This week's Paper Pulpit has been written by Grant Wetherall, Director of Jewish Insights

Genesis 4: 23-24: Then Lamech said to his wives: "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."

The sages term this story as Lamech's plea. According to the sages, Lamech was blind and his son Tubal Cain used to lead him. One day, Tubal-Cain saw Cain and, mistaking him for an animal, he bade his father to shoot an arrow, which killed Cain.

When Lamech realised he had killed Cain, he beat his hands together in grief and accidentally struck his son, killing him too. This incident angered his wives who refused to live with him, and he tried to appease them. He demanded that they obey him and come back, for, he asked since he had not killed intentionally, could he be considered a murder?

As to their fears that God would punish him, he contented, "If the punishment of Cain, an intentional murderer, was delayed until the seventh generation, surely my punishment would be deferred many times seven because I killed accidentally."

He used the number seventy-seven to denote many times seven (i.e. a long period, not meaning exactly seventy-seven.) (Rashi.)

In Matthew 18: 21-22, we have a similar picture where the Apostle Peter asks the Lord Jesus: "How many times I should forgive my brother's sin against me?" Alluding to Genesis chapter 4: 23-24, Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." Jesus then goes on to talk about true forgiveness (Matthew 18: 23-35) and the cost to oneself if you don't.

So in order to answer the above question on the meaning of true forgiveness, Jesus sets the supreme example on the cross at Calvary, and by also saying to those around Him, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23: 34).