Cain feared for his own life after killing Abel. He said, “I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me: (Gen. 4:14).1 But, the Lord replied, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold;” after that God “put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him” (Gen. 4:15). What is the mark that God placed put on Cain?
Lots of speculation has been made concerning the exact nature of Cain’s mark. It has been thought to be a birthmark, leprosy, a horn upon the forehead, a tattoo, being named “Cain,” a brightly colored coat, a dog for accompaniment, or a place of refuge (either a place of wandering or city built).2 All these proposals are interesting but none definitive.
What we know is the mark signified the Lord’s merciful protection over Cain. Gordon Wenham notes, “Like the clothing given to Adam and Eve in 3:21, the mark served a double function. It reminded Cain of his sin and assured him of God’s protection against potential enemies.”3 The exact nature of Cain’s mark is something best left as a mystery.
Did God turn Cain’s skin black? Racists have also given the most perverse interpretive spin on the mark of Cain to justify their racism. For example, Brigham Young, second prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints cult, said, “What is that mark? You will see it on the countenance of every African you ever did see upon the face of the earth, or ever will see…people that are commonly called negroes are the children of old Cain.”4 The belief that Black people were the seed of Cain became the basis for a long-standing policy prohibiting Black men from membership to the Latter-day Saints priesthood, which was only lifted in recent days.5
Such attempts to give divine sanction to racism were hardly confined to the heretical schismatics, but there were those identifying with the mainstream of Christianity propagating the same doctrinal errors. Some contended that “Cain, who was cursed for murdering his brother Abel, was placed in servitude and turned black (the mark set upon Cain—Gen. 4:13–15)” and that “Ham supposedly married a descendant of Cain, so that Ham’s son Canaan was doubly cursed.”6 Another variation on the same story is that “a curse was placed upon Ham because of his wickedness; this curse involved the servitude of his son Canaan to the descendants of Shem and Japheth. Thus all blacks are to be understood as under the curse of God, and slavery is justified because God intended it.”7 There were others who taught blacks were a different species of humans, and that “Adam is the father of only the white race.”8 Still others denied the full humanity of blacks, purporting them to be “two footed beasts,” who live today because they were among the soulless animals in the Ark distinct from Noah’s family, the eight souls saved.9
The abovementioned racist twisting of the Scriptures are abominations. They represent the imposition of a foreign idea, upon the sacred biblical text, a perverted one at that! Nothing about the mark of Cain and the curse of Ham suggests a change in skin tone and the perpetual enslavement of blacks. The esteeming of a person on the basis of race is never entertained in the Scriptures.
How different is the clear teachings from the Scriptures! Although God created humanity with the capacities for a diversity of color tones in skin, hair and irises, all people are the progeny of Adam and Eve. The Apostle Paul said that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26-27; cf. Gen. 1-11).
God’s way of bringing fallen humanity out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light is the through the Door — Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul tells us:
Remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Eph. 2:11-22).
Whether we are close to God through our spiritual heritage, as the Israelite descendants of Abraham, or among those scattered far away from the presence of the Lord, we all find ourselves estranged from God on account of sin, and reunion with God is only made possible through Christ. Neither Jew nor Gentile receive everlasting life on their own merits. They are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Racist distinctions ultimately come to an end at the foot of the cross.
All are invited into the community of Christ race, gender and class. Christians are to cease and desist from the former way of esteeming and showing partiality towards an individual on the basis of race, gender and class. “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26-28; cf. Acts 10-11; Rm. 10:5-21; 1 Cor. 12:12-13; Col. 3:1-17; Jas. 2:1-12). Racism pollutes the crystal-clear waters of the baptism received in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit., and whatever sacredness that belongs to the rite is defiled and what is meant to be holy becomes unholy.
Authentic Christianity never mixes at all with racism. It is not that professing Christians are immune to saying and doing racist things. Rather, they must put this sin to death. Christianity has always been about God drawing people from every nation into the kingdom of heaven through faith in Christ. It is a matter of fact that “the earliest Christians were mostly Near Easterners and Africans. There is no evidence of racial discrimination among blacks or any other racial groups in early Christianity.”10
When it comes to human nature, the color of skin, hair and irises are nonessential properties (i.e. accidents), and these bodily features can never be used to determine who is truly human. If there is anything essential to us being human it is the fact that we are created in the image of God. Because we are created in the image of God, each of us possesses intrinsic worth. We are ontologically equal to one another. No one person is of greater value than the rest. Each of us has value regardless of intelligence, wisdom, beauty, talent or status. We are valuable for just being humans created in the image of God.
The mark of Cain signifies God’s divine merciful protection upon the sinner. The nature of Cain’s mark is still a mystery. There is lots of speculation from Bible readers wanting to resolve the mystery, and while there are many ideas on the discussion table, it is difficult to be definitive on any of them. Racists purport the mark of Cain and the curse of Ham to be the black skin of people indigenous to Africa. However, this racist interpretation is really an illegitimate imposition of a foreign meaning upon the text and nothing that can be organically drawn out from the proper reading of the Scriptures. All humanity is the progeny of Adam and Eve. All people enter union with God through Christ. We yearn for a time when estrangement from God and the dehumanization of people comes to an end. The end begins with Christ. It is through Christ that we find the way to reconcile with God and others.
— WGN
- All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
- Cf. S. McKnight, Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, ed. T. Desmond Alexander and David W. Baker (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 109–110; John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Genesis, Vol. 2, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), 66.
- Gordon J. Wenham, New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 64.
- UTLM.org, “Brigham Young’s Speech on Slavery, Blacks, and the Priesthood,” http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/sermons_talks_interviews/brigham1852feb5_priesthoodandblacks.htm.
- Bill McKeever, “Unexplaining the Mormon Priesthood Ban on Blacks,” Christian Research Journal, 39, 1 [2016]: https://www.equip.org/article/unexplaining-mormon-priesthood-ban-blacks/
- Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology., 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1998), 560.
- Ibid., 560.
- Ibid., 560.
- Ibid., 560–561.
- Jeffrey Burton Russell, Exposing Myths About Christianity: A Guide to Answering 145 Viral Lies and Legends (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 101.
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