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Verses 9 and 10. And the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? He answered, I know not: am I my brother's keeper? And he said to him, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the earth.1
VERS. 9. & 10. Et ait Dominus ad Cain, ubi est Abel frater tuus? Qui respondit, Nescio, numquid custos fratris mei sum ego? Dixitque ad eum, Quid fecisti? Vox sanguinis fratris tui clamat ad me de terra.
Hic dialogus inter Deum & Cain, ait Caietanus, in aliqua sensibili specie factus videtur, ex tot colloquiis inter utrumque intercedentibus, & insuper ex sensibili signo, quod Cain impetravit a Deo. Supra tamen cum primum Deus locutus est Cain dicens, Quare iratus es? & cur concidit facies tua? idem Caietanus putat locutum esse Deum, non per externum sermonem, aut speciem aliquam sensibilem, sed interiori & spiritali locutione, eo scilicet modo, quo secundum suavem humani generis gubernationem consuevit Deus alloqui homines post peccatum, arguendo eos ut resipiscant, per interiorem synderesis accusationem & reprehensionem. Hic autem Deus, inquisitionem caedis Abel inchoat a loco dicens, Ubi est Abel? ut quia nusquam Abel apparebat, inciperet Cain agnoscere crimen suum esse deprehensum. Inquirit praeterea, ut doceat iudices hominum, ut citent reum quantumcumque certum priusquam eum iudicent: nec aliqua utitur contumelia, ut etiam iudices exercendis iudiciis ab omni sese iniuria & convicio abstineant.
This dialogue between God and Cain, says Cajetan, seems to have been made in some sensible form, from the many conversations passing between the two, and moreover from the sensible sign which Cain obtained from God. Yet above, when God first spoke to Cain, saying, Why are you angry? and why is your face fallen? the same Cajetan thinks that God spoke, not through external speech, or any sensible form, but by an interior and spiritual locution — in that manner, namely, in which, according to the gentle governance of the human race, God is wont to address men after sin, reproving them that they may repent, through the interior accusation and reproof of synderesis. But here God begins the inquiry into the murder of Abel from the place, saying, Where is Abel? — that, because Abel appeared nowhere, Cain might begin to recognize that his crime was detected. He inquires, moreover, that he may teach the judges of men to summon the accused, however certain, before they judge him; nor does he use any contumely, that judges too, in exercising judgments, may abstain from all injury and reviling.2
According to Ambrose (book 2 on Cain and Abel, ch. 9), God interrogates Cain about his brother Abel, that he may lead him to confession of the crime and to penitence. 'For the confession of crimes,' he says, 'is an abridgment of punishments: hence in secular judgments those who deny are set on the rack and tortured, and a certain compassion for the one confessing touches the judge. There is a certain shame in sins, and it is a portion of penitence to confess the crime, not to transfer the guilt, but to acknowledge it. The shame of the guilty mitigates the judge, but the pertinacity of the deniers rouses him. God wishes to provoke you to penitence; he wishes indulgence to be hoped from him; he wishes to demonstrate by your confession that he himself is not the author of malice, nor do men sin compelled by necessity. For those who refer their sin to a certain necessity of decree or of their work, as the Gentiles assert, seem to accuse the divine, as if [God's] force were the cause of the sin. For he who kills, compelled by some necessity, kills as it were unwilling. But those things which are from us have no excuse; those which are beyond us are excusable. But how much graver than the sin itself, to refer to God what you have done, and to transfer the odium of your guilt to the author, not of the crime, but of innocence?' Thus Ambrose.3
Secundum Ambrosium lib. 2. de Cain & Abel, cap. 9. interrogat Deus Cain de fratre Abel, quo eum ad confessionem criminis & ad poenitentiam adducat. Confessio enim criminum, inquit, poenarum compendium est, Inde in iudiciis secularibus impositi equuleo torquentur negantes, & quaedam tangit iudicem miseratio confitentis. Est quaedam in peccatis verecundia, & poenitentiae portio crimen fateri, non derivare culpam, sed recognoscere. Mitigat iudicem pudor reorum, excitat autem pertinacia denegantium. Vult te provocare ad poenitentiam Deus: vult de se sperari indulgentiam: vult demonstrare tua confessione, quod non sit ipse auctor malitiae, nec necessitate coacti homines peccant. Nam qui peccatum suum ad quandam referunt, ut Gentiles asserunt, decreti aut operis sui necessitatem, divina arguere videntur, quasi ipsorum vis causa peccati sit. Qui enim necessitate aliqua coactus occiderit, quasi invitus occidit. Ea vero quae a nobis sunt, excusationem non habent: quae autem praeter nos sunt, excusabilia sunt. Sed quanto gravius peccato ipso, ad Deum referre quod feceris, & reatus tui invidiam transfundere in auctorem non criminis, sed innocentiae? Haec Ambrosius.
