The Bible Slam: Genesis Chapter 4

In this installment, Cain and Abel are the first offspring of Adam and Eve.   Cain kills Abel and is banished, so he takes up residence in Nod.   Some genealogy is given, including the birth of Seth.

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Points to Start the Conversation.

• Why does the LORD prefer Abel's animals better than Cain's fruits and vegetables?   How was Cain supposed to know?
  
• According to the King James Version, Cain's punishment was to be "a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth;" yet Cain settles in the land of Nod which would suggest that he did not suffer the punishment of homelessness.
• Cain is worried after he kills Abel, saying, "Every one who finds me shall slay me." If the only other people alive at that time were his parents, why would he say this?
  
• Where did Cain's wife come from?   Where did all the people come from who populated Cain's city?
• King James Reference:   Genesis Chapter 4

The "mark of Cain" in this chapter justified racism for some religious groups.   According to Wikipedia:

Historically, some Christians have interpreted the Biblical passages so that the "mark" is thought to be part of the "curse". In 18th century America and Europe, it was commonly assumed that Cain's "mark" was black skin, and that Cain's descendants were black and still under Cain's curse (The majority of Cain's descendants were killed in the great flood, but according to Latter Day Saints' theology Cain's bloodline was preserved on the ark through Egyptus, who was Canaanite married to Noah's son Ham.).

Accepting the theory that God had cursed black people, some have used the curse as a Biblical justification for racism. These racial and ethnic interpretations of the curse and the mark have been largely abandoned even by the most conservative theologians since the mid-20th century, although the theory still has some following among white supremacists and an older generation of whites, as well as a very small minority of Protestant churches.

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