Genesis Chapter 4 introduces the concept of envy and pits brother vs. brother in the Bible’s first murder.

Griffin Ministries invites you to continue your curated tour of Genesis Chapter 4. This deep dive into the Bible will help make the Bible come alive in new and exciting ways so that your love and understanding of God grow ever deeper and you are transformed in your thinking through the renewal of your mind. (Rom 12)

Encounter God in the Bible with a 10-part video series exploring Genesis 1-3. View Course.

Genesis Bible Study: How to Study Genesis Chapter 4

Study Genesis Chapter 4 with a fresh translation of the Hebrew text to gain a deeper understanding of these figures. Understand the Bible the way an ancient Hebrew would have heard it, and you can apply these ancient lessons in an entirely new way in your modern life.

Before you begin this study, you’re invited to use the practice of Lectivo Divino as you study Genesis Chapter 4. Lectivo Divino is the practice of incorporating prayer and meditation into scripture reading.

It is key to invite the Holy Spirit to be present as you read through a passage aloud several times and then ask Him for insights into what the passage has to say in general and then specifically to you.

The basic method is to ask: What did it mean then, and what does it mean now? Write out your insights and questions and ask the Holy Spirit to give you answers (Luke 11:9: Ask and you will receive) as you proceed.

What Can We Learn From This Genesis 4 Bible Study?

In our previous post on Genesis Chapter 4, we were introduced to the first sons of Adam and Eve. We see Adam and Eve as creators, and meet Cain and Abel, who represent two ways of life. Read it: Genesis Bible Study: The Introduction of Cain and Abel.

As we continue into Genesis Chapter 4, we learn about the birth of envy, and how evil’s true source on Earth, the “originating sin” of Adam and Eve (making yourself, and not Yahweh, the center of the wisdom that guides your life) works out into unintended consequences that show up in the lives of Adam and Eve’s sons and the future of the rest of mankind.

Genesis 4.3 After some time Cain brought some of the produce of the land (as) an offering to Yahweh. Abel also brought from the firstborn of his flocks and from their fat. Yahweh looked favorably on Abel and on his offering. But he did not look with favor on Cain and his offering. Then Cain became very angry and his face fell (he went into a rage).

Brother Against Brother: The Birth of Envy

From their respective work realms, Cain and Abel bring offerings to Yahweh. There is no mention of the cause for the offerings. There is no mention of sin for which to atone; rather, both offerings fit the pattern of a thank offering. Both forms of offering, vegetable and animal, were legitimate.

There is a lot of debate about the possible differences in the quality of offerings as the cause for why Yahweh accepted one offering and rejected the other; the offering of fat portions of the firstborn of the flocks, which was a more expensive or extensive and, therefore, more desirable offering than grain or bread. However, the text just tells about the nature of the offerings themselves and we get no evidence in the text that the offering is the problem. Instead, the text’s silence on Yahweh’s motives shows that the problem is not in the offering but in the offerer. We know only that one brother’s offerings were accepted and the other brother’s offerings were not. What the text does show us is Cain’s response. It is immediately visible on his face. He is portrayed in the grip of intense, deep anger that spills into rage (his face fell). Cain’s younger brother, Abel, has upstaged him before God. Shame and resentment rises up in Cain.

This is the first of many brother-brother conflicts or tensions between brothers in the Bible: Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Aaron and Moses, David and his brothers, and the so-called prodigal son and elder son. In these verses, we witness the first case of envy between humans who are intimately related to one another.

Genesis 4.6 Yahweh spoke to Cain, “Why are you angry and why has your face fallen? If you handle this well (do well) there will be a lifting of your face (a good resolution), but if you do not handle this well sin is lurking at the door. It desires you (its desire is for you) but you can prove the master (master it)."

Cain’s offering is not accepted, and he is visibly disappointed and distressed. Yet, ironically, although Cain‘s offering is not acknowledged, Cain, not Abel, is the one who has the wisdom-giving encounter with Yahweh. Just like in Genesis 2, Yahweh shares his wisdom with his human creation. Cain can emerge from this as master, but he must not give in to the desire lurking at his door.

A Test Reveals and Shapes

This scene is the second of many tests (the first being Eve’s encounter with the Serpent) that we will see in the Old Testament where Yahweh organizes or allows events to happen so that a human is put in a situation wherein a person, in or after an intimate encounter with God, is given a command or counsel and the human character must then act.

In such tests, human action both reveals and shapes a person’s inner nature, what the Bible calls the heart. But the action and its consequences do not just affect the individual in the test. The action has potentially devastating or empowering cosmic implications for those who come later.

The Archetype of Testing

This is the phenomenon of archetype. This scene is the second test we encounter in Genesis for a human being and further establishes the archetype of testing. The image of something threatening waiting at or outside the door parallels and presents again the archetype of the Serpent who strikes at the heel of the human.

Here, we see come alive, for the first time, the archetypical pattern set in motion by Eve. Tragically, Adam and Eve’s disobedience has set the stage for the murder of one of their sons by their other son. This situation was not their intention but the unforeseeable consequence of their behavior.

