Genesis
4:16 ¶ And Cain went out from the
presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
17 And Cain knew his wife; and she
conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the
city, after the name of his son, Enoch. 18
And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael
begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.
As the pre-Flood
geography would be impossible to know now where the land of Nod is would be
impossible to determine although one would suspect, if one believed that Eden
would have been located where God’s beloved Promised Land is, that Nod would
have been in that nursery of great ancient civilizations, Mesopotamia. Although
whatever Cain had built would have been destroyed in the Flood it could have
been in the same general vicinity as the great cities that came after.
Cain’s wife, who
would have been his sister as genetically humanity had just begun its slow
deterioration that lent deleterious mutations to every generation and made
sexual union between brother and sister very dangerous today for their
offspring, gave him a son named Enoch, whose name was given to this first city.
Here is the
birthplace of ancient religion as the
ancient city was a religious entity, a type of church, started all at once with
invited families who would share in the same worship and the same gods,
although the individual family would have its own singular worship and gods
which represented their lars familiaris or familiar spirits (see Leviticus
20:27), the guiding divinities of ancestors dead.[1] It is likely that Cain’s false religion was
carried on and evolved through his city.
Jeremiah 11:13 For according
to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the
streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even
altars to burn incense unto Baal.
In addition, each home in the ancient world was to have a sacred flame
which was the religious center of the home and must not be permitted to go out.[2]
This eternal flame, like the lamp in the tabernacle in Exodus 27:20, must never
go out. This was a counterfeit city in the ancient world, a city of man’s
creation, man’s poor attempt to replace what God intended. Cain’s false
religion, which will infect the rest of human history even after the Flood,
would have begun to be expressed by his brethren in this city, Enoch, and the
eventual religion of the city-states of Canaan, Greece, and the worship of Rome
and India would have begun here.
The king of an
ancient city was also the high priest, who offered up sacrifices, and was the
highest religious authority. This is evident in a number of ancient writers
such as Aristotle, Euripides, and Demosthenes.[3] Sometimes there were two
kings, a most famous example being Sparta of Greece or, and evidence suggests
this in ancient Rome with a high-priest as a king for religious purposes, and,
we will see later, perhaps in ancient Canaan. My point is that the roots of
ancient worship were probably planted by Cain in this first city as a pattern
for future civilization.
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