of the holy ones in order to execute judgment upon all. He will destroy the wicked ones and censure all flesh on account of everything that they have done, that which the sinners and the wicked ones committed against him."
The book of Enoch gives us these fascinating details about the intermarriage that occurred before the Flood between angels and the daughters of men:
"In those days, when the children of man had multiplied, it happened that there were born unto them handsome and beautiful daughters. And the angels, the children of heaven, saw them and desired them; and they said to one another, 'Come, let us choose wives for ourselves from among the daughters of man and beget us children.' And Semyaz, being their leader, said unto them, 'I fear that perhaps you will not consent that this deed should be done, and I alone will become (responsible) for this great sin.' But they all responded to him, 'Let us all swear an oath and bind everyone among us by a curse not to abandon this suggestion but to do the deed.' Then they all swore together and bound one another by (the curse). And they were altogether two hundred . . ." (I Enoch 6:1-6).
"And they took wives unto themselves, and everyone (respectively) chose one woman for himself, and they began to go unto them. And they taught them magical medicine, incantations, the cutting of roots, and taught them (about) plants. And the women became pregnant, and gave birth to great giants whose heights were three hundred cubits [evidently a textual error; more probable, 30 cubits, based on other evidence]. These giants consumed the produce of all the people until the people detested feeding them. So the giants turned against the people in order to eat them. And they began to sin against birds, wild beasts, reptiles and fish. And their flesh was devoured the one by the other, and they drank blood. And then the earth brought an accusation against the oppressors" (I Enoch 7:1-6).
"The Angels That Sinned"
The Scriptures themselves tell us more about this judgment of the angels. In the second epistle of Peter, we read, "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Greek, Tartarus], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly" (I Pet.2:4-5).
The apostle Jude adds: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" (Juke 6).
An interesting commentary on this is also found in I Peter where we are told that Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, and was raised to life again by the Holy Spirit, also by the power of the Spirit during the days of Noah had gone and preached to the fallen angels, who had been imprisoned. Peter declares, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient [in the generation or so before the Flood, when they married with women], WHEN once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, where in few, that is, eight souls were saved by water" (I Pet.3:18-20).
In other words, Christ, as the Logos or Spokesman, had preached to these rebellious angelic spirit beings during the time they had been chained and imprisoned, while Noah was building the Ark. Undoubtedly He was warning them of the results of their sins and transgressions, and the penalty of destruction that sin brings in its wake.
Many evidences show us that angels did cohabit with women before the Flood. Our article Did Angels Marry Women Before the Flood? goes into this subject in detail.
Satan -- Deceiver and Seducer
The angel who led this uprising, and rebellion, against the laws of God, was none other than Satan himself. Therefore, it is possible that Satan had taken advantage of Eve while she was affected by the fruit of the tree, and her deed, and cohabited with her, and the result was the first-born offspring of Eve, Cain -- a result of this unusual "union," and who as a result was a child prodigy with exceptional skills and abilities.
In fact, is it not possible that Satan -- from the very beginning -- was seeking to subvert and compromise God's Plan of using human beings, made in His image and likeness (Gen.1:26), to "reproduce" Himself and expand His heavenly Family? Perhaps Satan was jealous of the Logos, and the Father, and their Plan to create beings "after their own kind" who would eventually become "divine" even as they are. Therefore, he sought to reproduce after HIS "own kind," by leading the rebellious angels to cohabit with women, use them as sexual partners, and procreate offspring that were a combination of angelic and human DNA as it were! Very probably the angels had to appear in some sort of human form to do this -- which is perfectly reasonable. We know that angels can at times appear in disguise in human form -- such as the angels who visited Abraham, and who appeared as "three men" (Gen.18:1-5). The apostle Paul also tells us that some have "entertained angels unawares" (Heb.13:2).
Thus when we read that "Adam knew his wife," there may be two meanings hidden here; 1) he knew her in the Biblical sense, and that union resulted in the birth of Abel, the second-born son. 2) It may also mean that he discovered something about her -- that is, as the first child grew in her belly, her pregnancy became known to him -- and he knew that he was not the natural father!
