The phrase ‘I am my brother’s keeper’ is a well known saying in the bible, coming from the story of Cain and Abel. In Genesis 4:1-4:16, Cain, being the first born by Adam and Eve, kills his brother Abel, the second child of Adam and Eve. Cain does this out of pure jealousy and envy. When asked what happened to his brother Abel by God, Cain replies by saying ‘I know not; am I my brother’s keeper?’ this signifies that Cain is talking back to God, telling God that he is not accountable for the absence of his brother Abel. Cain saying this is a lie because he does know what happened to his brother, Cain killed Abel because God was more pleased with the ‘sacrifice’ Abel brought him than Cain. Abel brought to God the firstlings of his flock and their fat. Cain on the other hand brought to God fruits of the ground. For whatever reason, God did not see Cain’s sacrifice as acceptable, so he declared Abel with the better gift. There are a couple of different reasons why God did not respect Cain for his gift but accepted Abel for his.

Although the bible does not come out and give an explanation as to why God did not accept Cain’s gift, there are different views on why he did not. The first reason being God wanted a sacrifice, meaning a living creature must be slaughtered and have blood spilled across the ground. Since Abel was a farmer, he simply killed some of his livestock and presented it to the Lord. Cain brought God fruits, which was not considered admirable since he did not have to kill a creature for the gift. Another reason as to why God rejected Cain’s gift was because of the simplicity of the offer. Because Abel had to go through the process of killing his animals, then skinning them and using their skins as tunics, Abel sacrificing the animals for not only their fat and meat but used all of the parts of the animal said a lot. This was saying that no part of the sacrificed animals were left behind. Every piece of the animals was used in one way or the other.