Genesis 4:1–16
Commented [AM1]: The story may carry an historical
4 Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have memory of conflict between nomadic herders and
produced a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel farmers, but the story-teller is interested in the
was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain relationship between these two brothers as they seek to
live midst, the complexities, the ambiguities and the
brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel for his part demands of life outside of Eden.
brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for
Commented [AM2]: In Gen. 32:20 minḥá also takes on
Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was the added meaning of “tribute” and describes a present
very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and made to secure or retain goodwill. As such, it is a tribute
why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if brought by subjects to their overlords, be the latter
divine (Gen. 4:3–4) or human (Judg. 3:15–18).
you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master
Commented [AM3]: The two brothers are briefly
it.” described bringing their offerings to th LORD.
8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the
This establishes the scene for the portrayal of the first
field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to murder, which is both fratricide and a religiously
motivated act of violence.
Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s
keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is Commented [AM4]: The story does nothing to answer
the question we would perhaps like it to provide an
crying out to me from the ground! 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which answer to, and that is the question of why God preferred
has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till Abel’s offering to that of Cain’s.
the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a - SURELY it was God’s choice of one offering over the
other that led to Cain’s violence in the first place??
wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can - Does God prefer sheep to grain?
bear! 14 Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your "There seems to be no obvious distinction between the
face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may two offerings. A fruit or vegetable offering is neither
superior nor inferior to an animal offering."
kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a
sevenfold vengeance.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came - Was Cain destined to be rejected by God and Abel
upon him would kill him. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and accepted? ...
settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Commented [AM5]: Motivatd by jealousy.
Chrysostom: “not just that he alone had been rejected but
also that his brother’s gift had been accepted.” ...
THEMES: FREEDOM, SIN, LAW, AND GRACE.
Commented [AM6]: Of course, it is easy for depression
to turn into anger, and specifically anger directed at those
The Downward Spiral of Sin who are the real or illusory cause of one’s depression.
Two Brothers go to worship. One becomes a murder victim, the other an outcast. This Commented [AM7]: Sin is described as wild animal
is how Genesis traces the downward spiral of humankind outside Eden under the ready to devour Cain. The same language is used by the
influence of sin. Apostle Peter when he warns the early community of ...
Commented [AM8]: 8 Discipline yourselves, keep alert.
Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls
The way the story of Abel’s murder is told parallels the story of Adam and Eve’s around, looking for someone to devour.
disobedience in the Garden.
Commented [AM9]: "The sense of the Hebrew form
Just as God warned Adam not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, God warns Cain to (2nd masc. sing. imperfect) is ambiguous; it may be read
master the impulse to sin that is waiting to overpower him. as a promise (“you shall master it”), as a command (“you
After Adam and Eve’s disobedience God turns up like a judge at a law court. The same must master it”), or as an invitation (“you may master it”).
...
takes place after Abel’s murder as God questions Cain, “Where is your brother?” Commented [AM10]: Cain’s murder of Abel is over in
less than two lines...
Cain, like Adam and Eve faces an exile, though Cain’s exile, unlike that of his parents Those translations that borrow from the Greek
that only sees them depart the Garden, sees him driven away from the Presence of Septuagint rather than the original Hebrew emphasise ...
God. Commented [AM11]: God appears now as judge just as
he did when Adam and Eve hid from him following their
The Characters disobedience.
Abel: Hevel (meaning vapour or breath) is the word we have translated in Commented [AM12]: "Again we hear in the narrative
the voice of both law and grace. Sin cannot be ignored or
Ecclesiastes as, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity”. In other words, even before Abel is justified. Cain must pay a penalty for his actions. But the
murdered we are given a clue that his life will pass without significance, like a vapour. God who pronounces the sentence also makes available ...
Commented [AM13]: Cain does not end up wandering
the earth, instead he settles in the Land of Nod and builds
a city. In this way Genesis makes a connection between ...
Jesus taught that the death of Abel was the beginning of the A-Z history of all those
who were persecuted and killed for their faith. The Letter to the Hebrews lists Abel,
with Enoch and Noah among the ancient heroes of faith. The letter to the Hebrews
also started a tradition of interpretation that perceived in Abel a sign of the blood that
Jesus would shed on the cross in order to establish a new covenant between God and
humankind. A few hundred years later the North African theologian, Augustine of
Hippo described Adam as a representative of God’s Heavenly City. In Genesis, Abel is
simply the second son, a herdsman, whose name predicts how soon he will pass
away.
The story teller of Genesis however shows very little interest in Abel...
Cain:
The LORD: God in this episode demonstrates both judgement and compassion. If the
story is in anyway about faith it is about the faithfulness of God rather than the
faithfulness of men.
Violence in the Name of Religion
One common reason people give for not wanting to commit in any way to faith in God
is the history of religious conflict and violence. God, or at least belief in God, is blamed
for the vast majority of war and disagreement in the world.
Whether such criticism or concern is valid can be left for another time and place, but
Bible itself is quite upfront that the first recorded act of human violence had a
religious motive. Cain murdered his brother Abel because he was jealous that Abel’s
worship offering was accepted by God whereas his own offering was not.
