Of course, everyone knows the answer to this question, right?  The familiar story of Cain and Abel, found in Gen. 4, tells us what happened.  Cain farmed the land, or was a tiller of the ground, while Abel was a keeper of sheep (Gen. 4:2).  Then, Cain brought fruit of the ground to make his offering to Yahweh.  Abel brought the FIRSTLINGS of his flock to make his offering.

What happened next?  Yahweh did not have respect of Cain’s offering, but he DID have respect of Abel’s.  This angered Cain so much that when the right moment presented itself later on, he rose up and killed his brother.

Haven’t we all been taught that the moral to this story is: “If you’re going to make an offering to Yahweh, you must offer him the BEST of what you produce.”  That’s what Abel did–he offered the youngest, purest and most innocent of his lambs as an offering to Yahweh.  Cain must not have shown the proper honor and respect to Yahweh because he just brought some of the produce he grew, but it wasn’t the freshest, ripest and first harvest of the season.  It was just some plain-old produce without any special significance.  It was Cain’s indifference to the specific selection of WHAT he offered that caused Yahweh to disrespect it.  End of story.

Or, is it?

This was the narrative that I had been taught from my youth.  I had no reason to ever question the reason why Cain’s offering was not accepted because it seemed clear that Gen. 4 confirmed my original teachings.  But once again, a funny thing happened and I decided to actually read the Bible and find out if it tells me anything else about this event.  And, once again, it does.

To begin, I pulled apart the text and read what Moses actually wrote, beginning in Gen. 4:6, the moment after Cain’s offering was rejected, when Yahweh asked “Why are you wroth?  and why is thy countenance fallen?”  V. 7–“If you DO WELL, shalt YOU not be accepted?  and if you DO NOT WELL, sin lies at the door.  And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over  him.”

That’s weird.  Yahweh makes no mention of Cain’s offering.  Instead, he admonished him alone, not the offering itself.  Why didn’t Yahweh say that if Cain did well, then “his offering” would have been accepted?  Why did he say that he rejected Cain, the person, rather than Cain’s offering?  V. 7 would have more accurately been written “If you DO WELL, shalt IT not be accepted?…if Yahweh’s intent had been to emphasize WHAT Cain brought vs. WHO brought it.

At this precise moment, we know only two things.  One) Cain’s offering was rejected by Yahweh, and Two) Cain was really angry about it.  So, wouldn’t the explanation that followed in verse 7 have to logically explain exactly “why” Yahweh rejected it?  Why did Yahweh not tell Cain that if he chose a purer item of produce, or if he had chosen the “best” fruit of the ground that it would have been accepted?  We’ve all been taught this, but it’s not exactly what Gen. 4 says.

Instead, his response to Cain seemed to describe something other than just this one simple matter of that day’s offering.  Keep in mind, the accepted explanation that Abel chose the firstlings of his flock was not part of Yahweh’s answer to Cain.  If Yahweh rejected Cain’s offering because of the nature of it, why didn’t Yahweh say “If you had chosen the youngest and best of your harvest–like your brother Abel chose the youngest and purest of his flock–then I would not have rejected it.”  But that’s not what Yahweh said.  This is too important a point to just take for granted.  We’ve all assumed that Cain’s offering was rejected because of what “it” was, but what if it was rejected because of “who” Cain was?  Is this what Moses was referring to when he wrote about Cain “doing well”?

Before pursuing this in more detail, there’s one other curiosity about Gen. 4:7.  Suppose there’s nothing else to this story than what we’ve traditionally been taught–that Cain chose his offering poorly and he ought to have given it more thought–why did Moses describe it as “sin” lying at the door?  Really?  It’s a “sin” to make an unthoughtful selection of your offering?  Wouldn’t it have been a “sin” to not make any offering at all?  Is Yahweh so demanding that the mere mistake of a poor selection of what you offer is elevated to the status of “sin”?  Talk about a tough audience!  More of v. 7–“…And unto you shall be his [sin’s] desire….”  This phrase of v. 7 becomes even more curious when read in Hebrew, where it reads: ולכך יהיה רצונו, pronounced: “u-ali-k thshuqth-u”, or “and-to-you impulse-of-him [of sin]”.  What would “desire” or “impulse” have to do with the error of bringing the wrong item to  offer to Yahweh?  Do they have more to do with a person’s overall behavior and not just that moment’s lapse of judgement?

