Abel speaking to us today...
What language did he speak, by the way? Did Adam and/or Eve teach him? Where did they learn theirs?
According to the account Adam started talking with God in chapter two before Eve was brought about.
But in chapter one Adam and Eve are not named; nor do they say a thing. They are simply directed by God to be fruitful and to multiply to fill the Earth - not the Garden - and chapter one ends with the completion of the sixth day.
In chapter two, the second sentence indicates that God rested (?) on the seventh day, but then goes on to detail a number of discrepancies with the account that preceded - and describes all over again how the first woman was "formed" vs. "created", in a sequence of events different than chapter one and with differing implications as well. She is named Woman, but that is changed to Eve in chapter 3. Two individuals are now confined to a garden.
In chapter three, Eve meets a clever talking snake with a reputation throughout the garden.
Adam never meets the snake, but he is persuaded by Eve to eat fruit of the tree. After that Eve and Adam sense the footsteps of God in the garden and know that they are in trouble. God curses the snake among all animals. God tells the woman that childbirth will include intense pain ( bringing us back to Abel...) and Adam will become a subsistence farmer. That's when Adam names his wife Eve.
After making clothing for Adam and Eve, God says, "Now that the man has become like one of us (???!!) in knowing good from evil, ..." God not only speaks in the editorial we, but goes so far as to say "one of US". What am I to think when the term Elohim is used?
There is much more about this in chapter 18, but I recall Fred Franz testifying in court that there is absolutely no evidence of the Trinity within sacred scriptures. Was he ignorant, a liar or both?
In chapter four, Cain is first born and follows his father's profession, tiller of the soil. A new concept is introduced - shepherd - and despite what is said to Adam in the previous chapters, the Lord is favorably disposed toward Abel's activity therein. The Lord likes Abel's offerings better than Cain's, so much so that Cain decides to do away with Abel, certainly reducing the genealogical pool we are aware of thus far.
As far as I can tell, Abel has no speaking part in this drama. He does bring the firstborn of his flock, which does establish a dangerous precedent in Canaan. Abraham responded to the Lord's call in this regard with respect to Isaac, but other patriarchs who heeded these calls later invoked the Lord's wrath.
The story of the snake and its nature is dropped until the epistles of Paul. And in speaking of redemption, he makes no mention of third parties such as snakes and the woman Eve. One suspects that certain apocalyptic movements act as the snake's intermediary, however, in emphasizing the dualistic nature of the cosmos.
Toward the end of chapter four, Adam through intercourse with his wife is allowed to replace Abel with Seth "since Cain had killed him". There are wives in abundance available for the sons of Adam, however, since a son was born to Seth who was named Enoch. The last line of the chapter, ambiguously states that "This man was the first to invoke the "Name". Seth or Enoch?
In chapter five, the narrator seems to rely for details on chapter one in its account of Adam's origins, though Adam is not named in chapter one.
So, you are directed to consider the words to us across the centuries, but did we ever even read his words? In this regard, Abel's words are similar to many other matters brought to our attention in the first book of the Bible. We are in the hands of hypnotists who suggest what we are supposed to hear and see.
