Read Genesis 4:1-2. What do we learn from these passages about the births of the two males?
The first event recorded by the biblical author immediately after Adam’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden is a birth. In the Hebrew phrase in Genesis 4:1, the words “the LORD” (YHWH) are directly linked to the words “a man,” as the following literal translation indicates: “I have acquired a man, indeed the LORD Himself.” It is rendered by the International Standard Version as: “I have given birth to a male child — the LORD.”
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This literal translation suggests that Eve remembers the Messianic prophecy of Genesis 3:15 and believes that she has given birth to her Savior, the LORD. “The Saviour’s coming was foretold in Eden. When Adam and Eve first heard the promise, they looked for its speedy fulfillment. They joyfully welcomed their first-born son, hoping that he might be the Deliverer.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 31.
In fact, Cain occupies most of the story. He is not only the firstborn, a son that the parents almost “worshiped”; in the chapter, he is the only brother who, in the Genesis text, speaks. While Eve excitedly comments on Cain’s birth, she says nothing at Abel’s, at least nothing that is recorded in the text, in contrast to the birth of Cain. The narrator simply reports that she “bore again” (Genesis 4:2, NKJV).
The name Cain itself is derived from the Hebrew verb qanah, which means “to acquire” and denotes the acquisition, the possession of something precious and powerful. On the other hand, the Hebrew name Hebel, in English Abel, means “vapor” (Psalm 62:9, NKJV), or “breath” (Psalm 144:4, NKJV) and denotes elusiveness, emptiness, lack of substance; the same word, hebel (Abel), is used over and over in Ecclesiastes for “vanity.” Though we don’t want to read more into these short texts than is there, perhaps the idea is that Adam’s and Eve’s hope rested, they believed, only in Cain, because they believed he, not his brother, was the promised Messiah.
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What are things in life that, truly, are hebel, but that we treat as if they mattered much more than they do? Why is it important to know the difference between what matters and what doesn’t? |
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