Blood of the Titans

I have already addressed the issue of God's completely unfair treatment of Cain and his then unfair punishment of Cain for slaying his brother in frustration. The rest of Genesis 4 has its own interest however. It goes on to list the lineage of Cain and Seth, Eve's replacement for her favorite son. It tells of so-and-so begatting so-and-so and the whole lineage of the created man rolling out to Abraham. 

     The reason I find this passage more interesting than the rest is because of the way that each subsequent generation is described. It reads more like the Olympian lineage than you would expect for a supposedly monotheistic religion. Jabal is the ancestor of all those who live in tents and raise livestock, while Jubal is the ancestor of all those who play the flute or the lyre.  Zeus knew Hera and she begat him Hephaestus, who was the ancestor of all those who bend the ores of the Earth to their will. These two sentences are nearly identical, displaying Adam's stock more as patron gods than actual people. This is either the incredibly pagan roots of Christianity coming through or as I've mentioned earlier the basis of an entirely new reading of the old testament through the lens of the Greek mythos.