Sed perpende Caini responsum, mendax nempe, impium, denique inhuma...
But weigh Cain's response — lying, indeed, impious, finally inhuman...4
inhumanum, & ferum. Nescio: numquid custos fratris mei sum ego? mendax, quia negat, se scire quod ipse tamen fecerat: impium, quia negat Deo, quasi eum latere posset quod ipse fecerat. Corpus enim Abel a se occisi aliquo loco abstruserat, vel terra contexerat, idque Dei notitiam fugere posse putaverat. Cur igitur non huic confestim accidit, quod illi Ananiae, cui cum Petrus dixisset: Non es mentitus hominibus, sed Deo, continuo cecidit exanimatus? Sed Deus, quae est eius clementia, vitae Cain ad tempus pepercit. Illud quoque: Numquid custos fratris mei sum ego? tanquam indignabundus locutus irreverentiam & impietatem suam erga Deum declaravit. Quanta vero inhumanitas & feritas est, omnem fraterni amoris affectum exuisse & abiecisse? an aequum non erat, ut maior natu frater, minoris tutelam & custodiam gereret? Sed dissimulanti crimen instat Deus, Quid, inquit, fecisti? ne inquit, nega: scelus mihi notissimum est. Sed quomodo tam immane scelus animo concipere & patrare ausus es? Quid fecisti? necdum agnoscis immanitatem tui criminis? recognosce & perpende quid egeris, ut tanti sceleris recognitione, ad confessionem & poenitentiam eius venias, quo veniam & indulgentiam a me possis impetrare.
...inhuman and savage. 'I know not: am I my brother's keeper?' — lying, because he denies that he knows what he himself nevertheless had done; impious, because he denies it to God, as if what he himself had done could be hidden from him. For he had hidden the body of Abel, killed by himself, in some place, or covered it with earth, and had thought that this could escape God's notice. Why, therefore, did there not happen to him at once what [happened] to that Ananias, to whom, when Peter had said, 'You have not lied to men, but to God,' immediately fell down lifeless? But God, such is his clemency, spared Cain's life for a time. That too — 'Am I my brother's keeper?' — spoken as if indignant, declared his irreverence and impiety toward God. But how great the inhumanity and savagery, to have put off and cast away all affection of fraternal love? Was it not equitable that the elder-born brother should exercise the guardianship and care of the younger? But God presses the one dissimulating the crime: 'What,' he says, 'have you done?' Do not deny, he says: the crime is most known to me. But how did you dare to conceive in mind and perpetrate so monstrous a crime? What have you done? Do you not yet acknowledge the enormity of your crime? Recognize and weigh what you have done, that by the recognition of so great a crime you may come to confession and penitence of it, whereby you may be able to obtain pardon and indulgence from me.5
Quo autem Dominus omnem dissimulationem Cain retegeret, omnemque tergiversationem praecideret, indicat ei scelus fratricidii. Vox, inquit, sanguinis fratris tui clamat ad me de terra, quasi dicat, Non opus est testibus, non tua confessione: ipse sanguis, quem crudeliter fudisti, scelus tuum prodit, testatur, summoque clamore a me vindictam tui flagitat. Hebraice est numero plurali [קול דמי, Kol demé] Vox sanguinum: vel ad declarandam copiam effusi sanguinis, vel quod propter multa vulnera quae Cain inflixerat, multifariam ex corpore Abel sanguis fusus fuerat, vel quia occisus fuerat Abel priusquam prolem ullam generaret, quapropter eo interfecto, omnes eius posteri, qui procreari ex eo potuissent, quodammodo simul cum eo interfecti fuerunt.
