What's New
July 2026
New article: “The Book of Revelation” (Revelation).
New article: “The Letters to the Seven Churches” (Revelation).
New article: “The Liturgy of Heaven” (Revelation).
New article: “The Woman, the Dragon, and the Lamb” (Revelation).
New article: “Babylon and the Judgment” (Revelation).
New article: “The New Jerusalem” (Revelation).
New article: “The Catholic Letters” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of James” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of Peter” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of John” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of Jude” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Book of Acts” (Acts).
New article: “Pentecost” (Acts).
New article: “The Church of the First Days” (Acts).
New article: “The Gospel to the Nations” (Acts).
New article: “To the Ends of the Earth” (Acts).
New article: “The Book of Hosea” (Hosea).
New article: “The Book of Micah” (Micah).
New article: “The Book of Jonah” (Jonah).
New article: “The Book of Habakkuk” (Habakkuk).
New article: “The Book of Zephaniah” (Zephaniah).
New article: “The Book of Malachi” (Malachi).
New article: “The Book of Daniel” (Daniel).
New article: “Faith in the Trial” (Daniel).
New article: “The Kingdoms That Pass” (Daniel).
New article: “The Son of Man and the Resurrection” (Daniel).
New article: “Susanna and the Wisdom of God” (Daniel).
New article: “The Book of Jeremiah” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Jeremiah, the Tested Prophet” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The New Covenant” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Fall of Jerusalem and the Lamentations” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Baruch and the Hope of Exile” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Song of Songs” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Movement of Love” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Garden of Symbols” (Song of Songs).
New article: “Love Strong as Death” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Senses of the Song” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Book of Job” (Job).
New article: “The Prologue and the Trial” (Job).
New article: “Job and His Friends” (Job).
New article: “God’s Answer” (Job).
New article: “My Eyes Have Seen You” (Job).
New article: “The Book of Ecclesiastes” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Quest for Happiness” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “A Time for Everything” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Joy That Is God’s Gift” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “Remember Your Creator” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Book of Wisdom” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Righteous, the Wicked, and Immortality” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, the Breath of God” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, Guide of History” (Wisdom).
New article: “Knowing God and the Folly of Idols” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Book of Sirach” (Sirach).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord, Source of Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “Wisdom and the Law” (Sirach).
New article: “The Choice of Life and Everyday Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “The Praise of the Ancestors” (Sirach).
New article: “The Book of Proverbs” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord and the Two Ways” (Proverbs).
New article: “Personified Wisdom” (Proverbs).
New article: “Wisdom for Daily Life” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Valiant Woman” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Psalter, Prayer of Israel” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Supplication and Trust” (Psalms).
New article: “The Royal and Messianic Psalms” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Ascents and Wisdom” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms on the Lips of Christ” (Psalms).
New article: “The Crisis and the Profanation of the Temple” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Eleazar and the Seven Brothers” (2 Maccabees).
New article: “Judas Maccabeus and the Dedication of the Temple” (1-2 Maccabees).
New article: “Jewish Independence” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Tobit” (Tobit).
New article: “Judith” (Judith).
New article: “Esther” (Esther).
New article: “The Return and the House of God” (Ezra).
New article: “Ezra and the Return to the Law” (Ezra, Nehemiah).
New article: “Nehemiah and the Rebuilt City” (Nehemiah).
New article: “Samuel and the Rise of Kingship” (1-2 Samuel).
New article: “Saul and the Rise of David” (1 Samuel).
New article: “David, the Covenant, and the Promise” (2 Samuel).
New article: “Solomon and the Temple” (1 Kings).
New article: “The Schism and the Northern Kingdom” (1-2 Kings).
New article: “Judah until the Exile” (2 Kings, 2 Chronicles).
New article: “The Entry into the Promised Land” (Joshua).
New article: “The Division of the Land and the Covenant at Shechem” (Joshua).
New article: “The Time of the Judges” (Judges).
