Why I believe Cain murdered Abel with his very own spear

I often feel like the clues in the Bible paints a picture that is very different from what we typically see produced by Hollywood and the media in general. Many of us grew up seeing a scene replaying Cain killing Abel and it’s almost always ends with Cain turning away to walk off when he’s unknowing killed by Cain bashing his head in from behind with a rock. But is that what scripture hints at?
The first thing to consider is Cain’s very name itself. Cain comes from the word Qayin (H7014) “ קַ֛יִן “ is essentially the same for the word qayin ( H7013) which means spear. Secondly in Genesis 4:8 when it says Cain killed Abel the phrase is “ wayya hargehi ( H2026 ) and that exact phrase is only found in two other verses which are both a retelling of the same story. In 2 Samuel 23:21 and 1 Chronicles 11:23 they both tell of how Benaiah killed a Egyptian after taking the Egyptians very on SPEAR from him.
But I also believe that it encourages us to look into the similarities of Abel and Jesus. Jesus was also stabbed by a spear by those who was part of his family. Jesus called other men his brothers. John 19:34 tells us of that story. I also can’t help but to think of how God asked Cain, “What did you do?” and linking it to Jesus on cross crying out to God that “ they don’t know what they are doing”. Cain was then marked to be protected from being murdered with the threat his own killers would be punished 7 times over and Jesus was marked with wounds for Thomas to scrutinize as proof that he was also marked so all could see he conquered death.

So all in all I believe the clues points towards Cain most likely having killed Abel with a spear. Speculation? Yes. But that does not mean it was not researched.

Not sure why but it kept changing it when I first posted it and had to work on fixing it through editing it.

Also yes I am aware that the book of Jasher mentions this story with Cain using the iron point of his plowing tool which could have spear like.

Not entirely sure why this matters

Not everything is for everyone.

But what I did do is study the word and show another way the word set up a parallel story that the gospel hyperlinks back to. Three times as much could have been said about it. As you study the Old Testament, if you do, you will see these biblical patterns that are echoed forward throughout other stories that become more visible when key words and phrases are focused on.

Such as how the story of Cain and Abel ties into the story of the gospel. But for some it’s something they simply cannot really see and lay hold too. Reminds me of Abel’s name that means vapor. Why does that matter? Well his name showcases his story. Vapor va is he’s quickly and that’s tying into how Abel’s life apparently vanished quickly.

A big part of seeing the richness of gods word is to appreciate the literary work that went into it. The way through thousands of years of generational reflection future writers linked back to earlier stories. Such as the three separate stories all tied together in the post. It’s a book so complex that most probably won’t ever get more than the bare minimum of a few areas understood.

I thought it was interesting actually because I thought you were driving at whether the Adam and Eve were implied Stone Age or Iron Age. That would have bearing on concordism.

Probably you’re right. It’s more complex than I had any idea.

Interesting to think about. Bringing up the names reminds me of reading Walton’s observation that like Cain and Abel’s names, Adam and Eve were definitely not the first couple’s names even if historical, as Adam (Humanity) and Eve (mother of all living) are Hebrew words and Hebrew did not exist as a language until after the Exodus. It would be like having a story where the character was tall and named Slam Dunker set in the American Revolution.

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It’s way more complex than I ever thought. The patterns are so interwoven in Hebrew that it makes me appreciate more and more. It makes me see the divinity in the scripture and not just the humanity. I wish I spoke Hebrew fluently just so I could better pick up on things. I read through a blog a while back that was showing patterns at the moment I can’t pick up that was showing rhyming words within patterns. Even words that showed no actual link but when spoken sounded similar to another word how both words snow parallels in other words.

I use to think it was mostly just revelation that used a lot of words and images that required understanding the history and language. Even doing a word search on eternal fires and eternal smoke showed that it meant something very different from what I believed it all meant at face value.

What neat is that almost the same thing I wrote here in the OP I shared to my Facebook wall and a girl who rejected christianity for Islam, the faith she grew up in, made her rethink the Bible and she wants to study it together through emails. She left Christianity in part for Islam because Islam constantly pushes how poetic and pattern based the Quran is and it is. Down to the characters for teeth and calmness and so on. Imams constantly showcases that literary beauty and even to me it was surprising and that’s what initially inspired me to see if the Torah did the same thing and it does extremely well.

Take Lamech in genesis 4-5. It spells his name one way in Hebrew and then after he shows how ridiculous bold he is by being the first man to take two wives, the first man to claim if Cain was protected then I am even more so, they change the spelling to the root words to el in his name signifying how he was so boastful as if he words carried the weight of God, although they did not. It was more of a mockery. Tons of things like that in scripture.

Definitely. In Ruth I believe every name is tied to the persons fate in the story.

Oh, man–that’s an old argument that Islam is from God because of the “perfect” Qur’an. It’s sort of a fairyology. You might want to use answeringislam.org–lots of good resources there on that. Unfortunately, we even have Christian friends who argue that the Bible internally verifies its inspired character for the same sorts of reasons (both Islam and Christianity use numerology to try to “prove” themselves). It’s quite convincing to the layperson, unfortunately, but makes both faiths look bad if they rely on poor arguments.

Stone. Neolithic.

That’s folk and their religion Randy. They’re happy with it.

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I enjoy your discourse, and we seem to be pretty near in avoiding miracles (probably to avoid disappointment). I thought you were pretty iconoclastic? :slight_smile:

I grew up in Niger, and our neighbors were wonderful, mainly country type Muslims who would share their little food with you. Having said that, they also loved talking through (and sometimes disagreeing) the origins of our scriptures. It can be a good discussion! I should probably take this to another thread if I continue.

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I have read the Qur’an, and I thought the Qur’an was quite well written, for the reasons you laid ought. Which is not to say that I agree with it theologically.

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