Hebrew Rebels (Cain & Nimrod)

Cain & Nimrod (Hebrew)

How does one rebel against the Gods? How could you even think to rebel against such a mighty force? It might pique your interest to know that there were a good number of kings and high-status rulers who sought to outdo the Gods. Today, we see that rebelling against God most of the time just means that you choose a path of worship to the opposite of whichever God you rebel against. But back then, their whole livelihoods revolved around the Gods, according to the research of ancient beliefs and when I say that, I mean as far as the weather, the food, the sicknesses that plague the world, so why would anyone try to rebel against a being that could end you in a second or everyone you love? Well, before I get into this discussion, let’s think deeper, like deeper than deep. When we start to read through these myths, you will most likely point your focus to some form of a fictitious-like state of mind, but try to make sense of it by putting your mind in a realistic, logical state. Yes, the words and the phrases used will sound kind of like fiction to our modern day, but think about why these people believed these myths to be true. After all, the myths did not happen in the time of the one recording the myths; it most likely happened further back than they could think, given that most myths were just oral until they were written, so they interpret things from the time that they live in, which was much more primitive than we are today in ways of thinking. But that may not always be the case for the myths that they record and tell about the people who came before them. If our world were destroyed, the next generations would not be able to fully comprehend how our society was handled through the past down stories because they simply were not there and most likely, most of our technology would seem like magic. Just like if you brought a phone to a primitive tribe of people in the jungle somewhere today. With that being said, let’s go ahead and jump into the pool of mythology revolving around the rebels to the Gods.

In Hebrew and biblical stories, the two main rebels against God’s authority are said to be Cain and Nimrod. The story of Cain and Abel is pretty well known, but let me tell you about the story of Cain to a point of understanding. So many of us know Cain as the first murderer recorded in the bible, but there is much more to the story that you might have missed. Cain was the first child of Adam and Eve, whose name is Qayin, and the root of this name is “QYN” meaning to acquire, to forge, to possess, make something new. His brother was Abel, whose Hebrew name is Hevel, and the meaning is vapor, breath, something short-lived. So here we can concur already that Cain is somewhat the representation of someone solid and strong-willed, while on the other hand, his brother personifies someone fragile. Cain eventually becomes a farmer, and Abel becomes a shepherd. It is stated through the text that Cain becomes a worker of the ground and Abel a keeper of sheep. Now, if you circle back to Genesis 3, God had already cursed the ground because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. So Cain’s survival already seems linked to something that God has already cursed. As time goes on the both bring offerings to God. Cain's offering is the fruit of the ground and Abel’s offering is the firstborn of his flock and the fat portions from his flock. Here we can see right there, as described, Cain simply brought the fruit of the ground, nothing special; it doesn’t say Cain brought rotten stuff, but neither the ripest fruit nor the sweetest, just the fruit of the ground. But Abel brings the firstborn and the best portions out of his flock. God or Yhwh looks at Abel with favor for his offerings, but not with favor to Cain, which results in anger and jealousy starting to build up inside of Cain. The text emphasizes that Cain was very angry, and his face fell. God asked Cain why he was angry. Why has his face fallen? If you do well, will you not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at your door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. So at this moment, Cain can either humble up, upgrade his offering and push away jealousy or let the sin in. Cain spoke to his brother Abel in the field rose up and killed him. Why the field, why kill him in your domain? Well, Cain knew the field like no other, no witnesses, far away from altars for sacrifice. This isn’t like just a slap in the face to God type of rebellion, it's more like a rebellion expressed through his brother, since he knew Abel was Yhwh’s favorite. So God goes to Cain and he asks where is your brother? And Cain says I don’t know? Am I my brother's keeper? Right here, he got smart with God, which implies that he has already denounced being ruled over by divine authority. Not to mention he just told a bold lie and it was kind of in a mocking way, seeming that Abel was the keeper of sheep. It’s like he was saying I ain’t no keeper like him, so why would I know. So his rebellion here unfolds to more than just murder; it’s lying, refusing responsibility or correction, not having remorse, premeditating wrongdoing, mocking the idea of care for another. God says to Cain what have you done? The blood of your brother cries to me from the earth. God cursed Cain, “Now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on earth. Cain’s bond with the earth is now broken. Cain said, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. You have driven me today away from the ground and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Here you can see that Cain still shows no remorse, only a selfish care for himself; he doesn’t even state a case for sorrow over what he has done at any point, self-pity. God responded that if anyone should try to hurt Cain, they would be subjected to his vengeance sevenfold and set a mark upon Cain so that anyone who should find him would not attack him. One thing here that puzzles me, I’m pretty sure they were supposed to be the only people on earth, so how could anyone even attack him? Just food for thought. Cain then left the presence of Yhwh and lived on the land of Nod, which in some nuances means the land of wandering. Cain has a son, Enoch, who is not the same Enoch you may be thinking of from the Seth lineage. But Enoch builds a city and names it after his son, which is odd, the first murderer who was put in exile, is the first to build a city. Cain’s descendants become the founders of some major human arts and technologies for example Jabal who is the father of nomadic wealth like people with livestock that dwell in tents, Jubal father of musicians and Tubal-Cain the father of bronze and iron tools. So we learn that Cain was not only just the first murder, but also the first to defy God, the first to denounce God with sarcasm and the first to found a city leading way to the new world. You can make your own inferences on why God would allow Cain to do these things and why God would show favor to one and not the other, leading to a known jealousy developing. Many may think that this was a divine plan by God and many may think that this is the result of free-will leaving to God having to wash away the world in a flood. I will leave you to make your own judgment because we must move on.

