John Calvin Commentary Genesis 4:1

"And the man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with [the help of] Jehovah." — Genesis 4:1 (ASV)

And Adam knew his wife Eve. Moses now begins to describe the propagation of mankind. In this history, it is important to notice that this blessing of God, Increase and multiply, was not abolished by sin. Not only that, but Adam’s heart was divinely strengthened so that he did not shrink with horror from producing offspring.

And just as Adam recognized, at the very beginning of having offspring, the truly paternal moderation of God’s anger, so he was later compelled to taste the bitter fruits of his own sin when Cain slew Abel.

But let us follow Moses’ narrative. Although Moses does not state that Cain and Abel were twins, it still seems probable to me that they were. For, after he has said that Eve, by her first conception, brought forth her firstborn, he soon after adds that she also bore another. Thus, while mentioning a double birth, he speaks of only one conception. Let those who think differently enjoy their own opinion. To me, however, it seems consistent with reason that, when the world had to be filled with inhabitants, not only Cain and Abel should have been brought forth at one birth, but many others also later, both males and females.

I have gotten a man. The word Moses uses signifies both to acquire and to possess; and it is of little importance to the present context which of the two you choose. It is more important to inquire why she says that she has received את יהוה (eth Yehovah). Some explain it as ‘with the Lord’—that is, ‘by the kindness, or by the favor, of the Lord’—as if Eve were attributing the accepted blessing of offspring to the Lord, as it is said in Psalm 127:3, The fruit of the womb is the gift of the Lord. A second interpretation amounts to the same thing: ‘I have possessed a man from the Lord’; and Jerome’s version has similar force: ‘Through the Lord.’ These three readings, I say, tend to this point: that Eve gives thanks to God for having begun to raise up posterity through her, though she was deserving of perpetual barrenness, as well as of utter destruction.

Others, with greater subtlety, explain the words as ‘I have gotten the man of the Lord,’ as if Eve understood that she already possessed that conqueror of the serpent who had been divinely promised to her. Therefore, they celebrate Eve’s faith because she embraced, by faith, the promise concerning the bruising of the head of the devil through her seed. However, they think she was mistaken about the person or individual, because she restricted to Cain what had been promised concerning Christ.

To me, however, this seems to be the true meaning: while Eve congratulates herself on the birth of a son, she offers him to God as the first-fruits of his race. Therefore, I think it should be translated, ‘I have obtained a man from the Lord,’ which more closely approaches the Hebrew phrase. Moreover, she calls a newborn infant a man because she saw the human race renewed, which both she and her husband had ruined by their own fault.