4:8 - Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field."1 And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
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Comparing the different versions, one notices straightway that Cain's invitation to his brother to go out to the field is missing in some of them. This is because the sentence "Let us . . ." is missing from the Massoretic Text, the Hebrew text that underlines all modern translations. The opening word wayyo'mer le-, however, always introduces spoken words addressed to the person after the preposition le; we should, therefore, expect something like the invitation we find in some of the English translations. The words may have dropped off the Hebrew manuscripts through the copying process. The restored invitation, however, has strong support from the Septuagint, Syriac Peshitta, the Vulgate and the Samaritan Pentateuch, and it is on that basis that the English translations restore them in their texts. KJV and NKJ make do by rendering wayyo'mer as "talked with," while NASB has a hanging sentence in place, "Cain told Abel his brother," leaving the reader to puzzle over what it was that he told his brother. The significant event is, nonetheless, clear enough. Cain attacked his brother and killed him.
And so the first human death occurred. "The wages of sin is death," we quote Paul easily (Rom 6:23). But Abel died not for his sin. He died, in fact, because he did what was right and pleasing to God. For his righteousness, the author of Hebrews would say (11:4). And he died for his brother's sin. This will not be the last time the Bible will surprise us with what it has to say about death. Cain killed. And why? Because he wanted to be acceptable to the Lord? How twisted had human nature already become!
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2018