In the previous post, we saw the first humans being exiled from the garden of Eden. We understood then that this was not a punishment, but another sign of God’s grace toward us because it would have been horrible for humans to life forever while being incapable of always choosing good over evil. This would have happened if humans had access to the tree of life. So God banishes them from the garden telling the woman and the man how things are going to change for them. Now we get our first glimpse at life outside the garden.

Hebrew text:

1 וְהָ֣אָדָ֔ם יָדַ֖ע אֶת־חַוָּ֣ה אִשְׁתּ֑וֹ וַתַּ֙הַר֙ וַתֵּ֣לֶד אֶת־קַ֔יִן וַתֹּ֕אמֶר קָנִ֥יתִי אִ֖ישׁ אֶת־יְהוָֽה׃

2 וַתֹּ֣סֶף לָלֶ֔דֶת אֶת־אָחִ֖יו אֶת־הָ֑בֶל וַֽיְהִי־הֶ֙בֶל֙ רֹ֣עֵה צֹ֔אן וְקַ֕יִן הָיָ֖ה עֹבֵ֥ד אֲדָמָֽה׃

3 וַֽיְהִ֖י מִקֵּ֣ץ יָמִ֑ים וַיָּבֵ֨א קַ֜יִן מִפְּרִ֧י הָֽאֲדָמָ֛ה מִנְחָ֖ה לַֽיהוָֽה׃

4 וְהֶ֨בֶל הֵבִ֥יא גַם־ה֛וּא מִבְּכֹר֥וֹת צֹאנ֖וֹ וּמֵֽחֶלְבֵהֶ֑ן וַיִּ֣שַׁע יְהוָ֔ה אֶל־הֶ֖בֶל וְאֶל־מִנְחָתֽוֹ׃

5 וְאֶל־קַ֥יִן וְאֶל־מִנְחָת֖וֹ לֹ֣א שָׁעָ֑ה וַיִּ֤חַר לְקַ֙יִן֙ מְאֹ֔ד וַֽיִּפְּל֖וּ פָּנָֽיו׃

6 וַיֹּ֥אמֶר יְהוָ֖ה אֶל־קָ֑יִן לָ֚מָּה חָ֣רָה לָ֔ךְ וְלָ֖מָּה נָפְל֥וּ פָנֶֽיךָ׃

7 הֲל֤וֹא אִם־תֵּיטִיב֙ שְׂאֵ֔ת וְאִם֙ לֹ֣א תֵיטִ֔יב לַפֶּ֖תַח חַטָּ֣את רֹבֵ֑ץ וְאֵלֶ֙יךָ֙ תְּשׁ֣וּקָת֔וֹ וְאַתָּ֖ה תִּמְשָׁל־בּֽוֹ׃

Transliteration:

1 wə·hā·’ā·ḏām,  yā·ḏa‘ ’eṯ- ḥaw·wāh  ’iš·tōw; wat·ta·har wat·tê·leḏ  ’eṯ- qa·yin, wat·tō·mer qā·nî·ṯî  ’îš ’eṯ- Yah·weh.  

2 wat·tō·sep̄  lā·le·ḏeṯ, ’eṯ-  ’ā·ḥîw ’eṯ- hā·ḇel;  way·hî- he·ḇel rō·‘êh  ṣōn, wə·qa·yin hā·yāh ‘ō·ḇêḏ  ’ă·ḏā·māh.  

3 way·hî  miq·qêṣ yā·mîm;  way·yā·ḇê qa·yin mip·pə·rî  hā·’ă·ḏā·māh min·ḥāh Yah·weh.  

4 wə·he·ḇel  hê·ḇî ḡam- hū  mib·bə·ḵō·rō·wṯ ṣō·nōw  ū·mê·ḥel·ḇê·hen; way·yi·ša‘  Yah·weh, ’el- he·ḇel wə·’el-  min·ḥā·ṯōw.  

5 wə·’el-  qa·yin wə·’el-  min·ḥā·ṯōw lō šā·‘āh;  way·yi·ḥar lə·qa·yin mə·’ōḏ,  way·yip·pə·lū pā·nāw.  

6 way·yō·mer  Yah·weh ’el- qā·yin;  lām·māh ḥā·rāh lāḵ, wə·lām·māh  nā·p̄ə·lū p̄ā·ne·ḵā.  

7 hă·lō·w  ’im- tê·ṭîḇ  śə·’êṯ, wə·’im  lō ṯê·ṭîḇ, lap·pe·ṯaḥ  ḥaṭ·ṭāṯ rō·ḇêṣ; wə·’ê·le·ḵā  tə·šū·qā·ṯōw, wə·’at·tāh tim·šāl-  bōw. 

