If we were to ask the “person on the street” what the story of Cain and Abel is all about, they may think that it is about a brother who commits a crime of passion and kills his brother. God makes it clear that Cain has a choice to give into his anger or not, but Cain chooses to act out on his anger and murders his brother. He sees Abel as a rival that is getting in the way of being approved by God. It seems obvious that Cain cares greatly about his relationship with God and is devasted and angry about his offering being rejected. We can only conjecture about the answers, but the answers are not found in the book of Genesis. Yet, there are the people that Cain fears will kill him, and people in the land of Nod, where Cain ends up settling. And if we just take the narrative as given, the only people to inhabit the world should be Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. The reasons that Abel’s offering was accepted but Cain’s offering was rejected is not given. Questions arise from this narrative for which there are no clear answers. We do not get to hear Abel speak at all, except for his blood crying out from the ground. We really do not get a chance to get to know Abel. When offerings were made to God, Abel’s was accepted, while Cain’s was not. All we know about Abel is that he is the younger brother and was a keeper of sheep. We think of this narrative as a story about Cain and Abel, but Abel really only plays a minor role.
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