Sometimes, the answers to the Bible’s secrets cannot be found in the same testament from which they originate.  It requires a full understanding of all of scripture to unlock its secrets.  Three separate authors of New Testament books shed new light on this old story.  Once you understand the actual reason why Cain’s offering was rejected, you will be shocked to your core.  So, I want you to brace yourself and remind you of something found in Psalms.

Pslam 119:165–“Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.“  Trust me, what I am about to explain is going to sound offensive.  But you’ll have to ask yourself whether that makes it wrong.

1 John 3:12–“Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.“

Uh oh.  This is different.  We all know for certain that it was Cain’s “act” of having an indifferent attitude of what he chose to offer Yahweh that caused it be rejected.  So why does John say it was Cain’s “works”?  This makes absolutely no mention of Cain’s offering at all.  Nor does it describe that one moment in Cain’s life.  Also, the word “works” is a plural word that conveys multiple deeds.  This is in stark contrast to the offering scene described in Gen. 4.  Is there any way to discover what those “works” might have been?  Yes there is, and Paul begins to fill in the blanks.

Heb. 11:4–“By faith Abel offered unto Yahweh a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, Yahweh testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.”

Here, Paul tells us that Abel’s sacrifice showed that he was “righteous”.  By omission, we can conclude that Cain was “not” righteous, correct?  Previously, in Genesis, we were only told that Cain’s act was a “sin”.  But now, Paul tells us that the contrast between Cain and Abel is elevated to a much higher degree, where one is considered righteous while the other is not.  This is a much higher bar than the mere act of Cain’s error of his offering.  Righteousness is an expression that conveys a person’s overall lifestyle and adherence to Yahweh’s laws.  If a person was considered righteous then had a temporary lapse of judgement and brought an inferior product to offer on such an important occasion, in no way would that have reduced them to the status of “unrighteous” *BAM!* just like that, as if Yahweh had snapped his finger and you were demoted instantly.

This verse also mentions that Abel’s offering testified of his [Abel’s] “gifts”, plural, not “gift” of the singular offering of Gen. 4.  Is this a reference to the “firstlings of his flock” in Genesis?  Or, is Paul hinting that Abel’s character is the description of “his gifts”?  Paul has just opened the door to reveal that Cain’s acts were inferior to Abel’s acts.  He obviously is not just talking about the moment in Genesis that resulted in Cain killing his brother.  He is talking about multiple events and personal deeds that Yahweh rejected.

What in the world did Cain do that was so wrong that it was both a sin and identified him as unrighteous?  Clearly, neither John nor Paul are critical of Cain’s offering (even though the average reader attempts to squeeze that thought into both passages), as they only mentioned Cain’s works.  People assume they know what both John and Paul are suggesting but in neither case did either author specifically support that conclusion.  All we know from their writings is that the conventional-wisdom single “act” was NOT the reason Cain’s offering was rejected.  It was because of multiple other things which WERE the cause of it being rejected.  John describes Cain’s “works” and Paul described Abel’s “gifts”.  What were those other “things”?

The answer can be found in the book of Jude, the Biblical author who can claim credit for writing the lest amount of scripture of all the authors.  His very short book is rarely read, discussed or studied by students of the Bible.  But, it is arguably one of the Bible’s most important books, as it is entirely a book of prophecy.

Jude was the 1/2 brother of Yahshua, so they grew up together in the same household.  As siblings, they obviously talked about a myriad of things throughout their lives which are not recorded in the Bible.  The Apostle John identifies exactly how MUCH more could have been documented, but has been left unwritten in scripture:

John 21:25–And there are also many other things which Yahshua did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

Yahshua did not officially begin his ministry until he was 30 years old so he and Jude had many, many years of conversations prior to Yahshua making his appearance on the world stage.  There had to be SO MUCH that Jude knew, it seems incomprehensible that he wrote so little for our benefit today.   What does Jude have to say about Cain?

Jude 11–“Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain….”  At this point, virtually every reader of scripture thinks they understand what Jude means when he wrote “in the way of Cain”.  They think he means “murderer”.  But the words that precede this statement of “Woe unto THEM” are referring to specific people.  Are they ALL “murderers”?  Who are these people?

Verse 11, which is a condemnation of certain people, is the climax of identifying exactly who those people are, which Jude does in verses 4 to 10.  He writes that there were ungodly men who turned Yahweh’s grace into lasciviousness [Strong’s def: “unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence”].