NIV:

1 Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” 

2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 

3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 

4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 

5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 

7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Study:

Toward the end of chapter 3 Adam names his wife, Eve, because she was going to be the mother of all the living. The first verse of chapter 4 tells us how this began to be fulfilled. Eve gives birth to Cain (קַ֔יִן, qa-yin). There is a wordplay with the word for ‘brought forth’ (קָנָה, qanah). The predominant meaning of קָנָה (qanah) is ‘to buy’ and there seems to be no strong reason why the NIV renders it with ‘brought forth’. The wordplay works from קָנָה (qanah) to קַ֔יִן (qa-yin) and not the other way around. That is, the name arises from the existing word rather than the word being derived from the name. 

I suggest that we should take the normal meaning of קָנָה (qanah) here, indicating Eve’s failure to understand the grace God has shown them by exiling them from the garden. She is taking the exile as her payment to God and taking Cain as what she purchased from God in exchange. Eve seems just like us. We recognize that we are not in an idyllic world. But most often we think of this as a punishment rather than as a sign of grace. The name Eve chose for her first son betrays this failure to recognize grace and is a shaking of her fist in defiance of God. Cain is not a gift from God but a commodity purchased from him. 

The second son receives no such special treatment. He is simply called Abel (הָ֑בֶל, ha-bel). Once again there is a wordplay, but on this occasion it is implied. This second son is הָ֫בֶל (he-bel), meaning ‘nothing’ or ‘meaningless’. This second son was insignificant and is named that way. 

This is the first instance of primogeniture in the bible and it is shocking given how extreme it is in this case. Here the first son is taken as a sign of the woman’s fertility and therefore of her ability to help stave off the contagion of death, but the second son is nothing. 

Both brothers then bring offerings. It is crucial to observe that the word מִנְחָה (min-chah) means ‘offering’. It is most often used in the sense of a meal or grain offering and never as a sin or guilt offering. The idea here is that the human offers to God a portion of the fruit of his or her industry and effort. Hence, it is unfortunate that many Christians believe that Cain’s offering was rejected because it did not involve the shedding of blood. Sometimes the blood fetish that many Christians have borders on the odious. In contrast, the text is telling us that both Cain and Abel brought the fruit of their labor to God. 

Another common view is that God rejected Cain’s offering because it wasn’t the best or first part of the crop. They cite support for this view in the fact that the text explicitly states that Abel brought “fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.” Since the text does mention this, we must try to ascertain why it does so. Is it only to indicate that Abel brought the best while Cain did not? 

Actually, the NIV obscures the Hebrew text with the phrase ‘In the course of time’. The Hebrew text is וַֽיְהִ֖י מִקֵּ֣ץ יָמִ֑ים (way·hî  miq·qêṣ yā·mîm), which literally means ‘and it so happened at the end of the day’ or more idiomatically ‘and it so happened at the end of the season’, indicating that Cain offered what was left over after the harvesting season was over. So the view that Cain’s offering was rejected because it wasn’t from the first fruits seems correct.

But I think the text is going far deeper than that. Till the first child is born to a woman, we do not know if she is an instrument against the contagion of death. The first child removes the doubt. In a patriarchal society where women have been reduced to their role in childbearing, this gave rise to primogeniture and the associated privileges. The firstborn child experiences privileges that he or she never earns. Those privileges are his or hers simply because birth order in a fallen world has decided it should be so. The names of the two brothers in our text clearly indicates this disparity. The first child, Cain, is valuable enough to have been purchased from God at a very steep price. But the second child, Abel, is nothing. 

It is my hypothesis that God expected Cain to level the playing field. Abel offered the first born from his flocks because he had no other first born to offer. But Cain, though not a herdsman, did have a first born to offer, namely himself. Cain did not see any problem with the huge disparity between him and his brother. He did not see that the disparity was unjust. He willingly accepted the privileges even though these deprived his brother. Cain’s offering was rejected because it was an offering that did not acknowledge the inequities of the world around him and did nothing to address those inequities. 

Somehow the two brothers know if God had accepted or rejected their offerings. The text does not indicate how this was communicated to the two brothers. It could be that Cain’s crops failed while Abel’s flocks multiplied. Or perhaps God spoke to them audibly. We cannot come to any conclusive answer from the text. 

When God rejected Cain’s offering he became angry and sullen. Rather than mend his ways he chose to dig his heels in. God then issues a warning to him, portraying sin as a predator crouching at Cain’s doorstep and waiting to dominate him. Sin had almost got a hold of him already and would completely overwhelm him if he did not actively take steps to avoid falling into its trap. We saw earlier how God warned the woman that she would attempt to dominate her husband but that the end result would be that he would dominate her. That was an indictment of the patriarchal system in which the woman would be relegated to having a single role of bearing children. Here, the same language is used to warn Cain about something he could avert if he took appropriate steps. As we will see, Cain did not heed the warning.

Prayer:

Our gracious, loving Father. You have created us to be equal to each other. However, because of our propensity to sin, we have rejected your egalitarian vision for humans and have substituted all kinds of hierarchies and have played favorites with different classes of people. We ask you to give us the wisdom and the strength to work against our sinful desires/ Enable us to recognize when we have benefited from privileges at the expense of others and give us the conviction to work toward leveling the playing field whenever we can. We ask this in the name of Jesus.