Evil multiplies
Adam ate the apple.
Cain killed his brother.
Ware 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 vengeance would be
taken seven fold against anyone who killed Cain .
Cain went to the Land of Nod and had a family.
When you look at that text poetically you perceive that God is
predicting a multiplying violence, which the rest of Genesis certainly
bears out.
In 1821 Lord Byron wrote an unorthodox drama called Cain: A
Mystery. In it he justified Cain's action as an act of rebellion against
an unjust God.
In 1822 Blake wrote a play about Abel called The Ghost of Abel;
He didn't feel that any act justifies murder. He separated the Diety
into a vindictive Elohim and a forgiving Jehovah.
From Plate six of the First Book of Urizen
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