Faith at the Dawn of History^(A)

⁴ By faith ^(B)Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still ^(C)speaks.

³ And ^[a]in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit ^(A)of the ground to the Lord. ⁴ Abel also brought of ^(B)the firstborn of his flock and of ^(C)their fat. And the Lord ^(D)respected Abel and his offering, ⁵ but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

¹¹ For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, ^(A)that we should love one another, ¹² not as ^(B)Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

²⁴ to Jesus ^(A)the Mediator of the new covenant, and to ^(B)the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things ^(C)than that of Abel.

¹⁰ And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood ^(A)cries out to Me from the ground.

^35 (A)that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, ^(B)from the blood of righteous Abel to ^(C)the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

¹¹ Woe to them! For they have gone in the way ^(A)of Cain, ^(B)have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished ^(C)in the rebellion of Korah.

²² And according to the law almost all things are ^[a]purified with blood, and ^(A)without shedding of blood there is no ^[b]remission.