But that the Lord might uncover all Cain's dissimulation, and cut off all tergiversation, he indicates to him the crime of fratricide: 'The voice,' he says, 'of your brother's blood cries to me from the earth' — as if he said, There is no need of witnesses, nor of your confession: the very blood which you cruelly shed betrays your crime, testifies, and with the loudest cry demands from me vengeance for you. In Hebrew it is in the plural number, [קול דמי, Kol demé] 'The voice of the bloods': either to declare the abundance of the shed blood; or because, on account of the many wounds which Cain had inflicted, the blood had been shed from Abel's body in many ways; or because Abel had been killed before he generated any offspring, wherefore, he being killed, all his posterity, who could have been procreated from him, were in a certain manner killed together with him.6
Legimus porro in sacris litteris, quatuor esse genera peccatorum, quae praeter cetera clamant ad Deum, id est, magnam & celerem eius vindictam deposcunt. Unum est peccatum homicidii, de quo dixit Deus hoc loco: Vox sanguinis fratris tui clamat ad me de terra. Alterum est peccatum & nefandum & contra naturam, de quo, c. 18. huius libri dixit Deus: Clamor Sodomorum & Gomorrhaeorum multiplicatus est, & peccatum eorum aggravatum est nimis. Descendam, & videbo utrum clamorem, qui venit ad me, opere compleverint. Tertium peccatum est oppressio infirmorum, unde in lib. Exod. c.3. Clamor, inquit, filiorum Israel venit ad me, vidique afflictionem eorum, qua ab Aegyptiis opprimuntur. Quartum, est retentio mercedis operariorum, de qua B. Iacobus, cap. 5. suae Epistolae sic habet: Ecce merces operariorum, qui messuerunt regiones vestras, quae fraudata est a vobis, clamat: & clamor eorum in aures Domini Sabaoth introivit. Ergo sanguis Abel clamabat ad Deum, scilicet vindictam postulans: quemadmodum animas sanctorum Martyrum, quae...
We read, moreover, in the sacred writings, that there are four kinds of sins which, beyond the rest, cry to God — that is, demand his great and swift vengeance. One is the sin of homicide, of which God said in this place: 'The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the earth.' Another is the unspeakable sin against nature, of which, in ch. 18 of this book, God said: 'The cry of the Sodomites and Gomorrhaeans is multiplied, and their sin is exceedingly aggravated. I will go down, and see whether they have completed in deed the cry which has come to me.' The third sin is the oppression of the weak, whence in the book of Exodus, ch. 3, [God] says: 'The cry of the sons of Israel has come to me, and I have seen their affliction, by which they are oppressed by the Egyptians.' The fourth is the withholding of the wage of workers, of which blessed James, ch. 5 of his Epistle, has thus: 'Behold, the wage of the workers who reaped your regions, which has been defrauded by you, cries out: and the cry of them has entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.' Therefore the blood of Abel cried to God, namely demanding vengeance — just as the souls of the holy Martyrs, which...7
quae in coelis sunt, audivit Ioannes, ut scribit ipse in Apocalyp. cap. 6. clamantes voce magna, & dicentes: Usquequo Domine (sanctus & verus) non iudicas, & non vindicas sanguinem nostrum de iis qui habitant in terra? Quoniam autem sanguis Christi fusus a Iudaeis, clamabat apud Deum non vindictam, sed misericordiam & indulgentiam, idcirco Paulus ad Hebr. 12. scripsit: sanguinem Christi melius loqui apud Deum, quam sanguinem Abel.
