Cain and Abel
Today's bible reading, Genesis 4
I am waiting on a few friends to get back with me on some good online bible commentaries. I read New American Standard, so anything in line with that would be cool. I am very slowly beginning to read the bible again. This will probably be a Sunday ritual. Today is Genesis 4 and I'll probably back track through chapters 1-3 after I get hold of some commentary. Being so far away from my faith has made me a skeptical person, so now when I read I have so many questions. Things aren't as "doe eyed" for me as they were in highschool and college. So, feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section for this thread. I enabled the system so that anyone can post comments now. Below is Genesis 4 and my questions follow:
1 Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD." 2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. 4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; 5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." 8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" 10 He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground. 11 "Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 "When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth." 13 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is too great to bear! 14 "Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." 15 So the LORD said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him. 16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. 17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son. 18 Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael became the father of Methushael, and Methushael became the father of Lamech. 19 Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. 22 As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. 23 Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, Listen to my voice, You wives of Lamech, Give heed to my speech, For I have killed a man for wounding me; And a boy for striking me; 24 If Cain is avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold." 25 Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, "God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him." 26 To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD.
-v.4-5 ....And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. / Why was Cain's offering of no regard by God? Was it solely based off of what Abel offered compared to Cain? Abel (keeper of the flocks), Cain (tiller of the ground). Or was it deeper than that. There was no comment on God's view of these two in this chapter, so how could it be related to maybe God seeing that Cain's heart was troubled as compared to Abel's maybe being more faithful, thus acknowledging Abel's offering more.....?
-v. 16-17 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. And Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch;.......... / Where did this wife come from? Genesis thus far has only spoken of Adam and Eve and their offspring Cain and Abel, so where is this other person (or chick, ha!) coming from? It then speaks of Enoch having a child and so on........? Where does it tell us that other people were around? The next reference to Adam and Eve having a child is at the end of the chapter verse 25, Seth.
5 comments:
hey cindy,
well, on the verses about the offerings. you have to look at the details of the situation. the verses say abel offered his firstlings while cain just offered fruit. while the amount could have been equivalent, abel's was from the first borns of the flock and therefore, he thought of God first before anything else. meanwhile, cain offered just some of what he had harvested and not the firstfruits. God was an afterthought.
as for verses 16-17, this depends on your view of the Genesis passage. is the story of adam and eve metaphorical for human beings or literal? if literal, then they married their siblings and their children married their cousins and so forth. if it is metaphorical, then humans were created by God but did not all necessarily come from the same family or tribe and married others.
Hey Cindy,
Read most of your blog to get a feel for where you are to be able to suggest commentaries. Here's my response.
crosswalk.com is a decent place for commentaries, but it is rather cumbersome. There is bible.org however it tends to be heavy, you may wish to wait on that one.
I too enjoy the NASB. I have found that if I need an excellent devotional reading of Scripture that the New Living Translation is great.
My thoughts for you on Gen 4:4-5
Why was Cain's offering not as acceptable as Abel's? It is a great question and one that has been asked often because it seems that God is not being fair here. We've come to think of God as loving and gracious, and for sure He is. But here God seems to show favoritism. (I can tell already this is getting too long, I'll work on brevity =).For me I've asked myself, "What if I am Cain? What if I do what to me seems the best and God rejects me or my offering? Can I live with not being acceptable to the Omnipotent?" An immediate response is to ask God to please accept Cain's offering so that we too can be accepted.
So what are we to do with this? There are surely many answers. Most try to save the reputation of God and I have no problem with that. I think it is noble to save the reputation of God's goodness and love and grace. Therefore, if God is good and loving and gracious, should He not accept Cain's offering?
It seems that the Bible has left out a lot of info. for us. In some way God must have communicated to both Abel and Cain what offering He would accept. It seems God wanted the first produce. What else He wanted we are not told. Some have suggested that God wanted a pre-law type of sacrificial offering (an offering from an animal). And since Cain brought a vegetable type (from the ground) it was unacceptable. I am not comfortable saying that God rejected Cain's offering because it was not a slain animal. Maybe it was, but I am not finding the text to say that.
God rejected Cain's offering because Cain did not bring to God what God had prescribed, whatever that was. Cain was rejected because of rebellion.
Notice, that Cain became angry then sad. NO DOUBT!!! He had just been rejected by the Creator of the universe. I would be angry then sad too. THEN, the Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted?" This is what we think of when we think of God. He has given Cain another chance to get it right. Cain had rebelled, and God came to him in grace and offered him another chance. That last part of verse 7 has been hotely debated as to its meaning. I take the position that God is telling him to Get Up , Try Again, Defeat Sin. Cain is being tempted to go further away from God, but God is cheering him on to come back.
Where Did Cain's wife come from? Excellent question. Honestly, no one knows for absolute certainty. Again, the biblical author has left out so much stuff. WHY???? It's driving us mad!!
I think that the author is trying to tell the reader something. He's a storyteller. He's not too interested in the details of his story. We are interested and it drives us crazy not knowing. So what was the author doing here in v 16-17? He is moving the reader to the story of Lamech. The author has told us about Cain and Abel. Abel's offering acceptable--Cain's is not. Cain gets mad, refuses to do it God's way. God in grace gives him another chance. If Cain chooses badly he will be overcome by sin. Cain does choose badly and kills brother. God punishes Cain by exile. Cain crys out that the punishment is too much. God again in grace gives him a mark to save his life. Now, the author wants to get us to Lamech, so he says Cain had a wife and then had kids and then there is Lamech. Bam Bam Bam Cain to Lamech.
The question remains where did she come from? Who knows is the answer. Because so much is left out, it could well be that the time between each episode is great. Adam and Eve surely had more children than just Abel, Cain, and Seth. Cain probably married a sibling. But the author wants us to focus on the stories of Cain and Abel and the birth of Seth. Not so much Cain's wife. Seth is a focus character. Abel is dead. Cain is exiled. So Seth is the one that will continue the overall story of the book of Genesis and for Christians the Bible.
Hey Adam (and Cindy),
I did respond to your question at my site.
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