Old Testament Lore. Norman M. Chansky
Читать онлайн книгу.
images were clotted and Eve’s lips mumbled
Thoughts which were spinning, spinning, spinning
In her brain like a circle without end, without beginning.
When it seemed that her energy was spent
She touched Adam’s face who over her was bent.
Suddenly there was an urgent rush
And the child oozed out in a reddish gush.
Eve shouted Thank you God!
With a palm frond Adam sawed
The cord that connected mother with child.
He knotted the cord and smiled.
Then he stroked the child’s back. It expelled
Mucous that within its mouth had welled.
It breathed a hardy cry
Resounding as it spiraled toward the sky.
Adam mopped the brow of Eve, his love,
With a patch of wool Sent from God Above.
He washed the child and wrapped him in a leaf.
Amazed beyond belief,
It’s a miracle, he said to Eve
For us to receive
A child who is one part yours and one part mine
Sent to us by God Divine.
They held each other’s hands to pray
To God for the blessing they received that day.
Thank you God for the gift of life
That grows from the love of husband and wife.
Eve cradled the babe in her soft, warm arms
And sang to him with all of her charms,
“May peace and goodness into your being flow,”
And the voice of God Whispered, “Let it be so.”
The First Family: Version Two
And it came to pass, when the number of humans expanded and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were appealing and they took them as wives. God Saw the wickedness of mortals was great and every idea they had was evil. Gen VI, 1–2, 5.
The Garden of Eden where two humans dwelled,
Was filled with sweet ambrosia they daily smelled,
What a time of grand delight,
Filling cups with joy by day and night.
The Creator Said,” Obey My laws
Stray not for any cause.”
But the humans tested the Divine Command,
And were sent away from the exotic land.
Together the humans worked the stubborn soil;
Blistered hands, reward for toil.
And when the land blossomed into flower,
They gave thanks to God’s All Mighty Power.
Adam and Eve loved each other.
First came Cain and then Abel, his brother.
Each brother planned his own survival
And soon became the other’s rival.
Cain farmed the land; Abel tended sheep.
Abel carded wool and Cain had grain to reap.
Each sought to be the one to be pleasing to God
And to be the only one God Would Laud.
One day in a fit of rage,
Which he could not curb or at all assuage,
Cain struck Abel upon the head.
Abel fell down and lay there dead.
God Wept for Abel, a righteous son,
And Scolded Cain for what he had done.
Cain heard the words, “It is wrong to smite
Whether one is wrong or another is right.”
But God Wept for Cain, a faithful son, too.
Whose act of murder he would always rue.
Sorrow to both at that moment were wed
But would never bring back Abel who lay there dead.
Cain then wandered from land to land
To find relief for his reprimand.
There were no words that would him console;
There was no mercy for his sullied soul.
Adam and Eve, filled with grief,
Grieved for their sons without relief.
Their sadness cast deep a spell forlorn,
Until to them another son was born.
Seth, their son, became heir to the land
Beyond the horizons his eyes had scanned.
In turn, he willed it to the-yet-to-be-born
The jewels who would God’s Crown adorn.
Endless Empty Echoes of Murder
When Cain and Abel were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother and murdered him. Gen IV, 8. The story is said to be based on the Sumerian legend of Inanna, chief goddess, which represent the conflict between farmers and ranchers. Dumuzi, belligerent god of the shepherds, competes for her attention with Enkimdu. the easy going god of the farmers. Enkimdu tells Dumuzi to marry Inanna and then wanders away. In another version of the legend Inanna has Dumuzi murdered.
The thematic similarities of the Sumerian and the Hebrew legends are inescapable. Themes of belligerence, placidity, and murder are present in both stories although Abel, the shepherd, is the pacific one and Cain wanders away. At another level this is an allegory of good and evil found in some form in many cultures.
According to the Qu’ran urged on by a raven Cain buried Abel. Cain regretted his action. [al-Ma’idah: 27–31], In the Gospel according to Matt XXV, 35 Abel, the first martyr, is regarded as righteous. He is also mentioned in the Canon of the Mass.
A tear dropped a million years ago from a mother’s eye
And fell into the sea of grief where mothers go to cry.
Eve, urmother of us all, having borne two sons in woe
Fed them from her milky breasts from which mother love did flow.
She taught them to accept God who Created everything
And from their abundant bounty a thanks offering to bring.
Abel offered fattened sheep; Cain, scraps of the field.
When God Favored Abel’s gift, a rage in Cain reeled.
Cain grabbed a pointed rock and crushed his brother’s skull.
Abel slumped to the ground- bloodied, lifeless, null.
Eve’s eyes filled up with tears, bitterly she cried.
He who swam inside her womb lay lifeless by her side.
Her fingers touched the bleeding wound, then caressed the breasts that fed
The innocent shepherd, Abel, now prostrate before her dead.
Cain reached out to touch her hand but, heartsick, she turned away in pain