Genesis 4:1 “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.”
The first child in this world wasn’t born until after his parents had been expelled from Eden, so it seems safe to deduce that Adam and Eve enjoyed their garden home for a relatively short time before they were overcome by the tempter — nine months at the most, and potentially much less — that is of course assuming that they didn’t postpone consummation of their marriage but hastened to obey God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply” (1:28).
As the text reads, Cain was named by his mom. His name means “acquired,” and she specified, “a man from the Lord.” Was Eve simply marveling at the miracle of procreation, or was she also hoping that this first child would be the promised “Seed of the woman?” As it turns out, the original Hebrew text provides fodder for a lively debate. The Hebrew word אֵת (‘êth, pronounced ayth), translated “from” in Genesis 4:1, is classified with two different numbers in Strong’s concordance, depending on whether the word is being used as a preposition or adverb (H854) or as a demonstrative “to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition” (H853). To break that down, Genesis 4:1 could be translated as either “I have gotten a man, the Lord” (demonstrative), or “I have gotten a man from/with/by the Lord” (preposition). How did the translators know which rendition to choose?
Interestingly, the exact same word אֵת appears two more times in Genesis 4:1, but it is omitted in the English translations the first two times because it clearly functions as a demonstrative:
“And Adam H121 knew H3045 אֵת ( H853 ) Eve H2332 his wife; H802 and she conceived, H2029 and bare H3205 אֵת (H853 ) Cain, H7014 and said, H559 I have gotten H7069 a man H376 from אֵת H854 the LORD. H3068”
The translators no doubt had other technical reasons, but it would also be easy for them to assume that the third instance of אֵת couldn’t be demonstrative simply because Cain obviously wasn’t the Lord! The inspired writer, however, is quoting what Eve said, and it comes in the immediate context of God’s promise about the Seed of the Woman. As the only woman alive at the time, could Eve be blamed for hoping that the promised Seed would be one of her children? What would you have thought? On the one hand, it would be well for us if we would take all of God’s promises so personally. On the other hand, like Eve, we often only partially understand God’s Word. With our finite, short-sighted perception, we fail to see the big picture and we misinterpret our roll in the divine plan. We want rapid solutions. May God grant us grace and patience to count His promises as realities in our lives by faith, even when they aren’t fulfilled in the way or at the time we had hoped or expected.
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