For a Bible character who doesn’t even last as long as a guest star on The Walking Dead, Abel has a surprising effect on the rest of the Bible. Genesis 4 is the beginning and end of Abel, the first man to physically die; the first man to be murdered. We have to back up a little to fully understand the significance of Abel throughout the Bible.
After the fall, when God first promises the Gospel and the Messiah through whom it will come, he declares to the serpent:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Gen 3:15 ESV)
Some versions render “offspring” as “seed,” which is well-put because it refers directly to the one specific seed, Jesus, who will crush the head of the serpent. The rendering of “offspring” also brings a lot to the table theologically, because it lends to the idea that we will see the constant struggle between the offspring of the woman — which is leading to Christ — battling with the offspring of the serpent throughout Scripture. Does this mean that the serpent fathered every antagonist in Scripture? Of course not, that’s weird. The same way that anyone who has the faith Abraham had is a spiritual descendent of Abraham, anyone who believes the way the serpent does is a spiritual descendent of the serpent.
That brings us up to speed to better understand what happened between Cain and Abel. Abel is the spiritual offspring of the woman, and Cain is the spiritual offspring of the serpent. We will see this scenario played out over and over again in the Bible. Jacob and Esau definitely displayed this contrast, as did Joseph and his good-for-nothing brothers, and we also see this type of thing in the story of Saul and David, which is the best cat and mouse story ever told. It happens a lot in Scripture, so try tracing it out next time you’re reading.
Ecclesiastes has an interesting allusion to Abel peppered throughout the book, although one probably wouldn’t notice it on a cursory reading. The Preacher starts the book with these words:
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? (Ecc 1:2-3 ESV)
The word for vanity in those verses is a word in Hebrew which means “breath.” The word is hebel — and if that sounds familiar, it should, because it’s a form of the name Abel. Any guess what the word for man is? Adam. So the author is asking, “what does Adam gain by all his toil under the sun?” The implied answer is, “Abel.” Adam is the representative of all humanity, and Abel is the first man to ever die. The author is saying: what does humanity have to gain from their toil? Death. Everyone dies, and the product of their labor is not coming with them.
Abel is utilized (sparingly) as a symbol of death throughout Scripture, but the next explicit mention of him doesn’t appear until the New Testament:
Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. (Mat 23:34,35 ESV)
Jesus is saying this to the Pharisees. There are many places in Scripture where Jesus tells the Pharisees that they’re the offspring of the serpent (John 8 for example), but in the passage quoted above, He’s actually telling them that the blood of the righteous lineage will be required of the wicked lineage. (Wicked Lineage would be a great name for a metal band). Abel is the first of the martyrs, and Zechariah is the last in the Old Testament. It’s almost like Abel is the universal ambassador of murder victims.
Abel only shows up twice more in the Bible; in the same book and only one chapter apart:
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. (Heb 11:4 ESV)
Abel’s gift was of faith, which seems to imply Cain’s gift wasn’t. It’s interesting that Abel offers God a lamb — the firstborn of his flock at that — and Cain offers fruit from the ground. Check out Genesis 3:17-19 for a fuller picture of what the ground has to offer — I’ll just say it’s difficult and unpleasant. God says it’s cursed, and work of the ground is the kind of hard work to which Ecclesiastes refers. So Cain offers God something from the cursed ground, a product of his work, and Abel offered God something that only required faith. Abel was a shepherd who had been blessed by God with a flock, and he offered them back to God in faith. I don’t want to push that concept beyond what Scripture says, but it’s notable.
and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Heb 12:24 ESV)
Read the chapter for further context, but the author is telling us things that we have obtained in Christ. We’ve received Jesus’ blood of the covenant, which is better than Abel’s blood, but why is it better? Let me proffer a possibility: Abel is the first one to die as a result of the fall, and signals the toils and tragedies ahead, but Jesus dies resulting in resurrection, in which he includes all of His elect. So Abel dies as a consequence, but Jesus’ death leads to a consequence. Abel is the first fruit of death, while Jesus is the first fruit of resurrection.
Just like all things in Scripture, Jesus is the truer and better version of those things.