Cain and Abel: God Never Says One Word to Abel. Every Word Goes to Cain.

In the whole Cain and Abel Bible story, God never says one word to Abel. Every sentence God speaks in Genesis 4, he speaks to Cain, the brother whose offering he had just turned down. Genesis spends about two verses on the offerings and the next eleven on what came after. This video reads both. First come the three answers people usually give for why God said no: blood, the little word "some," and the order of the names. The word "some" turns out to sit on Abel's gift too. The difference on the page is two words long, firstborn and fat, and Genesis never turns to the reader and says "and that is why." Then the conversation. English Bibles say "will you not be accepted?" but the Hebrew word there is a lifting, held out to a man whose face has just fallen. The word "sin" appears in the Bible for the first time in this verse, and it arrives as an animal lying at a door, described with the same verb Psalm 23 uses for sheep lying down in green pastures. The last word of the verse can be read "thou shalt," "you must," "you can," or "thou mayest," the word John Steinbeck built East of Eden on. After that: the sentence that is missing from the Hebrew of Genesis 4:8, why "your brother's blood" is plural, what the Mishnah did with that plural, and why the mark of Cain is a shield and not a stain. This video does not claim to settle what Genesis leaves open. Where careful readers disagree, it says so. Which of God's two questions is yours today: "Why are you angry?" or "Where is your brother?" Tell us in the comments. Chapters: 00:00 God never says one word to Abel 00:49 One son is named "Gotten," the other "Breath" 02:25 Genesis gives no reason, so readers supplied three 03:55 The word "some" is sitting on Abel's gift too 05:45 The man is named before the gift 07:08 "Why has your face fallen?" 08:16 The Hebrew word is not "accepted" 09:50 The first time the Bible says "sin" 12:25 One verb, four translations, and Steinbeck's "timshel" 14:06 What Cain said to Abel is missing from the Hebrew 16:25 "Where is your brother?" 17:46 Why "blood" is plural in Hebrew 19:31 The mark of Cain was a shield 22:24 The blood that speaks a better word Scripture referenced: Genesis 4:1-17 (4:3-5 quoted from the NIV; 4:7 and 4:10-12 follow the ESV; 4:7 and 4:8 also cited from the KJV, the JPS 1917 and the JPS 1985 Tanakh) | Genesis 2:15 | Genesis 3:9, 3:12-13, 3:16 | Genesis 29:2 | Genesis 32:13 | Judges 3:15 | Leviticus 2:1, 2:14 | Deuteronomy 26:2 | Psalm 23:2 | Hebrews 11:4, 12:24 | 1 John 3:12 Hebrew details: hevel, "breath" (Abel's name; 38 times in Ecclesiastes) · minchah, "gift, tribute" (both offerings, Gen 4:3-5; the grain offering of Lev 2) · the prefix min, "from," on both gifts · se'et, "a lifting" (Gen 4:7), same root as "bear" in 4:13 · rovets, "lying down" (Gen 4:7; Gen 29:2; Ps 23:2) · teshuqah, "desire," three times in the Hebrew Bible (Gen 3:16; 4:7; Song 7:10) · timshol, "you will / must / may rule" (Gen 4:7) · demei, "bloods," plural (Gen 4:10) · Nod, "wandering" (Gen 4:16) · Genesis 4:8: "Let us go out to the field" is absent from the Masoretic Hebrew and supplied from the Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, Vulgate and Peshitta Other sources: Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 52a-b (five verses whose reading cannot be decided) · Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 · John Steinbeck, East of Eden (Viking, 1952), ch. 24 · On Steinbeck's editor and Louis Ginzberg: Jewish Review of Books, "The Most Important Word in the World" Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. #CainAndAbel #Genesis4 #BibleStudy #Genesis #OldTestament #HebrewBible #SinIsCrouching #MarkOfCain #Timshel #BibleExplained #ChristianFaith #TheBuriedVerse