Hi Iris,
I really have come to appreciate researching the different translations and their capacity to open up understanding by offering different nuances to the root words, Strong's is helpful but we can see the bias poking through the definitions at times.
Marques, ChuckT's post has really stirred me to dig a bit deeper into his question "what do yall think the mark was that cain recieved?"
First thing I did was check for others that received a mark of protection from God I found a very compelling one in Ezekiel;
Eze 9:4 And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark8420 upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
Look at how this "mark" is defined;
H8420
תּו
tâv
tawv
From H8427; a mark; by implication a signature: - desire, mark.
In Genesis 4:15 the "mark" is rooted by another set of definitions;
H226
אות
'ôth
oth
Probably from H225 (in the sense of appearing); a signal (literally or figuratively), as a flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence, etc.: - mark, miracle, (en-) sign, token.
They don't really cancel each other out but in a backhanded way actually complement each other, the other thing about the Ezekiel "mark" is that it is also the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet, this is very interesting!
Taw (taw 2496a) means mark, and its verb (tawa 2496), scribble, limit, is probably derived from the noun. TWOTOT suggests that the more ancient form of this letter looked like an X, a shape which lends itself easily as a general mark. The word (ta'awa 2496b) means boundary (that which is marked). The verb is used only once in the meaning of pain or wound (tawa 2497) in Ps 78:41.
Looked like an X......................... a cross maybe?
I love researching this stuff!
Peace,
Joe