Cain seeks to have control over the world. He relates to the world, including God, in
terms of what will help him and what will prevent him from attaining control.
Why God Rejects Cain’s Offering
The story does nothing to answer the question we would perhaps like it to provide an
answer to, and that is the question of why God preferred Abel’s offering to that of
Cain’s.
- SURELY it was God’s choice of one offering over the other that led to Cain’s violence
in the first place??
- Does God prefer sheep to grain?
"There seems to be no obvious distinction between the two offerings. A fruit or
vegetable offering is neither superior nor inferior to an animal offering."
- Was Cain destined to be rejected by God and Abel accepted?
- Did God reject Cain because he was careless selecting his offering; as Ephrem the
Syrian suggests it was immature grain or fruit in comparison with the first of the
fatlings of the flock that Abel offered.
For those who must have an answer to this question:
- Origen: “In the case of Cain his wickedness did not begin when he killed his brother.
For even before that God, who knows the heart, had no regard for Cain and his
sacrifice. But his baseness was made evident when he killed Abel.”
- Similar to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “The reason God rejected Cain’s offering becomes
clear in the words stated immediately after: “Cain became very angry and depressed”
(Genesis 4:5). Imagine the following: you offer someone a gift. Politely, they refuse it.
How do you respond? There are two possibilities. You can ask yourself, “What did I do
wrong?” or you can be angry with the intended recipient. If you respond in the first
way, you were genuinely trying to please the other person. If the second, it becomes
retrospectively clear that your concern was not with the other but with yourself. You
were trying to assert your own dominance by putting the other in your debt: the so-
called “gift relationship."
An Epilogue
Cain’s offspring are destined to live in separation from both God and the ground; they
are the ones who will build cities, develop technology and the economics of trade in
order to survive in the hostile conditions East of Eden. They are driven by the same
impulse we are to see later in Genesis when after the flood the people try to build a
tower into heaven in order to be like gods.
Genesis presents us with the troubling realisation that much of what we celebrate as
progress is in fact driven by an ungodly human desire for control and power over the
world and one another. That power-play can rear its ugly head in family life, in
politics, in the market place and in religious life.
In Life East of Eden there is still religion but it lies beyond the Presence of God. It is a
world of human striving, struggle and success, where the powerful rule regardless of
the human cost. East of Eden the degraded earth is a silent witness to selfishness,
bloodshed and greed.
Seth’s offspring represent a different path for humankind, one in which people
continue to serve and worship God. Seth had a son who he named Enosh, which is
another Hebrew word for “Man” that emphasises our frailty and mortality. It is from
the time of Enosh Genesis tells us that people began to invoke the name of the LORD.
It holds the promise
Dangerous Religion
The fashionable critics of Christianity sometimes point to the history of religious wars
and conflict as one big reason not to believe in God.
The criticism against religious violence is not one that the Bible tries to argue with. In
fact the Bible has been warning us about the dangers of religiously fuelled violence
for centuries but we have often failed to listen. The book of Genesis confronts us with
the reality of religious violence in the very first story it tells of human society outside
the Garden of Eden.
But the story of Cain and Abel confronts us with far more than the problem of
religiously motivated violence.
The story confronts us with the universal problem of sibling rivalry and the troubles
that destroy family life.
It confronts us with the terrifying responsibility of being people who have the power
of free choice.1
It confronts us with the danger of using the name of God or religion, whatever it is,
Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism or Judaism, as a cover for getting what we
want.
Ultimately, the story of Cain and Abel invites us to navigate the dangerous territory
outside of Eden. Outside of Eden we are in a world where humans turn increasingly
away from God to serve themselves instead of their creator.
Fragile Harmony
The conflict between Cain and Abel is the first of a whole series of conflicts between
brothers throughout Genesis. Sibling rivalry will occur again and again, in the tension
between Isaac and Ishmael, in the rivalry between Esau and Jacob, and finally in the
jealousy and contempt between Joseph and his brothers. It is perhaps out of bitter
experience that the Bible as a whole values harmony in the home and among family
members so much.
Psalm 133 elevated the importance of getting our relationships with each other right
so much that it compared unity among brothers to the highest act of worship. When
brothers get along with each other it is like the anointing of a high priest to serve in
the Temple before the Presence of God.
Outside the Gates of Eden there will be many sources of resentment and conflict but
God’s Word reminds us that we can only genuinely serve God when we are at peace
with one another, because God is the peace between us.
1We experience powerful emotions but have to “master” such feelings in order to
exercise free choice instead of being mastered by our feelings.
Even when Jesus claimed to bring a sword of division that would set members of the
same family against one another he did so in recognition that the seeds of division
were already present whenever we choice to out ourselves before God.
Cain’s murder of Abel illustrates the fact that family harmony is a fragile harmony,
ready to be destroyed by the nursing of any petty jealousy or resentment.
It is the story of how deeply the downward spiral of sin corrupts God’s ideal for
human relationships.
A Troubling Beginning
The story of the first murder has a troubling beginning.
