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| Illustration showing Cain bringing a bunch of vegetables and Abel bringing a sheep to a bonfire. Image source. |
I've been reading the book "Text, Image, & Otherness in Children's Bibles" and I want to show you a quote from the chapter "Translating the Bible into Pictures" by Rubén R. Dupertuis. This chapter examines several comic-book-style adaptations of the story of Cain and Abel, from Genesis 4.
Here's a summary of the Cain and Abel story: Adam and Eve had 2 sons, Cain and Abel. Cain farmed vegetables and Abel was a shepherd. Both of them brought some of their produce/meat as an offering to God. God was pleased with Abel's offering, but not Cain's. Cain is mad about this, so he murders Abel.
Here's what Dupertuis says on page 282:
As translations these Bibles [the comic-book bibles discussed in this chapter] are clearly on the domesticating end of the spectrum, but that is precisely the point. The stated goal of these comics is, in some way or another, to make the Bible accessible and fun for children. Several aspects about how this is done are worth noting. What is portrayed, including how it is portrayed, is filtered through contemporary beliefs about what is appropriate for children. This includes the decision to turn stories full of ambiguity into clear articulations of contemporary morals. But since what is deemed appropriate social behavior varies, it is worth noting the different reasons given for God's refusal to accept Cain's sacrifice. Both the Comic Book Bible and Picture Stories emphasize Cain's lack of appropriate attitude and jealousy, while the Manga Bible highlights Cain's laziness and, in particular, his greed-- he simply did not give enough. Particular details may differ, but that these Bibles serve to reify contemporary values and morals places them squarely within the long tradition of children's Bibles (Bottigheimer 1996).
Wow, this line- "to turn stories full of ambiguity into clear articulations of contemporary morals."
Yeah, let's talk about this: Why didn't God accept Cain's offering? The bible doesn't say. No reason is given at all. (It does say, when Cain was angry about this, the Lord tells him, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" so probably this means there was *something* he had done wrong with his offering? Or maybe God was referring to how Cain was jealous of Abel.)
I remember when I read this story as a kid- I assumed the reason was that when people made a "sacrifice" in bible times, it had to involve killing an animal- if it was just vegetables, that didn't count. I remember thinking it was unfair to Cain because his work was in farming vegetables- he didn't *have* animals to sacrifice- how could God hold that against him? I don't really know where I got this fan theory from, not sure if I made it up myself or if I heard it from someone else.
But later I heard the fan theory that the reason God didn't accept Cain's offering was that Cain's heart wasn't right- that he was just grudgingly going through this ritual, without a genuine desire to serve God. This made more sense to me than the "God thinks vegetables don't count" idea, so I then believed this was probably the reason.
The children's bibles discussed in this chapter of "Text, Image, & Otherness" make very clear statements on what exactly Cain did wrong. They show Cain saying things like, "Abel is always sacrificing to God. Maybe this old plant will do for me." The bible itself is confusing on this, but these children's bibles completely get rid of that confusion, making it obvious that Cain is lazy or selfish or greedy or resentful or whatever they've decided his sin is. Whatever fan theory these modern writers have concerning the story of Cain and Abel.
The bible is confusing sometimes- it just is, that's just a fact- but we present it to kids like it's not confusing. Like it's all perfectly clear and understandable and reasonable. If you really think about it, this is bonkers- it was written thousands of years ago, in ancient languages, in a culture completely different from ours, sometimes using literary genres we don't even have any more- and we present it like it's all very easily understandable for us. Maybe we have a study bible which has little boxes on the pages that give historical background on some aspects of the text- there, there you go, read the little boxes and the bible is totally understandable.
Cain and Abel both brought sacrifices for God. God accepted Abel's but not Cain's. Why? What did God have against Cain? And we want to embellish the story, to fill it in with fan theories about what Cain did wrong, because we're scared that someone is going to read this story and think that God rejected Cain's offering for no real reason- that someone is going to think badly of God because of that. Christians who believe in biblical inerrancy are terrified of things like that. Someone might read the bible and understand it in the "wrong" way, oh no!
Christians are especially scared of this when we tell these stories to children.
Actually, I don't necessarily have a problem with embellishing the stories- this is unavoidable, really, if you're making a bible story into a whole illustrated book. What I really want, though, is to make a clear distinction between what the bible actually says, and what's fan fiction. I think a really cool way to do this would be to tell the same story multiple times, but with these "fan fiction" details different each time. I've never seen a children's bible that did that, but it would be cool!
The way that Christians write children's bibles is based on our ideas of what moral lessons *we* think children should learn. If something in the bible is confusing, we don't want to tell kids it's confusing- we want to spin it in a way that we can understand and accept it.
Why did God reject Cain's offering? We don't know. Really, we don't know. Obviously there are things we don't know about an ancient book.
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Posts about "Text, Image, & Otherness in Children's Bibles":
"Text, Image, & Otherness in Children's Bibles" (I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH)
David and Jonathan's (One-Sided) Friendship
Who Cut Samson's Hair? (a post about reading the bible for what it is)
The way we write children's bibles is "an act of bad faith"
Children's Bibles and the 2 Creation Stories
Children's Bibles and "presenting mass slaughter to children"
Children's Bibles and "turning ambiguity into clear articulations"
Children's Bibles and the Victims of the Flood
Related:
Reviews of Christian Children's Books
Everyone Else's Nadab and Abihu Fanfics
Why on Earth Did I Ever Expect the Bible to be Anything Other Than Incredibly Weird?