The first thing we need to bring up here is the timeline of events leading up to the birth of Cain and Abel. The Bible doesn’t indicate how much time had passed since the six days of creation. So, these are the conclusions that I’ve made based on what the text does say or suggest.
The birth of Cain and Abel comes after Adam and Eve left the Garden. There is also no mention of any children with Adam and Eve before the Fall, so we may safely say that no children were born in the Garden. Since Eve mentions that she has “acquired a man through God,” we may safely say that Cain is her firstborn son. However, Eve specifically stated that God had given her a man. The text does not identify any daughters born before Cain, but it is possible. The next chapter tells us Adam’s age when Seth is born, but it doesn’t mention the age of Adam at the time of Cain and Abel’s births. Abel could be the second-born son, or there could be other sons born before Abel. We also don’t know how many years separated Cain and Abel in age.
I believe that the Fall happened soon after creation. Since God had a plan of salvation before creating anything, we can be assured that Satan had a desire to corrupt God’s creation as soon as it was done. I’m going to say that it was a short time before the serpent tempted Eve, they sinned, and God kicked them out. Chapter four says that Adam knew his wife and she conceived. Nine months later, Cain would have been born. Adam and Eve could have been in the first year of their lives when Cain was born, providing that no daughters were born first. Abel could have been born in the second year, or other sons and daughters could have been born in between the two.
When it comes to Seth, we know that Eve said that God gave her Seth to replace Abel (4:25). Chapter 5 says that Adam was 230 years old (in the LXX) or 130 years old (in the HM) when Seth was born. So, Cain and Abel could have been older than 225 (125) years old when the murder happened if Seth was the next son born after that happened. Cain’s genealogy doesn’t say how old he was when his first son was born, so we can’t verify that he was older than 200 at the time. You’ll notice the difference in numbers between the Septuagint (LXX) and the Hebrew Masoretic (HM), but we’ll save this for tomorrow when discussing the genealogy.
We also know from the text that Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord. In the previous post, we concluded that God walked with Adam and communed with him. There was no reason for Adam to bring offerings to God before he sinned. Giving offerings must have been a result of the Fall. Regardless, Cain and Abel knew how to make offerings to God.
Cain was a gardener; Abel was a herdsman. Cain brought an offering of produce from his garden, and Abel brought some of the firstborn of his sheep. God accepted Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s. There could be one or two reasons for this. In Leviticus, we will learn that the smell of a burnt offering is pleasing to the Lord. You can’t get that aroma from offering produce. Yet, both are offerings given to God, so why would God accept one offering and not the other just because one isn’t a burnt offering? The second reason may be more plausible.
The text says that Cain offered ‘some’ of his produce while Abel offered the firstborns of his sheep. It appears that Abel gave the first of his flock to God while Cain just picked out random produce to offer. Verse 7 gives some insight. God told Cain, “Have you not sinned if you offer rightly but do not divide rightly? (LXX)” Most translations render the text, “Won’t you be accepted if you do right? But if you do wrong, then sin is at your door.” The Septuagint seems to clarify that Cain was rightly offering his produce, but he divided it wrongly. In other words, Cain didn’t give the first fruits of his crops to God. He gave the leftovers.
God tried to counsel Cain, but Cain felt rejected by God instead of corrected by God, and so he decided to get rid of the competition and killed his brother Abel. God punished Cain but did not kill him, which is the punishment for murder under the Mosaic Law. This action appears to indicate that there was not a commandment against murder given at this time. Cain feared that someone would kill him in retribution (at this time, Cain would have had many brothers and sisters to do the deed), so God put a mark on him so that anyone who found him would not kill him, and if they did, their punishment would be sevenfold. Cain left Eden and settled in the land of Nod.
Verse 17 says that Cain knew his wife, and she conceived. Many people have asked where Cain got his wife. I would like to know when, before the murder or after? But we may never know that. As for who she was, if Cain was born in the first year after creation, and Seth was born to replace Abel in the 230th year after creation, then there are 200+ years of children being born to Adam and Eve, growing up and getting married, and having children of their own. That’s a lot of choices in women. Let’s say that in the third year, Adam and Eve had a daughter. She would have only been two years younger than Cain and could have become his wife after they had grown to adulthood (whenever that would be back then). But it appears that Cain didn’t have children until after he left for Nod, and it seems unlikely that he would have married many years earlier and not have had children. But of course, this is all speculation. The point is, from the time of creation until the murder, maybe 220 years later, many people would have populated the earth.
Next, we see the genealogy of Cain for six generations. The ages of the fathers are not given regarding when their sons were born. It doesn’t seem to be important to the narrative. What does seem important is the information given on some of Cain’s descendants.
Cain’s firstborn was named Enoch (not the one who wrote the Book of Enoch), and Cain was building a city that he named after this son. That information seems irrelevant since the city would have been destroyed in the flood, but the information was passed down nonetheless. Maybe the stories of the city of Enoch were legendary enough to be passed down by Noah’s family after the flood, though those stories don’t remain today.
The rest of Cain’s line has no information until we come to the sons of Lamech. Jabal was the father of cattle raisers who lived in tents (4:20). His brother Jubal was the one who invented the harp and the lyre (vs 21). Their half-brother was Tubal-cain, and he was a hammer-using coppersmith and worked with copper and iron (vs 22).
Noah and his family had to care for a lot of animals. They knew (or quickly learned) about being cattle raisers and shepherds and tenders of other kinds of animals. Whether they had any knowledge of being a coppersmith or if they knew how to play the harp or lyre is unknown. But that knowledge was certainly around after the flood. Here in the text, it indicates that that knowledge was around before the flood.
Lastly, from the account of Cain and Abel, we learn that Seth’s firstborn was Enosh, and it says that Enosh hoped to invoke the name of the Lord God (LXX). Other versions say that after Enosh was born, men started to call on the name of the Lord. Or to worship God. Enosh was born 435 (235) years after creation, so it seems to indicate that for 400 years or so, people didn’t seek out God until Adam’s grandson Enosh started something.