-
†. Gen 4:2a . . She then bore his brother Abel.
Abel's name is from hebel (heh'bel) and means: emptiness or futility.
Figuratively: something transitory and unsatisfactory. Poor Eve; she's only
had two kids and already motherhood has lost its appeal. Cain was her very
first pregnancy. It was a new, exciting adventure. Well, Abel's birth was no
big deal. He was redundant; just another bun in the oven. The first one is
the best. After that, they're all Same-O, Same-O.
Cain and Abel are very interesting and share a lot in common. In fact, they
share so much in common that their individual personalities must be an
enigma to behavioral scientists.
Neither one came from a large gene pool because there were no
grandparents. Their genealogy stopped abruptly right in their own home with
mom and dad and went back no farther. They both had the same parents,
lived in the same home in the same neighborhood, grew up with the same
customs, ate the same food, associated with the same people, breathed the
same air, survived in the same environment, went to the same church, and
worshipped the same God.
Yet those men were noticeably very different from each other. Abel was an
inspired man (Luke 11:50-51) but Cain, though religious; was not. And he
was violent too. (1John 3:11-12)
†. Gen 4:2b . . Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a
tiller of the soil.
The Hebrew word translated "sheep" is either tso'n (tsone) or tse'own (tseh
one') which mean: a flock; which Webster's defines as a group of birds or
mammals assembled or herded together. So you can see there that "sheep"
is an arbitrary choice of words. Abel could just as easily have been a cowboy
wrangling bovine and/or tending goats rather than sheep; but I won't argue
the point. Sheep will do.
Both men worked at honorable professions and their skills were essential to
the Adams' survival. Man at this time was a vegetarian so Cain farmed and
raised the family's food; while Abel kept them clothed and shod by tending
flocks for leather; and possibly fleece too.
NOTE: The Hebrew language didn't exist in Adam's day; nor would it exist till
some time after the Flood and the tower of Babel. Ancient names given in
Hebrew aren't the native-tongue names of people prior to Babel; but rather:
Hebrew equivalents of those names.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
†. Gen 4:2a . . She then bore his brother Abel.
Abel's name is from hebel (heh'bel) and means: emptiness or futility.
Figuratively: something transitory and unsatisfactory. Poor Eve; she's only
had two kids and already motherhood has lost its appeal. Cain was her very
first pregnancy. It was a new, exciting adventure. Well, Abel's birth was no
big deal. He was redundant; just another bun in the oven. The first one is
the best. After that, they're all Same-O, Same-O.
Cain and Abel are very interesting and share a lot in common. In fact, they
share so much in common that their individual personalities must be an
enigma to behavioral scientists.
Neither one came from a large gene pool because there were no
grandparents. Their genealogy stopped abruptly right in their own home with
mom and dad and went back no farther. They both had the same parents,
lived in the same home in the same neighborhood, grew up with the same
customs, ate the same food, associated with the same people, breathed the
same air, survived in the same environment, went to the same church, and
worshipped the same God.
Yet those men were noticeably very different from each other. Abel was an
inspired man (Luke 11:50-51) but Cain, though religious; was not. And he
was violent too. (1John 3:11-12)
†. Gen 4:2b . . Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a
tiller of the soil.
The Hebrew word translated "sheep" is either tso'n (tsone) or tse'own (tseh
one') which mean: a flock; which Webster's defines as a group of birds or
mammals assembled or herded together. So you can see there that "sheep"
is an arbitrary choice of words. Abel could just as easily have been a cowboy
wrangling bovine and/or tending goats rather than sheep; but I won't argue
the point. Sheep will do.
Both men worked at honorable professions and their skills were essential to
the Adams' survival. Man at this time was a vegetarian so Cain farmed and
raised the family's food; while Abel kept them clothed and shod by tending
flocks for leather; and possibly fleece too.
NOTE: The Hebrew language didn't exist in Adam's day; nor would it exist till
some time after the Flood and the tower of Babel. Ancient names given in
Hebrew aren't the native-tongue names of people prior to Babel; but rather:
Hebrew equivalents of those names.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=