Genesis 4:17–26 is not a historical account but a psychological allegory describing what happens when imagination is misused. Neville Goddard taught that the Bible is a great psychological drama playing out in the minds of individuals. Cain, Abel, Lamech, and Seth are not people — they are states of consciousness representing internal movements within us all.
Cain Builds a City: The Fixation on External Identity
Cain, the one who "rose up and slew his brother," symbolises a misuse of the creative power — imagination turned outward and against itself. Abel, whose name is related to breath or spirit, represents the invisible power of assumption — the unseen inner feeling of fulfilment. When Cain "kills" Abel, the story is describing how one state of mind (resentment, fear, guilt, or doubt) suppresses the natural function of imagination, replacing it with worry, logic, or survivalism.
To build a city means to harden a belief system — to establish fixed assumptions about reality based on the outer world rather than inner truth. Cain's city is the mind projecting itself outward and getting lost in what it creates. It’s the world of facts, appearances, and inherited reactions — built after imagination has been denied.
The Descendants: The Fruits of a Misguided Assumption
Cain's lineage — Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain — symbolise the unfolding of imagination used without inner awareness:
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Jabal represents the belief in physical provision — the assumption that survival depends on external structure (livestock, tents, possessions).
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Jubal reflects the turn toward artificial expressions of joy and sorrow — music not as spiritual upliftment, but as distraction.
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Tubal-Cain, a forger of tools, points to the crafting of mental strategies and mechanisms for control — using the imagination mechanically, in service of fear and defence.
Each character reveals how the creative power, once detached from the spiritual awareness of "I AM", descends into invention without transformation — a world shaped by reaction rather than conscious assumption.
Lamech: The Echo Chamber of Justified Violence
Lamech’s speech reveals the intensification of self-justification: “I have slain a man for wounding me...” This isn’t about a literal killing — it’s a symbolic outburst of the ego’s growing spiral of defence. When imagination is corrupted by false assumptions — “I’ve been hurt, so I must strike back” — violence (inner or outer) becomes rationalised.
The number “seventy-sevenfold” represents the deepening of this pattern — how unchecked reactive states multiply in the imagination and create entire inner worlds of resentment, inferiority, comparison, and judgement. This is the psychological legacy of Cain: mental constructs that justify themselves and perpetuate separation from the true self.
Seth: The Return of Inner Awareness
But then comes Seth, meaning “appointed” — a new beginning. He symbolises the return of inner awareness, the birth of conscious assumption. Through Seth, “men began to call upon the name of the Lord” — in Neville’s terms, this means reawakening the awareness that “I AM” is the only creative power.
This marks a spiritual reorientation: no longer is imagination projected outward in blame or fear. Instead, the mind turns inward, assumes the feeling of the wish fulfilled, and begins again to create from within. This is the psychological resurrection of Abel — imagination restored, no longer buried under Cain’s defensive constructs.
Conclusion: The City Within
Genesis 4:17–26 is the story of what happens when the power of imagination is misused, misdirected, and misunderstood. It shows how internal assumptions become external facts, and how the loss of inner direction leads to cycles of reaction and self-justification.
Yet it also reveals that a shift is always possible. Seth is born. The power to assume consciously — to turn away from reaction and deliberately choose our inner state — is always present. As Neville said, “Change your conception of yourself and you will automatically change the world in which you live.”
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