4:8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” 1 While they were in the field, Cain attacked 2 his brother 3 Abel and killed him.
12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 8 we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us,
3:11 “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’” 9
3:12 See to it, 10 brothers and sisters, 11 that none of you has 12 an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes 13 the living God. 14
1 tc The MT has simply “and Cain said to Abel his brother,” omitting Cain’s words to Abel. It is possible that the elliptical text is original. Perhaps the author uses the technique of aposiopesis, “a sudden silence” to create tension. In the midst of the story the narrator suddenly rushes ahead to what happened in the field. It is more likely that the ancient versions (Samaritan Pentateuch, LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac), which include Cain’s words, “Let’s go out to the field,” preserve the original reading here. After writing אָחִיו (’akhiyv, “his brother”), a scribe’s eye may have jumped to the end of the form בַּשָּׂדֶה (basadeh, “to the field”) and accidentally omitted the quotation. This would be an error of virtual homoioteleuton. In older phases of the Hebrew script the sequence יו (yod-vav) on אָחִיו is graphically similar to the final ה (he) on בַּשָּׂדֶה.
2 tn Heb “arose against” (in a hostile sense).
3 sn The word “brother” appears six times in vv. 8-11, stressing the shocking nature of Cain’s fratricide (see 1 John 3:12).
4 tn Or “through his sacrifice”; Grk “through which.”
5 tn Or “through his sacrifice”; Grk “through it.”
6 tn The Greek word μεσίτης (mesith", “mediator”) in this context does not imply that Jesus was a mediator in the contemporary sense of the word, i.e., he worked for compromise between opposing parties. Here the term describes his function as the one who was used by God to enact a new covenant which established a new relationship between God and his people, but entirely on God’s terms.
7 sn Abel’s shed blood cried out to the Lord for justice and judgment, but Jesus’ blood speaks of redemption and forgiveness, something better than Abel’s does (Gen 4:10; Heb 9:11-14; 11:4).
8 tn Grk “having such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.”
9 tn Grk “if they shall enter my rest,” a Hebrew idiom expressing an oath that something will certainly not happen.
10 tn Or “take care.”
11 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.
12 tn Grk “that there not be in any of you.”
13 tn Or “deserts,” “rebels against.”
14 tn Grk “in forsaking the living God.”