Is this possible? In Targum Pesudo-Jonathan on Genesis 4:1, we read:
"And Adam knew about his wife Eve that she had conceived by Sammael the [wicked] angel of the Lord [Sammael was evidently another name for Azazel or Satan], and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. He resembled the upper ones [angels] and not the lower ones, and she [therefore] said, 'I have acquired a man, indeed, an angel of the Lord."
This ancient Jewish commentary on Genesis 4:1 explicitly tells us that what happened in the garden of Eden was a sexual union between a wicked angel of the Lord -- Sammael -- and Eve. This wicked angel was undoubtedly another name for Lucifer, or Satan the devil!
Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, in his treatise On Patience, also discusses this event briefly. He says:
"Having been made pregnant by the seed of the devil . . . she brought forth a son" (On Patience, 5:15).
In an another ancient Jewish commentary, Pirqei deR. Eliezer, we read:
"The serpent came into her and she became pregnant with Cain, as it says, 'And the man knew his wife Eve.' What did he know? That she was already pregnant [from someone else]" (Pirqei deR.. Eliezer 21).
During the first centuries after Christ, in the Gnostic Gospel of Philip, the same idea is stated. We read in this work composed during the first few centuries after Christ:
"First adultery came into being, afterward murder. And he [Cain] was begotten in adultery, for he was the child of the serpent. So he became a murderer, just like his father, and killed his brother" (Gnostic Gospel of Philip 61:5-10).
Interestingly, in the book of 4 Maccabees, a heroic woman recalls her past life, and says,
"I was a pure virgin and did not go outside my father's house; I guarded the rib that [Eve] was built [from] . . . nor did the Destroyer [Satan], the deceitful serpent, defile the purity of my virginity" (4 Maccabees 18:7-8).
Again, the inference is that these ancient people were aware that something more happened in the Garden of Eden than just the eating of some forbidden physical "fruit."
As Eve was "totally seduced," or "completely, wholly seduced," this would or could imply that she was also sexually seduced by the devil, appearing as a serpent, or an angelic creature. Interestingly, one of the Hebrew words for "serpent" is saraph and means "burning, i.e., poisonous serpent; spec. saraph or symbol. creature (from their copper color): -- fiery (serpent), seraph" (Strong's Concordance, #8314).
This word describes both heavenly seraphim (see Isaiah 6:2-6), as well as fiery serpents on the earth (Numbers 21:8). Satan must have appeared in a very seductive, alluring form in his seduction of Eve. She obviously didn't know what she was getting into, when she listened to his speech, and his seductive wooing and "sweet talk." The result? Total seduction -- physical, moral, mental, and spiritual!
The Lesson for Us, Today
What is the lesson for us, today? Why are these things put in the Biblical record, inspired by Almighty God?
The apostle Paul tells us: "Now these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (I Cor.10:11-12).
Paul also wrote, "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we though patience and comfort of the scriptures should have hope" (Rom.15:4).
Satan the devil, and his fallen host of angels, are very active, and diligently seeking to subvert and destroy God's people, and ruin His plan of salvation for human beings. He hates God's plan. He is jealous -- mad with rage and fury. As John wrote in Revelation, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. . .Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down to you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time" (Rev.12:9-12).
The time of great deception is upon us! We need to wake up! The apostle Paul warns us that we must be very careful, "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices" (II Cor.2:11).
Likewise, the apostle James warns us that we must, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you" (Jas.4:7-8). Peter adds, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world" (I Pet.5:8-9).
Paul exhorts us, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the WHOLE armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness [or, wicked spirits] in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore . . ." (Eph.6:10-14).
Are you fully aware of Satan's trickery, cunning deceitfulness, and craftiness? Are you putting on the WHOLE armor of God -- the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God? (Eph.6:14-17). It's time to prepare for the coming of Christ!!!
Triumph Prophetic Ministries (Church of God)
Used with permission.
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