A sermon by Rev. Douglas Olds

Point Reyes (CA) Community Presbyterian Church

August 27, 2023

Readings: Genesis 4:1-16

                Luke 8: 42b-48

Audio of Sermon [click]

Three English translations of Gen. 4:11:

Gen 4:11 (NASB,  NRSV) Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

 

Gen 4:11 (NIV) Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

 

Gen 4:11 (NJPS) Therefore, you shall be more cursed than the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

 The chiasm in Genesis 4:10-11:

pattern A-B-X-b-A featuring repetition of the A members and recurrent vocal patterns amidst the B and b members, with the central pivot at “curse”

 

 

מן-האדמה

 

                                                                                                           ועתה

 

                                                                                          ארור

 

                                                                                                            אתה

 

מן-האדמה       

 

For more information on the Hebrew structure and meaning of Gen. 4:11:

Olds, Rev Douglas. “Crying in the Wilderness of Mammon: Expect Something New: Messianic Predictions and Advent in 1st C Judea.” Crying in the Wilderness of Mammon (blog), December 13, 2014. https://douglasolds.blogspot.com/2014/12/expect-something-new-messianic.html.

Reprinted as Appendix V in Olds, Douglas. Architectures of Grace in Pastoral Care: Virtue as the Craft of Theology beyond Strategic and Authoritative Biblicism (2023) https://t.ly/PvMl