New article: “In Those Days There Was No King” (Judges).
New article: “Ruth the Moabite” (Ruth).
New article: “Abraham, Father of Believers” (Genesis).
New article: “Isaac and Jacob” (Genesis).
New article: “Joseph” (Genesis).
New article: “The Creation and the Rest” (Genesis).
New article: “The Garden and the Fall” (Genesis).
New article: “From Cain to Babel” (Genesis).
New article: “Personal Responsibility” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Ministry of the New Covenant” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Collection for the Saints” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “Strength in Weakness” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Decalogue.”
New article: “The Law of the Neighbor.”
New article: “The Law of Worship and Holiness.”
New article: “The Law and Christ.”
New article: “The Law, Gift of the Covenant.”
New article: “Freedom and idols” (1 Corinthians 8-10).
New article: “The charisms and the assembly” (1 Corinthians 12 and 14).
New article: “The Cardinal Virtues”.
New article: “Prudence”.
New article: “Temperance”.
The French Bible of the site is now the Chérubin translation, with section headings in the reader.
New article: “Resentment and Forgiveness”.
New article: “Judging One’s Neighbour”.
New article: “The New Temple and the River of Life” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Restoration of Israel” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Oracles Against the Nations” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Symbolic Actions and the Judgment of Jerusalem”.
New article: “Ezekiel, the Prophet of the Exile”.
New article: “Anger and Meekness”.
New article: “Love”.
New article: “The Desire to Feel the Spirit”.
New article: “The Dark Night of the Soul”.
June 2026
New article: “Consolation and Desolation”.
New article: “Discerning the Movements of the Heart”.
New article: “The Fall of Nineveh”.
New article: “The God Who Judges and Who Saves”.
New article: “Nahum and the Assyrian Empire”.
New article: “Justice, the Day of the Lord, and Hope”.
New article: “The Visions and the Rejected Worship”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and of Israel”.
New article: “Amos, the Shepherd Prophet”.
New article: “The Glory of the Second Temple”.
New article: “The Four Oracles”.
New article: “Haggai and the Rebuilding of the Temple”.
New article: “The Expansion of Christianity”.
New article: “All Under Sin”.
New article: “The Epistle to the Romans”.
New article: “Sinai and the covenant”.
New article: “The deliverance”.
New article: “The bondage and the call”.
New article: “The oracles against the nations”.
New article: “Sadness”.
New article: “Fear”.
New article: “The finger of God”.
New article: “The baptism of Christ”.
New article: “The Resurrection and the Glorification”.
New article: “Holy Week”.
New article: “The third year: the opposition”.
New article: “The second year: popularity”.
New article: “The first year: the inauguration”.
New article: “The preparation for the ministry”.
New article: “The prologues and the coming of Christ”.
New: the “Memorise” tool.
New article: “The Real Presence.”
New article: “The four Servant Songs”.
New article: “Trito-Isaiah”.
New article: “Deutero-Isaiah”.
New article: “Proto-Isaiah”.
New article: “Predestination”.
New article: “The Angel of the Lord”.
New article: “Wars of Extermination in the Bible”.
New article: “Slavery in the Bible”.
New article: “The Nature of God”.
New article: “The Age of the Martyrs”.
New article: “The Abode of the Dead”.
New article: “The Canon and the Deuterocanonical Books”.
New article: “The Deacon”.
New article: “The Priest”.
New article: “Sola Scriptura”.
New article: “The Angels”.
New article: “Sola Fide”.
New article: “Once Saved, Always Saved”.
New article: “Elijah at Horeb”.
New article: “Turning the Other Cheek”.
New article: “Buy a Sword”.
New article: “Let the Dead Bury Their Dead”.
New article: “Jesus before Pilate”.
New article: “Jesus and Nicodemus”.
New article: “Invincible Ignorance”.
New article: “The Prophet and His Time”.
New article: “The Eight Night Visions”.
New article: “Joshua, the Branch and the Crown”.
New article: “Fasting and Restoration”.
New article: “First Oracle: The King Who Comes”.
New article: “The Book of Obadiah”.
New article: “Second Oracle: The Pierced One”.
New article: “The Day of the Lord”.
New article: “The Plague and the Day of the Lord”.
New article: “Conversion and the Spirit Poured Out”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and the Salvation of Zion”.
New article: “The Three Ways of the Interior Life”.
New article: “Freedom and Responsibility”.
New article: “The Moral Conscience”.
New article: “Doubt and the Moral Systems”.
New article: “Doing Evil for a Good”.
New article: “Adoration and Praise”.
New article: “Why God Asks for Adoration”.
New article: “Faith and Science”.
New article: “The Theory of Evolution”.
New article: “The Woes of Isaiah”.
New article: “The Dwelling, the Priesthood and the Sacrifices”.
New article: “The Forty Years in the Desert”.
New article: "The Discourses of Moses".
New article: "The Death of Moses".
Sign in
or

