Evil multiplies
Adam ate the apple.
Cain killed his brother.
War ensued
God permitted hunting for food, but the weapons were so fascinating
that they wound up hunting people.
Blake painted a picture of Cain fleeing from what he had done:
The way Eve bent over backward reaching down to her dead son is
ironically reminiscent of an earlier picture of the snake. This picture
illustrates 'factual' affairs, but the one that will follow is in the eternal
mode.
Cain couldn't escape the Lord, and a conversation ensued:
The Lord said: where's Abel?
Cain: am I my brother's keeper?
He told Cain he was cursed, his life would be hard and he was now a
fugitive.
When Cain protested his fate, God said that whoever killed him would
suffer a seven fold vengeance.
In 1821 Lord Byron wrote an unorthodox drama called Cain: A
Mystery. Blake responded with a drama called The Ghost of Abel.
Bryon justified Cain as an act of rebellion against an unjust God.
Blake could not justify a murder; he separated the vengeance of
Elohim and the forgiveness of Jehovah; in Blake's 'history of God there
were several:
"they (the eternals) elected Molech, and when Molech was impatient
The Divine hand found the Two Limits: first of Opacity,
then of Contraction Opacity was named Satan, Contraction was named Adam.
Triple Elohim came: Elohim wearied fainted: they elected Shaddai. Shaddai angry, Pahad descended: Pahad terrified, they sent Jehovah And Jehovah was leprous; loud he call'd,
stretching his hand to Eternity"
(Erdman 187; plate 13 of Milton)
From Plate six of the First Book of Urizen
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