In v. 7, Jude mentions Sodom and Gomorrha and the cities about them “in like manner” that gave themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh.  They were “filthy dreamers” [who] “defiled the flesh”.  Finally, in v. 10, Jude concludes that they were “brute beasts” in those things “they corrupt themselves”.

This is a pretty hideous list of character traits associated with those who had “gone in the way of Cain”, but to amplify Jude’s book even more, here are some other descriptions of these people, found in various Bible translations of Jude 4-10:

DARBY     committing greedily fornication, defile the flesh, irrational animals

ESV           sensuality, sexual immorality, pursued unnatural desire, unreasoning animals, understand instinctively

NASB      gross immorality, after strange flesh

NIV        license for immorality, perversion, pollute their own bodies,

RSV       acted immorally, indulged in unnatural lust

YLT       perverting to lasciviousness, given themselves to whoredom, gone after other flesh,

As you can see, the people that Jude has described in verses 4-10 are the same people that he shouts “Woe unto them!”  Why does he say that?

Because they had gone in the way of Cain.

The decadent, perverted and immoral lifestyles of the people described in Jude 4-10 aren’t just “another” group of people who are “also” flawed, as Cain was.  They are a description of CAIN HIMSELF, as each of these perverted lifestyles had GONE IN THE WAY OF CAIN.  In other words, it was Cain who was the first person to have lived the lifestyle that Jude condemns in verse 11.  The “way of Cain”, is a description of the “works” that John called evil (1 John 3:12).  And the many deviant behaviors are the “plural” items which caused him to be defined as “unrighteous” (Heb. 11:4).  And it was his entire lifestyle that was the reason that Yahweh rejected Cain’s offering in Gen. 4.  Cain was immoral, went after strange flesh, was a brute beast, corrupt, addicted to unnatural vices and pursued ultra-prostitution.  The people Jude describes in verses 4-10 are LIKE CAIN.  He came first.

As I mentioned, the book of Jude is a prophecy that is specifically for our time today.  It is describing the condition we will find society in as we approach the second coming of Yahshua Anointed.  Do you notice anything significant about the description of human society that Jude talked about vs. the kinds of lifestyles that are openly celebrated today as being “enlightened” or “accepting” of “all lifestyles”?

At no other time in human history have those who lived an underground, immoral lifestyle been so much out in the open and embraced as “just another life choice”.  Jude has, in his very brief book, described what human behavior would look like shortly before the time of his–and our–brother, Yahshua’s return.  And, he has filled in the blanks so we now know why Yahweh rejected Cain’s offering.

For all the doubters and skeptics who will say that this is just silly and there’s NO WAY that Cain could have actually been like the people described in Jude or done all those deviant things because he “only had one brother” who was Abel and if Abel was righteous, then who could Cain have engaged in all these perverted acts with, think about this.  Were there previous children (both male and female) born to Adam and Eve but their existence isn’t told because they are not a part of this story?  Who knows?  Nor does it say how many years had gone by since the moment of Cain’s evil deed.  20 years?  30 years?  100 years?  There is no way to know. But have you ever stopped to consider that soon after Cain’s crime of murdering his brother, he was forced into exile…with his WIFE?

Gen. 4:16–“And Cain went out from the presence of Yahweh, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. ¹⁷ And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.”

Huh?  Where did SHE come from if the only two human children on earth were Cain and Abel?  Even more interesting–it also does not say that Cain was even the first human baby that was born to Adam and Eve.  Don’t believe me?  Read it for yourself: Gen. 4:1–“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from Yahweh.”

Since it does NOT say that Cain was her first child, why does everyone assume that it was?  It only says she gave birth to him.  Everyone throughout history has assumed it was the first born child.  All we know from reading the exact words in the Bible is that he was a baby boy, born to Adam and Eve.  He certainly could have had older siblings.

But, that being said, even IF Cain was the very first baby born to human parents on earth, at the time he killed Abel, a full century or longer could have gone by and the human population, consisting entirely of the various generations of Adam and Eve could have amounted into the thousands.  Now you can understand where the other people would have come from for Cain to have engaged in his immoral behavior with and it was THIS way of life that Yahweh rejected because all of those works were a sin, were plural and were why he was an unrighteous man.

‘Nuf for now.