Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.
Later, in Genesis 5:4, we see that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters. Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, right after introducing Cain and Abel, noted that Adam and Eve “had also daughters”.
A footnote to the Whiston translation of Josephus states, “The number of Adam’s children, as says the old tradition, was 33 sons and 23 daughters.”
But for now, the narrative focuses on the first two children ever born. This passage is also the first of a number of Biblical occurrences where God overturns the normal primogeniture, or importance of the firstborn son (Hebrew bəkôr בכור). Here, Abel’s occupation is listed first in the narrative, a hint that God will reverse the usual order.
Cain becomes “a worker of the ground.” There is nothing wrong
with this; he was following in his father’s footsteps. But “Abel was a keeper of sheep”
So the narrative turns to the sacrifices. The phrase “In the course of time” in Hebrew is miqqets yāmîm (מקץ ימים), literally meaning ‘in the end of days.’ Fruchtenbaum says that it means, ‘at a specific appointed time.’ He explains:
So already, this early in human history, there was a fixed time in which the offerings were to be offered. It was clearly a regularly prescribed time. This being so, it means that this was not the first time sacrifices were offered or even the first time that Cain offered a sacrifice. Previously, since Abel was the shepherd and Cain was the farmer, in order to have a blood-sacrifice, Cain would have had to purchase a sheep or goat from his brother. However, this time, he chose not to do it that way, but Cain brought the fruit of the ground, an offering.
Actually, this practice could have been occurring for over a century, as can be inferred from later passages. In 4:25–26, Eve bears Seth and explicitly regards him as a replacement for Abel, and 5:3 reveals that this occurred when Adam and Eve were 130. So Cain and Abel, maybe as elders of the first generation to be born, were both offering the correct animal sacrifices for some time.
But in this passage,
Cain becomes “a worker of the ground.” There is nothing wrong
So the narrative turns to the sacrifices. The phrase “In the course of time” in Hebrew is miqqets yāmîm (מקץ ימים), literally meaning ‘in the end of days.’ Fruchtenbaum says that it means, ‘at a specific appointed time.’ He explains:
So already, this early in human history, there was a fixed time in which the offerings were to be offered. It was clearly a regularly prescribed time. This being so, it means that this was not the first time sacrifices were offered or even the first time that Cain offered a sacrifice. Previously, since Abel was the shepherd and Cain was the farmer, in order to have a blood-sacrifice, Cain would have had to purchase a sheep or goat from his brother. However, this time, he chose not to do it that way, but Cain brought the fruit of the ground, an offering.
Actually, this practice could have been occurring for over a century, as can be inferred from later passages. In 4:25–26, Eve bears Seth and explicitly regards him as a replacement for Abel, and 5:3 reveals that this occurred when Adam and Eve were 130. So Cain and Abel, maybe as elders of the first generation to be born, were both offering the correct animal sacrifices for some time.
But in this passage,
we see that Cain was the patron saint of liberal religious ecumenism.
This is the belief that all ways lead to God; that man can choose his own path.
No wonder Jude 1:11 denounces practitioners of false religion as having “walked in the way of Cain.”
Hebrews 11 lists Abel as the first in the ‘Faith Hall of Fame’, and affirms that the right kind of sacrifice was the important manifestation of the right heart:
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. (Hebrews 11:4).
But whichever way God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cain’s, Cain certainly knew it! His resentment led to increasing anger and defiance, then to the world’s first homicide. The New Testament affirms that this premeditated murder was real history, and used it as a warning:
“We should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds
Jesus Himself affirmed that this was the first martyrdom in history when He pronounced judgment on the unbelievers in His generation:
“And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar” (Matthew 23:35, cf. Luke 11:50–51)."
CMI