As for Nimrod he is traced to the lineage of Seth the third son of Adam and Eve. Son of Cush and great-grandson of Noah, arriving not long after the great flood. Some sources state that he was born with unusual power, mighty in nature. The tradition says that he inherited the tunic of Adam, which made animals submit to him making his hunting look almost supernatural. The root of Nimrod in Hebrew is Marad, which means to rebel with Nimrod meaning “Let us rebel." The meaning of Nimrod in Genesis 10:9 means “a might hunter before the lord”; some ancient rabbis position this phrase to mean “in defiance of the lord." Which makes sense because a mighty hunter of the lord could literally mean he is hunting the lord. He becomes the first empire builder by domination, intimidation, forcing tribes to submit, and also by killing dangerous beast after the flood. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech(Uruk), Calnah, Nineveh, and Akkad notioned as the first political empire. The tower of Babel was being built now to challenge heavenly authority, to keep the people unified preventing the scattering of humanity, to establish a world government, to basically make Nimrod God-King of the world also a place he could hide in case God sent another flood. Its height was meant to pierce the heavens, its purpose was to overthrow heavenly authority, and it was said to be made of burned brick harder than stone. Legend states that it took one year to climb one level and people mourned bricks more than dead workers. Nimrod declared, “We will ascend and dethrone the heavenly powers." The text states that God descended to observe, at first not destroy, but when he realized the goal of the people was to rebel and self-unify as the text states God saying “the people are one” he strikes the foundation of the rebellion not so much as the tower but language itself. Bricklayers were unable to understand the foreman, architects couldn’t instruct workers and trade groups dissolved and tribes started to scatter, resulting in misunderstanding turning into violence. Henceforth that the word Babel becoming a term based around confusion that is why when we do not understand others we call it babel or babbling. Now Nimrod’s plan would not be accomplished from this point and Nimrod’s downfall comes at the hand of Esau. Esau is the grandson of Abraham and Abraham grew up under Nimrod’s tyranny until he finally escaped by God’s divine protection. Terah was Abraham’s father and one of Nimrod’s servants. Abraham was hidden from Nimrod when Nimrod got a prophecy that a child would be born who would rise against him and overthrow him, so Nimrod declared that every firstborn be killed. Remember people lived to be hundreds of years old back then. Nimrod even tried to burn Abraham in a furnace when Abraham was younger but God protected him making some of his followers stray away from his rule and move to the divine worship of God such as Abraham's dad. But Esau grew up hearing that Nimrod’s control was tyranny and a descendant of Abraham was destined to overthrow Nimrod and Nimrod saw himself in Esau but also as a threat, so Nimrod watched Esau from afar as did Esau Nimrod. Esau grew older and one day entered the field not to hunt but to conquer destiny, saying, “Today I will do something powerful. Something remembered.” At the same time, Nimrod went out to hunt along with two guards unknowing that Esau was near. Esau approaches Nimrod quietly and freezes at the sight of Nimrod remembering everything Abraham told and instilled in him. Esau hid in the bushes until Nimrod traveled near and jumped out so fast that Nimrod did not see him until Esau was on top of him. Esau struck Nimrod with his sword killing him in one single blow and then Esau turned to finish off the two guards. After Esau took the tunic of Adam from a slain Nimrod and takes off with Nimrod’s men following behind, but Esau is too fast and arrives home before Nimrod’s men could even get close. After arriving home, Esau understands that he will be hunted by the king’s men for the rest of his life, and he is in fear of many outcomes even punishment from God for killing a king who claimed divine mandate. Fear fell over him from someone full of pride, fearlessness and relentlessness he was now a shell of himself. Feeling the curse of the act weighing on him he relinquishes his birth-right to his brother Jacob who said that he would give Esau stew if he gave him his birthright Esau stated “behold I am about to die, what good is birthright to me” so he trades his birthright for the stew his brother was cooking. This act changed Esau’s life forever, making him live by only the sword, commit unGodly acts, found hostile nations, and resent his brother Jacob after he realized that birthright meant everything, so he despised Jacob for cunning him out of it during his moment of weakness. Jacob also disguised himself as Esau and stole his divine blessing called berakah, which is divine empowerment, spiritual inheritance, and destiny passed down through family line from their father Issac in his last moments. So here we have two rebels against God who are actually beings that end up accomplishing great things. Nimrod sought to dethrone God and Cain basically relinquished his will to follow God's divine authority. Cain arrives after paradise is lost Nimrod arrives in the post-apocalyptic world, but both arrived as first generations according to the text. Cain’s rebellion is more emotional and violent while Nimrod’s is more political and cosmic. Cain, the first murderer, and Nimrod, the first tyrant. If anything was to learn from this story, you should see that desires are normal they are neutral factors in our thinking patterns, but they must be directed in positive outcomes. By that I mean with the thought of the future, not just for yourself, but for those who follow and come after you. It's like the phrase think before you act. That phrase truly becomes deep when you think further than your current life. Every action has a consequence that may or may not show right now, so you must define your actions based on the mercy of yourself and others to determine the outcome. Yhwh’s factor in this myth shows that justice corrects, but justice mixed with mercy eventually restores. In the next episode, we will discuss rebels to the Gods according to Sumerian myths.