What, exactly, was expected (commanded?) regarding these sacrifices that would make Abel’s sacrifice more acceptable than Cain’s? And even though the New Testament tells us that Abel’s sacrifice was ‘better,’ it still doesn’t tell us exactly ‘why.’ We can make good guesses and frame adequate hypothesis but are still left without certainty. And so it is with the post-murder claim summation of God to Cain – “your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” What, exactly, does that mean?

By looking at the earliest traceable religious cultures in history, blood begets blood, i.e., ‘revenge.’ And this is what seems is going on in the Genesis text: The blood of Abel is crying out for revenge against his brother. This interpretation seems bolstered by Cain’s protestation that his banishment will bring about his death via the revenge of another on behalf of Cain. To protect against this, God puts a mark upon Cain so that all will know not to take his life.

Contrasting this theory of the ‘blood of Abel crying out from the ground for revenge’ is what the Book of Hebrews says regarding the blood of Jesus: “…Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the [his] sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24).

By comparing the death of Jesus and his final words “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” with the report of Abel’s blood crying out from the ground, it does not seem much of a stretch to see the text as contrasting a defiled religion attaching itself to ‘revenge’ with a pure religion attaching itself to ‘forgiveness.’ After all, just a few verses earlier in the Hebrews text is the call to “make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy” (Hebrews 12:14).

Based on our sacred literature then, it seems our ‘religious’ options are that we can cry out for ‘revenge’ or ‘forgiveness.’ One of them is clearly in line with an old system where bloodshed begets more bloodshed, while the other leads to forgiveness and the way of the cross and the last words of Jesus.

In listening to the rhetoric today among Christians, which of these two options is more consistently called for? Could it be that the blood of Abel is presently crying out more loudly than the blood of Jesus – even among Jesus’ own followers? If so, wouldn’t that go down in history as one of the cruelest of ironies? Assuming, that is, that there will be a civilization around to even record such a history, if the revengers have their (our?) way.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called ‘children of God.’”