Sin Leads to Death

I would like to return to the essence of the Cain myth, namely fratricide. To understand it in all its drama, it is worth remembering that, according to the biblical story, Abel's is the first death in history. However, the logic of the story leads one to think that Adam should have died first, since God had threatened him with death if he ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam ate, Eve ate, and they lived on. It would seem that the serpent was right when he told them: "you will not die at all" (if you eat from the tree).

Here we play with a double meaning of the term "death": death as the end of existence; and death as separation from God. The death that sin produces is of a religious type: the break with God. Sin does not lead man to the grave. Rather, it destroys the relationship with God and with others and destroys him, because the person is built on the relationship. Its most tragic consequence is manifested in all cruelty in the murder of Abel at the hands of Cain. The first death of humanity is not a natural death, it is a homicide and a fratricide, since we are all brothers. The first to die is not Adam for having violated God's command, but Abel, an innocent.

The first experience of death was not produced by disobedience to the God we do not see, but by hatred of the brother we see. Since this does not enter into God's original project, it can be said with all truth that sin leads to death. To the physical death of the brother and to the spiritual death of the murderer. The death threats come from the brother. And I can receive the murder from the murderous brother or from the willful ignorance of the one who washes his hands, and also hypocritically wonders if he is the guardian of his brother.

Unfortunately, the story of Cain is still current, in the form of ruptures of all kinds: ambitions, violence, economies that harm the weak, wars whose objective is to obtain other people's wealth, or "death bonds”. The latest invention of the bank, in which the death wish of the insurance holder is explicit.