Two brothers go out to offer the fruit of their work in worship to the LORD. The first
brother is a gardener and offers the fruit of the ground. The second brother is a
herdsman and brings the first born of his flock as an offering.
Conflict enters the story when the LORD looks favourably on Abel’s offering but
disregards Cain’s. The storyteller offers no explanation for Cain’s rejection but there
are many interpretations in both Jewish and Christian traditions. Some have seen
Cain’s offering as inferior because unlike Abel’s offering it is not from the first-harvest
of his crop; Cain has perhaps fed himself before giving thanks to the LORD of the
harvest. Others have even concluded that God simply prefers the smell of meat to the
smell of vegetables and grain. Others have suggested that the LORD is simply free to
choose what God wants and who is Cain, or who are we, to question the hidden
mystery of God’s choice? If this is the case, then it is God who instigates the conflict
and our critics are right; who would want to risk the capricious nature of God? Surely
it would be best to leave this God well alone!
Each of these interpretations only looks at the observable facts. But perhaps the
storyteller’s silence invites us to consider that the reason for God’s rejection lay, not
so much in the mystery of God or the inadequacy of Cain’s offering, but in the mystery
of iniquity hidden in the darkness of Cain’s heart.
A Heart of Darkness
As we consider Cain’s inward motivation we follow a line of inquiry taken by the
Fathers of the Church. Origen of Alexandria proposed that, “Cain’s wickedness did not
begin when he killed his brother. For even before that God, who knows the heart, had
no regard for Cain and his sacrifice.”
What motive was at work in Cain’s heart that when full-blown resulted in the murder
of his brother?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observes that Cain’s reaction to being rejected exposes his
original motivation. “Imagine the following: you offer someone a gift. Politely, they
refuse it. How do you respond? There are two possibilities. You can ask yourself,
“What did I do wrong?” or you can be angry with the intended recipient.”
Cain’s anger shows that he was trying to rule over God by putting God into the debt of
a “gift-relationship.” In the ancient world sacrifices were often seen as a way of
appeasing and maintaining control over the gods. From Cain’s fallen perspective Abel
now has an advantage that he does not possess; Abel has what we call leverage over
the LORD. Abel is now a threat to Cain and his jealously gives birth to murderous
intentions.
Lying at the heart of this story is Hebrew word, “timshal” meaning to rule over. It
comes from the same root as the word Genesis used when God established the Sun
and Stars to “rule over” the day and night in chapter one, and again in chapter three
when God breaks the bad news that the woman will be “ruled over” by her husband.
Now, in the terrifying, boundless world outside of Eden, Cain mistakenly believes
sacrificial worship is a way for him to “rule over” God. It is the ultimate perversion of
right relationships. When Cain’s realises that it is not within his power to control God
with religion his anger rises. God warns him that he must “rule over” the animal urge
within him to lash out in retaliation against Abel. Cain, in the end, chooses to be ruled
over by sin instead of ruling over himself. There is only one tragic sense in which Cain
continues to rule; he asserts his rule over Abel in the most destructive of ways; using
his God given freedom to take the life his brother.
East of Eden
Cain’s story ends as he leaves the Presence of God and goes out into the world alone
like a member of the Sicilian mafia where his only protection from vengeance is the
promise of seven further acts of vendetta.
One of the most memorable and chilling moments in cinema history comes near the
end of Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece, The Godfather. Michael Corleone has just
agreed to be the godfather of his nephew. While he attends the high society baptism
his plot to massacre the heads of the other mafia families is carried out with ruthless
precision. The scenes alternate between the Godfather renouncing Satan and
proclaiming his faith in Christ and the bloodshed being unleashed in homes, offices,
bedrooms and courthouses.
Like the story of Cain and Abel, The God Father is a story of fallen man’s quest for
control and power outside of Eden. Both are stories of man seeking to rule on his own
rather than serving the rule of God. In his attempt to do this he is ruled over by
darkness of his own selfish ambition. It does not matter how much we disguise our
selfish, sinful motivations behind a veneer of religious observance or social
respectability; sin is sin. And whenever we allow sin to rule us there will always be
casualties of one kind or another; perhaps not murder victims, but human hurt and
broken relationships.
The critics of religion are right when they point to the violence that has been justified
in the name of religion. What they conveniently overlook is that East of Eden violence
takes many different forms; both religious and secular.
In Life East of Eden there is still religion but one that lies beyond the Presence of God.
It is a world of human striving, struggle and success, where the powerful rule
regardless of the human cost. East of Eden the degraded earth is a silent witness to
selfishness, bloodshed and greed.
The world of Cain’s inheritance is the world in which man either tries to put God into
his debt (religion) or tries to go it alone (secularism). Whether religious or secular
whenever we choose to put our selfish agendas ahead of God, ahead of others and
ahead of the wellbeing of our own soul, we belong to the world East of Eden.
The alternative is world is the world in which we don’t seek to put God or others in
our debt. It is a world that moves from the loss of Eden to a new kind of family in
which God’s Presence is once again known. It is a world we enter into, not a result of
any sacrifice or offering that we have made, but through the sacrificial offering that
the LORD has provided for us.