From Cain to Babel

Driven from the garden, man enters a history in which sin, once entered, never ceases to grow. The chapters that run from Cain to the flood, then to Babel, show evil spreading from generation to generation, from the murder of a brother to the corruption of the whole earth, and God answering it by turns with judgment and with mercy. This long night prepares, in hollow, the dawn of a salvation: the call of one man, Abraham, through whom all the nations will be blessed.

Cain and Abel

The first generation after the fall gives the first murder, and it is between two brothers. Cain and Abel each offer to God; the offering of Abel, the shepherd, is accepted, that of Cain is not, and Cain conceives from it a jealousy that gnaws at his face. God warns him still, as one holds back a raised hand: evil is a crouching beast that he can overcome. “if you do not do well, sin is crouching at your door: it desires you, but you must master it.” Genesis 4:7 Cain does not master it; he lures his brother into the fields and kills him. Then, questioned by God, he adds to the murder lying and indifference. “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis 4:9 But the blood shed does not keep silent before God. “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” Genesis 4:10 Yet, even in the sentence that exiles him, God protects the murderer himself, setting on him a mark so that no one may kill him in turn: justice is already mingled with mercy. “the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who met him would strike him down.” Genesis 4:15 From the descendants of Cain is born a line in which violence swells still further, up to Lamech, who boasts of killing for a mere wound. Abel, for his part, the just man killed out of jealousy, whose blood cries to God, is the first figure of the martyrs, and already the shadow of Christ, whose shed blood will cry out louder still, not for vengeance but for pardon.

The Flood and the Covenant with Noah

From Cain to his descendants, violence swells, until evil covers the whole earth. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that his heart conceived nothing but evil.” Genesis 6:5 Before this corruption, God decides a judgment, the flood, which wipes away a creation become unlivable; but he saves a just man, Noah, with his family and the pairs of animals, in an ark that passes through the waters. “Noah was a righteous and blameless man among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God.” Genesis 6:9 The flood is not only chastisement: it is also a passage, the waters that engulf the ancient world bearing the ark toward a world begun anew, which the tradition will read as a figure of baptism, where water makes sin die and a new life be born. When the dove released by Noah returns with an olive branch, it announces peace restored between heaven and earth. “there in its beak it held a fresh olive leaf. Noah then knew that the waters had gone down on the earth.” Genesis 8:11 The waters withdrawn, God makes with Noah and all the earth a covenant, the first, and he gives a sign of it in the sky. “I set my bow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” Genesis 9:13 This covenant tells the patience of God, who, knowing the heart of man, henceforth gives up destroying, and who, in forbidding the shedding of blood, restates the sacred worth of a life made in his image. “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, for the heart of man is inclined to evil from his youth.” Genesis 8:21

Babel and the Dispersion

After the flood, men multiply, but pride is born again with them. They set out to build a city and a tower whose top would touch the sky, to make a name for themselves by themselves and to stay united in their own glory, without God. “let us build ourselves a city, with a tower whose top touches the sky. Thus we will make a name for ourselves, and we will not be scattered.” Genesis 11:4 It is the reverse of the vocation received: instead of receiving a name from God and filling the earth as he had blessed them to do, man wants to make himself his own god and to fold back upon himself. God answers by confusing their language, so that they no longer understand one another, and they scatter of themselves over the whole earth. “let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they no longer understand one another.” Genesis 11:7 The very name of Babel, which Hebrew links to the verb balal, “to confuse,” remains the seal of every unity built against God, which turns fatally into division. This confusion of tongues will one day be reversed at Pentecost, when the Spirit will make all peoples understand one single word, no longer the pride that divides, but the Gospel that gathers.

From the Dispersion to the Call

Thus ends the history of the origins: begun in a garden, it ends in dispersion, humanity scattered into peoples and tongues, turned away from God. Evil has shown its full extent, from the first couple to the whole earth, and each time God joined to the judgment a door of salvation, a mark on Cain, an ark for Noah, a renewed patience. But it is upon this dark background that the design of God takes a new turn. Instead of saving the world all at once, he chooses to call one single man, to draw him from his kindred and his country, and to make of him the source of a blessing for all the nations that Babel had scattered. The long night of the fall calls for a dawn, and this dawn has a name: Abraham. The history of salvation, properly speaking, begins there.