In the interaction of Eve and Adam with the Serpent, disorder, for the first time, was set loose on the earth. In Gen 1:1-2:4, God brought order to the chaotic mix of unordered heaven and earth. The highest order God brought was the creation of his human sub-creators, who were to bring more of God’s order over the still largely chaotic earth. But with the disobedience of Adam and Eve, a new reality emerges: disorder, the de-ordering of creation from its previously ordered state. Like cancer, a living thing that grows too fast in the wrong way and place, human disobedience has started to grow and direct life on earth.

The Serpent’s First Bite: Disorder Has A Name, Sin

What we witness here is the first instance of the consequences attributed to Adam and Eve’s disobedience.

For the first time, we see the Serpent bite at the heel of a human. This disordering presence now has a name, and in this short episode, we learn about its nature. The disordering presence is called sin.

Sin, אתָטַח chatah, failing to do what is right (missing the target), is depicted here as a dark personal presence waiting at Cain’s door, ready to pounce on him. Sin appears as a semi-personal reality, an archetype, on earth whose sinister presence Yahweh reveals to Cain. (Paul’s personification of sin in Romans is shaped by his reading of this passage.)

Yahweh alerts Cain to the fact that he is not just dealing with his own anger but with the reality of a much stronger entity that wants Cain to act out his rage. Cain can emerge as the master over his hatred, or he can submit himself to the chillingly personified archetype of active disordering disobedience.

Yahweh has witnessed Cain’s response to his rejection of Cain’s offering and poses two questions that correspond directly to the narrative order of Cain’s responses. Yahweh asks if Cain’s anger and disappointment are warranted, and then Yahweh offers Cain a simple but profound insight (wisdom). There will be another time to offer sacrifice. The next time, do the right thing, do sacrifice rightly, and the result will be good. It will be restorative (lifting).

Cain’s Motives Revealed

Doing what is right in this context would seem to deal not with sacrificial technique but with expectations and attitude.

Cain has, it seems, because his own sacrifice was not recognized, presumed that his brother Abel now has more honor from Yahweh than Cain, hence his anger and fallen face. This hints that Cain’s sacrifice was motivated not by thanksgiving but by a secret desire to manipulate and obtain Yahweh’s favor rather than give thanks for it. In the ancient near-eastern Great Symbiosis paradigm, humans serve the gods and, at the same time, seek to control, buy, and manipulate the favor of the gods.

We see how the text here works to show how the narrative of placating and manipulating the gods, the assumption of the Great Symbiosis, leads to disaster and tragedy. For an ancient Hebrew follower of Yahweh, this is a penetrating insight key to living with Yahweh.

Evil’s Source on Earth is Human

Once again, Genesis argues that the smoking gun of evil in the world does not derive from the fickle will of the gods but from the evil will of Yahweh’s agents on earth who unavoidably bring “heaven” (invisible structures and patterns) to “earth” (the dimension where heaven is manifested and revealed). Humans, to some degree, create the invisible super-human structures, the archetypes, that then influence and direct human agency over the earth.

Jesus put it simply, “It is not what goes into your mouth but what comes out of it that defiles you.” It’s the same logic and lesson but in a different setting.

In this short interchange, the ancient audience would be impressed that a divine being actually reveals his will directly to a human. There is no hieromancy here; complicated calculations of determining divine intention based on cutting open and studying the corpse of an animal victim. Here, Yahweh speaks directly and clearly.

Genesis 4.8 Cain said to Abel his brother (“Let’s go out to the field”) and while they were in the field Cain rose up against his brother and killed him.*

*In the Hebrew Masoretic Text, the phrase “let’s go out to the field” is missing but is present in other ancient versions.

Cain did not obey Yahweh’s counsel. He gave in to sin crouching at his door. Brother is repeated twice in one verse to drive home the perception that this was the killing of an intimate relation, not a stranger. Cain’s speaking to his brother indicates that the trip out into the field was premeditated, the first part of a carefully laid plan to kill. This is cold-blooded murder, not a killing in the heat of the moment.

Murder Opens a Door that Cannot Be Closed

The first murder has now been committed, and like all murders, it is fratricide, the killing of a brother. Again, this is not simply the first case of murder but the establishment of the paradigm, the archetype of murder, as a way to deal with deep inner tension. Kill once, and the next time, it will be easier.

In Adam and Eve, disobedience to Yahweh was set loose, and now, in the presence of disobedience to Yahweh, murder is set loose on the earth. As we will see, the murderer is, as a consequence, also set loose from any security and peace on earth. Like his parents, Cain, as a human, has opened another door that no human can close.

Genesis Chapter 4, verses 3-8, explores the birth of envy and introduces the sin of murder through Adam and Eve’s sons.

Before heading on to the rest of Chapter 4, reflect on the insights you obtained in verses 3-8.

• What did these verses mean for ancient Hebrews?
• How can you apply these lessons in your own life?

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