Covenant Structure in Genesis 4 – Part 1

The Bible’s early chapters are frustratingly short on detail, leaving them open to much speculation. However, the interpretive keys are hidden in plain sight, which is especially important for understanding the accounts of Cain and Abel, and Lamech and Seth.

Introduction: A Literary Ziggurat

Most commentary on the events of Genesis 4 misses the mark because it disregards its covenant context and the related literary architecture. In its clever recapitulation of the concentric three-tiered structure of the primeval world, the sequence craftily describes the corruption—and also prefigures the destruction—of that world.

The first five chapters of Genesis follow the pattern of all biblical covenants. The events of Genesis 4 comprise the Oath/Sanctions step in that initial process, a sequence that is later recapitulated in the events of the Pentateuch.

The history from the Garden sin of Adam to the World sins of Lamech via the Land sin of Cain describes only a partial corruption of the original three-tiered “Tabernacle” established in Genesis 2.¹See Covenant Structure in Genesis 2. This cycle then becomes the “head” of a larger structure, the top level of an ever expanding historical-literary “ziggurat”:

1. Genesis 1 is the primary sequence.
2. Genesis 1-3 is the secondary sequence.²See Covenant Structure in Genesis 3.
3. Genesis 1-5 is the tertiary sequence.
4. Genesis 1-11 is the quaternary sequence.³See the chart in Nimrod in the Court of God.

The Succession of Shem in Genesis 11 ends the Creation step of biblical history and shifts us to Division via the call of Abraham. This four level literary “edifice” is the primeval version of the four major “testaments” of the Bible: Tent, Temple, Household (oikoumene), and City. Each step consists of a three-level construct that incorporates what has gone before but is expanded through the process of harvest represented in the Bible Matrix. Each expansion was achieved through a national judgment, death and resurrection of Israel. At each stage, what was previously the “World” was sown by God to became part of a greater “Land” until the original mountain filled the whole earth in physical terms. Of course, in Christ, that process is now occurring in spiritual terms (Daniel 2:35).

The Sacred “World” of Genesis 4

Genesis 4 itself contains a similar construct of concentric domains:

1. The Garden cycle describes the birth of the first sons of Adam (identity), their offerings (office), and the judgment upon their offerings.
2. The Land cycle incorporates the first but reaches to the judgment of Cain.
3. The World cycle incorporates the first two but describes the results of Cain’s sin in the foundation of a godless kingdom and the subsequent re-establishment of the primeval priesthood.

IN THE GARDEN

• The Garden cycle follows the fivefold covenant pattern, and each of its steps consists of three vertical levels that correspond to the three vertical tiers of the heavenly theoscape: Garden, Land, World. In terms of office, these are:

Word (God’s imperative – Most Holy Place – Throne)
Sacrament (Man’s submission to God – Holy Place – Legal Representatives)
Government (Man’s subsequent dominion on earth – Court of the Nation/s – Worshipers)

• This observation makes apparent what the sin of Cain actually was: the Sacrament (Priesthood) and Government (Kingdom) steps are in reverse order. Cain desired dominion of the earth without prior submission to God, and so sinned by making his offering before that of Abel. This is the “Land” expression of Adam’s sin in the Garden. If Adam had submitted to God regarding the “Government” tree, it would have been given to him as a gift. Consequently, even that which he had was taken away from him (Matthew 25:29): he lost not only the Tree of Wisdom (the role of judging as a wise king like Solomon) but also the Tree of Life, the “manna” of faithful priesthood.
• Because of Cain’s sin, there is no Succession step in this fivefold pattern — no “tabernacle” for the firstborn king. In terms of the fivefold dyads of the Ten Commandments, Cain would be denied what he had coveted—both “house” and “contents.”⁵For the 5 x 2 structure of the Ten Words, see God-in-a-Box.
• The sequence of the five books of the Pentateuch is also apparent, with the creation of Man (Genesis), the separation of Israel—the nation of shepherds—from Egypt in the land of Goshen (Exodus), the establishment of a new Edenic access to God (Leviticus), and the failure of the “Egyptian-hearted” generation of Israel, whose bodies fell in the wilderness (Numbers). This pattern then becomes the deep structure of the ministry of Christ and the Church in the first century, with the “Cainite” Herods destroyed—along with animal sacrifices—in the vengeance of all the “Abels” of history.

IN THE LAND

• The Garden cycle (fivefold covenant) then serves as the “head” of the Land cycle (sevenfold history). The same pattern can be observed in the Revelation, where the first major cycle ends with the ascension of the firstfruits lamb as the Covenant Head, resulting in a division between the true and false Jews, the murder of Stephen, and the gathering of the Covenant Body by the Spirit.
• This Land cycle recapitulates the Garden cycle of Adam, but here the sin is fratricide rather than the symbolic patricide committed by Adam. The pattern is then repeated at a greater scale in Genesis 1-11 where the seizing of godhood by Adam is committed in a corporate sense as the sons of Cain become “mighty men,” that is, kings on the earth (Genesis 6).
• Whereas the Succession step was missing in the Garden cycle, here Cain manufactures his fortress—an image of Government—in the Land instead of in the World. This leads to the “World” cycle of Genesis 4.

IN THE WORLD

• Thus, reflecting the liturgical nature of sacred architecture, Genesis 4 is a theoscape comprised of three concentric levels. However, if we observe the line-by-line literary structure, we can see that it also consists of three major linear cycles. We shall look at this structure in part 2.

If you are new to this method of interpretation, please visit the Welcome page for some help to get you up to speed.