Doesn’t Genesis 4, Verse 1, Disprove Your Conclusion that Satan Sired Cain?
Steve, how can you conclude that Satan fathered Cain when Genesis 4 clearly states that Adam lay with Eve?
Genesis 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.
Your argument that Cain was sired by Satan is extensive. But it is indirect. Genesis 4 appears to be a direct statement.
Thanks,
Alex, Christian Crumb Snatcher
Steve’s Answer:
Thanks for writing, Alex. I’m sorry you see yourself as a Christian crumb snatcher, rather than a serious student of the Word of God, digging into the meat of the Word.
But I’ll answer your question anyway, in case you change your mind about the crumb-snatching and truly want to get serious about the Bible:
I can conclude that Satan fathered Cain because the Bible says it. And it says it directly. If the Bible didn’t say it, I wouldn’t conclude it.
So, if what you want is a direct statement to that Biblical fact, let me give you one from the New Testament.
In the first epistle of John, St. John states:
1Jn 3:12 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.
Like any verse in the Bible, you can try to spiritualize this one, and claim that it only means Cain was a follower of Satan.
But the word “of” (i.e., “of that wicked one”) in this verse destroys that premise. It’s not the usual word translated “of” in the New Testament.
Instead, it’s translated from the Greek word ek, which is genitive of origin (meaning it relates to the actual physical origin or source of a thing).
The word itself means “out from the interior of.” In other words, Cain was “of” (i.e., out from the interior of) that wicked one, who, of course, is the devil.
So, it was Satan’s sperm that impregnated Eve. That’s the only thing that could physically make Cain “of that wicked one.”
This means St. John’s statement is direct, definitive and conclusive. And St. John, would certainly know, as he was the apostle who Jesus loved.
But for a second witness, perhaps a tiny bit less direct, let’s check out Matthew 13, and hear what Jesus Himself had to say:
Mat 13:38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
Mat 13:39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
Mat 13:40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
So, according to Jesus Himself, the devil has sired children on this earth. And in the end, after they’ve been allowed to serve their purpose, they’ll be disposed of in the lake of fire (short of sincere repentance, of course).
Keep in mind that Christ’s words above are His personal explanation to His disciples of the parable of the tares. He’d told them earlier of the two different kinds of “seed” planted in “the field” which represents the world. And now He explains what the parable meant.
So, He’s not speaking a parable. He’s explaining one.
That means, once again, you can’t spiritualize his words away by saying something like “He didn’t really mean it that way.”
Again, He was explaining a parable so the disciples would fully understand it. He wasn’t speaking cryptically, but instead, directly, as you’ve requested.
As you’ll see plainly in just a moment, those two types of seed spoken of by Christ in the parable of the tares were planted in Eve’s womb during the course of her seduction in the garden.
Putting together the information from Christ in Mathew 13:38-40, with the information from St. John in I John 3:12, both of which we looked at earlier, you should be able to ascertain for yourself that Cain was indeed Satan’s first-born, through Eve.
Cain’s hybrid race – part Adamic through Eve, part Satanic through Satan — has spread across this world, ever since. If you want to know why there’s so much evil in the world, that’s the reason.
Let’s take it one step farther:
Jesus found some of these hybrid descendants of the devil in Jerusalem, pretending to be Jews. Here’s what he had to say to them. Please note how direct He is:
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Certainly, you know who the “murderer from the beginning” was, i.e., the first murderer. It was Cain, who slew his brother Abel for being righteous.
The Lord let these false Jews know that He knew exactly who they were. They were the children of the first murderer, whose father was the devil. And he dressed these false Jews down for their unbelief in Him, and their utter hatred of Him.
Please note that once again, in the above verse, the Greek word ek is used in the phrase “of your father the devil,” meaning Cain came “out from the interior of” his father the devil.
In other words, Christ was stating that these false Jews were Satan’s own progeny, through Cain. They were the devil’s children. The devil was the father of Cain’s blood lineage. Period.
Is that hard to grasp? No, it certainly isn’t. Is it indirect? Not hardly. It’s very direct.
Now Let’s Go to the Old Testament
The very first prophesy from God Himself, in the Holy Bible, can be found in Genesis 3:15.
And it, too, reveals that Satan would have children on this earth who will do his bidding in resisting God’s will for this world. Let’s take a quick look at what God said to Satan in that prophesy:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
In this verse, God is speaking directly to the serpent, who is the devil, Satan (Rev. 12:9).
He tells that old devil that there will be perpetual enmity (i.e. chronic hostility) between his seed line on this earth, and the woman’s seed line on this earth.
In that verse, God also tells the devil that a “seed” would eventually come through the woman’s seed line (i.e., the Christ), and that this “seed” would crush Satan’s head, though Satan would first bruise his heel (on the cross at Calvary, of course).
So, in that very first prophesy found in the Bible, God pronounced the death sentence on Satan, telling him, basically, that since he tried to hanky with Eve’s seed line, a very special seed from her seed line would eventually be born, and would destroy him for good.
That’s why Satan hates the Adamic seed line – Christ Jesus Himself would come from it.