...which are in heaven, John heard, as he himself writes in the Apocalypse, ch. 6, crying with a loud voice, and saying: 'How long, O Lord (holy and true), do you not judge, and not avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' But because the blood of Christ, shed by the Jews, cried to God not for vengeance, but for mercy and indulgence, therefore Paul, to the Hebrews ch. 12, wrote: that the blood of Christ speaks better to God than the blood of Abel.8
Translator’s notes
- New lemma (repeated): Genesis 4:9-10 (marginal 'VERS. 9. & 10.'). ↩
- Cajetan: this dialogue (Gen 4:9-10) was made in a 'sensible form' (from the many exchanges and the sensible sign); whereas the earlier 'Quare iratus es?' was an interior/spiritual locution (God reproving through the accusation of synderesis). God begins the inquiry 'from the place' ('Where is Abel?') so Cain recognizes his crime is detected; and to teach judges to summon the accused before judging, without contumely. Marginal glosses: 'Caietanus'; 'Indices ex hoc Dei facto quid dicere debeant.' ↩
- Ambrose (De Cain et Abel 2.9): God interrogates Cain to lead him to confession and penitence — 'confession is an abridgment of punishments' (deniers are racked; the confessor moves the judge to mercy). God wishes to provoke penitence and to show that he is not the author of malice, nor do men sin by necessity — against the Gentiles' fate-excuse (what is from us has no excuse); how much graver to blame God, the author not of the crime but of innocence. Marginal glosses: 'Praeclarum Ambrosii dictum, de voluntaria confessione peccatorum'; 'Deus non est auctor mali'; 'nec necessitate coacti homines peccant.' ↩
- Pererius turns to weigh Cain's answer ('I know not: am I my brother's keeper?') — lying, impious, inhuman. Catchword: 'inhuma' (inhumanum; continues on the next page). ↩
- Pererius weighs Cain's answer: LYING (denies knowing what he did), IMPIOUS (denies it to God, as if the hidden corpse could escape him — cf. Ananias, Acts 5:4, who fell dead; but God spared Cain for a time), IRREVERENT and INHUMAN ('am I my brother's keeper?' — casting off fraternal love; the elder should have guarded the younger). God presses 'Quid fecisti?' not to learn but to lead Cain to acknowledge, confess, and repent his crime, that he might obtain pardon. Running head '735' (the running header misprints 'LIB. VI.' for LIB. VII); true printed page 745. ↩
- God cuts off Cain's evasion by naming the crime: 'The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the earth' (Gen 4:10) — no need of witnesses; the shed blood itself demands vengeance. HEBREW GLYPH verified by magnification: קול דמי (Kol demé = qol deme, 'the voice of the bloods of' — קול 'voice' + דמי, the plural construct of דם 'blood'); so the Hebrew has the plural 'bloods,' which signifies either the abundance of shed blood, or the many wounds Cain inflicted, or that Abel was killed before begetting offspring (so his whole potential posterity was killed with him). Marginal note reflects the plural. ↩
- The FOUR kinds of sins that 'cry to God' for swift vengeance: (1) homicide (Gen 4:10, Abel's blood); (2) the unspeakable sin against nature (Sodom, Gen 18:20-21); (3) oppression of the weak (Exod 3:9, Israel's cry in Egypt); (4) withholding workers' wages (James 5:4, 'the cry has entered the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth'). So Abel's blood cried for vengeance, like the souls of the martyrs [under the altar, Rev 6:9-10]. Marginal gloss: 'Quatuor genera peccatorum, quae clamant ad Deum.' Page footer signature 'BBBB'; catchword 'quae' (continues on the next page). ↩
- Continues the martyrs'-souls comparison (Rev 6:9-10, 'How long, O Lord... do you not avenge our blood?'): Abel's blood cried for vengeance, but Christ's blood, shed by the Jews, cried for mercy — so Paul says Christ's blood 'speaks better than Abel' (Heb 12:24). Verso running head 'COMMENTARIORVM,' number '736'; true printed page 746. ↩