Genesis 4:8 Commentary and Bible Study

What was the nature of the conversation between the two brothers? Many people have tried to reconstruct what was said between them and some suggest it was a very unpleasant conversation culminating in violence. But the suddenness of the event suggests that this was an act of great cunning, and that Cain talked peaceably with his brother. He would surely not have confronted his brother in any way that would have put Abel on his guard. He intended to overpower him suddenly and to murder him. The language indicates that Cain was looking for an opportunity to kill his brother and that hatred was smouldering in his heart. He therefore waited until they were alone together when no one would witness what he did. They were not near home. They were not where there were any observers. That seems to be the significance in locating it in a field.Cain ignores God’s warning. He talked with Abel his brother and as he talked he already knew what he wanted to do. As he spoke, sin drew him irresistibly to the point where he carried out what the hatred in his heart was prompting him to do.‘That Cain rose up against Abel his brother.’ There is a suddenness here and he attacked and killed him. The text does not say how, but there was blood shed, and when the blood is mentioned, the Hebrew word is plural as though there was a great deal of blood. So, it was a very violent act, and it could have been a beating to death or a knifing. He slew Abel, and then he went on his way. He may have buried him – that is difficult to tell – but alternatively, he may have left him, bleeding on the ground.So the first death is recorded in the Bible; the first person to die, and the first person to die was a saint. Abel was a man of faith, the first man ever to taste physical death, and he went to heaven. This is of course a triumph, for God gave him the victory in spite of Cain’s murder. Although the Book of Revelation is a book full of symbolism, it appears, if we understand it correctly, that the last person to die will also be a saint – the first and the last. The first one to die was a martyr. He died for the faith – a murder, a fratricide, put to death by his brother. This act must have filled Adam and Eve with horror, for sin had caused Cain to descend to such depths. Now they understood more clearly the horrific consequences of their disobedience. Now they saw the destruction of one of child by another, both of whom they surely loved, and the hope they had that perhaps this was the one who would crush the serpents head was cruelly dashed. Although God was to show them mercy, it was not before the horrors of sin and its destructive power had been made known.