Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.” To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Genesis 4:25-26
Genesis 4:26 is widely understood to include the first reference to prayer in the Bible. But its meaning is ambiguous.
Various translators have made of this what they will, some rendering the verse in ways that mark the beginning of human prayer to God, the arrival of worship, even preaching. Others see here, at best, the hope of prayer1 to the Creator, later fulfilled in part when Abram builds an altar and calls upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 12:8). Still others interpret Genesis 4:26 as announcing the spread of profanity and idolatry. The International Standard Version follows rabbinical tradition in choosing the latter, as in, “At that time, profaning the name of the LORD began.”
A more literal translation is perhaps the most faithful to the complexity of this passage:
Then it was begun to call upon the name of the Lord.
Genesis 4:26
After all, by now we have already witnessed not only the cultivation of life and hope in the creation of the world but also another of the Bible’s prolific themes: murder, revenge and blood guilt.
In Genesis 4, the Biblical writer amplifies these oppositions, starting with Abel, earth’s first recorded shepherd. Here is the inaugural whisper of a Coming Christ in human flesh, so lovingly and speedily offered after the expulsion of Abel’s parents from Eden. Abel’s name likewise carries a message, its meaning “vapour” or “breath,” a life force again gifted by God and promptly suffocated by Abel’s brother Cain. Abel’s blood seeps into the mouth of the earth and closes off the earth’s strength from Cain. Indeed, the very voice of Abel’s blood cries out to God (v. 10).
This tension carries on painfully. In what follows, we learn of Cain’s retreat to the east of Eden, a place symbolising wandering and unrest, and the construction of the Bible’s first recorded city, Enoch. From Cain comes also Tubal-Cain, forger of all implements of bronze and iron, father of weapons, and Lamech, with his own “divinely competitive song of vengeance”.
And yet, as we are learning to expect, positioned against all this absurd frontiersmanship is the cheering advent through Adam of Seth the substitute and of Seth’s son, Enosh (which means mortal).
And so! Now, through somewhat dizzied vision, we spy in Genesis 4:26 this reference to prayer and therein the announcement of two houses. The first evokes a perversion of God’s name, a premonition of Babel, erected by men seeking a name for themselves, what Jesus later calls a den of thieves. And simultaneously presented is its counterpart, God’s house of prayer (Isa. 56:7, Mk. 11:17), occupied by those who long not for their own name but for the very name of God, whose essence is to be God (Ex. 3:13-14) and to do what he will do.
After all this, then, after Abel, after Abraham, through Jesus, the lifeblood of Christian prayer speaks (Heb. 11:4), crying out from the dust of this unjust earth, calling upon the name of our God, asking God to be God.
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
Isaiah 9:6-7
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
1“And Seth had a son, and he called his name Enos: he hoped to call on the name of the Lord God” (Genesis 4:26, Brenton’s Septuagint Translation)
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