Let’s go one verse further in Genesis 3, and see what God said to Eve, because it reveals how the two seed lines would be planted on this earth:
Gen 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
The word “sorrow” in that verse is translated from the Hebrew word ‛itstsâbôn. And it means labor pains.
What’s more, the word “conception,” means to conceive a child, e.g., pregnancy.
So, the subject matter being spoken of by God is child-bearing – a very strange subject matter if, indeed, Eve merely ate an apple. But perfectly appropriate if she had just been sexually seduced and had just conceived.
Satan had just seduced Eve in the previous verses. And now God is letting her know what’s going to happen to her next as her conception progresses.
He tells her that her labor pains (i.e., “sorrow”) and her conception (pregnancy) would be greatly multiplied.
The phrase “greatly multiplied” in that verse is translated from a single Hebrew word, rabah, which is repeated twice in that sentence. The word means “increase.”
So, the verse actually reads, “I will increase increase thy sorrow and thy conception.”
Now, how do you increase labor pains and conception? Well, think about it. Eventually you’ll figure it out. Hint: Think twins. With twins, one’s conception, pregnancy and birth pangs are multiplied.
Indeed, in the Hebrew language, when a word is repeated like that, it places emphasis on multiplication.
She would not just have a single child from this conception. She would have two children from her pregnancy. Yes, as I mentioned, she would have twins.
The word “increase” (i.e., rabah) was used twice, which is once for each of the children she would bear from that seduction and resulting pregnancy.
Now, To Answer Your Question
But what does all of this have to do with your question? Well, as I wrap this up, I’m about to show you:
We learned from the New Testament that Satan has children on this earth. We also learned that it started with Cain. In other words, Cain was Satan’s first-born.
But how could this be when Genesis chapter 4 clearly says:
Gen 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Well, let’s take a look at the very next verse in that chapter, then we’ll break down both verses:
Gen 4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
The word “again” in the above verse is translated from the Hebrew word yasaph, which means “to continue to do a thing.” It can also mean to “add” or “augment.”
The thing Eve was doing was giving birth. Right? In other words, this verse clearly tells us that Eve continued giving birth, and had another child from the same pregnancy.
Yes, she had twins: Cain and Abel. (This is why Cain and Abel came of age together and offered sacrifices to the Lord at the exact same time, with Cain’s sacrifice being rejected by God, and Abel’s being accepted; they were exactly the same age).
Eve had been seduced by Satan, in Genesis chapter 3. But what a lot of people miss when studying this event are the final words in Genesis 3:6. Let’s take a close look at them:
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
In other words, she’d just partaken of the so-called “forbidden fruit” with the serpent, who is Satan. The term “forbidden fruit” is a Hebrew euphemism meaning to have sex with someone who’s not your spouse.
And then she turned to Adam and invited him to join in. And he did.
In other words, she was seduced by Satan. But, afterwards, when Satan was through with her, she also had sex with her husband, Adam. It was, in essence, as the French would say, a menage trois – a sexual threesome.
This is where Adam sinned. He failed to protect his wife from Satan’s advances (see What Was Adam’s Sin in the Garden). Instead, he allowed her seduction to take place. Then, he joined in when invited.
And that’s how Eve ended up having twins, one child (Cain) being of Satan, just as the New Testament tells us, and the other child (Abel) being of Adam.
It’s a process the medical community refers to as superfecundation, which simply means becoming pregnant with twins by two separate fathers. If you look the word up in the medical literature, you’ll see that it’s not as uncommon as you might think.
So, with that as background, let’s re-examine Genesis 4:1-2 for a moment:
Genesis 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Gen 4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
The word “knew” in verse 1 above means, basically, “to have sex with.” So that part of the verse actually reads, when properly translated:
Adam had sex with his wife. And she conceived.
Now, what happens after a female conceives? Well, she has to wait nine months for the child to be born, right?
So, nine months later, she “bare Cain.” He came out first. And as Genesis 4:2 above tells us, she “again” (i.e., “to continue to do a thing”) bare his brother Abel.
Then, she said “I have gotten a man from the Lord,” which refers straight back to God’s Words to Eve in Genesis 3:16 that she would conceive and that her conception would be multiplied.
Now, how hard is that?
Nine months after having been sexually seduced by Satan and then moments afterward having sex with her husband, she bare two children.
She bare twins, but from separate fathers — one of the twins being Cain and one being Abel.
And that’s your answer for why Genesis 4:1 doesn’t disprove the fact that Satan seduced Eve and fathered Cain in the process.
- You have the very direct statement from St. John that Cain was “of that wicked one.” (1 John 3:12)
- You have Christ’s direct statement from Matthew 13 that Satan has children on this earth which were planted in opposition to God and His great plan to save His children. (Matthew 13:38-39)
- And you have Christ’s direct statement in the Gospel of John, to the Jews who hated him, telling them “You are of your father the devil.”
So, you have to look at the Old Testament account of Satan’s seduction of Eve through those eyes. You have to apply those direct statements to the Genesis storyline, or you’ll never understand it.
My suggestion, if you haven’t done so already, is that you should read the Bible study, A Strange Thing: Mystery in the Garden,” which will explain this in greater depth for you.
Regards in Christ,
Steve Barwick
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