God's Dealings during the Life of Cain: A Juridical-Theological Reopening of the Case in Genesis 4

How should God’s own role in Genesis 4 be understood when one examines the actions the text attributes to Him with the same scrutiny as those of Cain — a question which the narrative itself never poses, because no party within it is in a position to raise it? Centred on this question, this study reopens the case of Genesis 4, which in the interpretative tradition is almost invariably read as Cain’s story. It reads the narrative as a legal case and distinguishes the facts from the context in which they are situated. At the level of actions: why God warned Cain of the danger of his anger but not Abel and his parents, and why God gave Cain a mark after the killing that protected him from retribution, whilst the text makes no mention of comparable protection for Abel before his killing. Beneath that lies the relationship itself: why no discernible criterion is attached to God’s preference for one offering, and why the brothers remained entirely dependent on God, whilst it was precisely within that dependence that the danger arose. The study does not pass judgement on God’s guilt or innocence, nor does it prescribe any particular image of God. To this end, it develops a method — forensic exegesis — which distinguishes between fact, interpretation and normative judgement, and employs legal concepts such as endangerment, negligence and lack of due care as operational concepts, not as legal rules.