534 John Byron It is the third option that is of particular interest here. The comparison of the way that Cain killed Abel with how one would kill a bullock suggests a highly developed interpretation of the murder. The description to be sure is chosen in such a way as to include Abel’s blood which would have spilled from the cut throat (28). Such a description concurs with sfavzw’s use in ritual contexts and suggests a sacrificial interpretation of Abel’s murder. A similar interpretation is found in the Genesis commentary of Ephrem the Syrian who also associated the murder of Abel with Cain’s rejected offering. But instead of doing well so that the offering that had been rejected might be credited to Cain as acceptable, he then made an offering of murder to that One to whom he had already made an offering of negligence (Commentary on Genesis 3.4.3). Although Ephrem does not provide the throat-slitting details found in Genesis Rabbah, it is clear that he recognized Cain’s murder of Abel as a continuation of offering improper sacrifices to God (29). Considering the way sfavzw was used in antiquity and the tradition that Cain’s murder of Abel resembled an act of sacrifice, it appears there is more to the description of 1 John 3,12 than just a violent death. The ritual context normally associated with the term could easily be read as an echo of Genesis 4 and God’s seemingly capricious acceptance of one offering over that of another. Those readers familiar with the Cain and Abel story could associate the sacrificial terminology of 1 John 3,12 with the rejection of Cain’s sacrifice and subsequent murder of Abel. The fact that the term was sometimes used to describe acts of fratricide and that Cain was often labeled as the fratricide would have made it easier for readers to understand Cain’s murder of Abel as a form of ritual slaying. When read in the broader context of 1 John 3 the idea of Cain not merely killing Abel but doing so in a way that resembles an act of sacrifice would have stood in stark contrast to the figure of Christ. In 3,16 Christ is the ultimate example of brotherly love. Unlike Cain, Christ gave his own life rather than taking the life of another. The ultimate example of the brother-haters was Cain who did not offer up his own life but instead offered an unacceptable sacrifice to God: his brother Abel. * ** The literary context and the interpretive traditions associated with the Cain and Abel story coupled with the perception of fratricide in the ancient world suggest that there is more to the Cain illustration in 1 John 3,12 than has hitherto been appreciated. The mention of Cain is not merely a brief nod (28) A similar tradition of Cain killing Abel like an animal is found in the Babylonian Talmud: “Cain inflicted upon his brothers many blows and wounds, because he knew not whence the soul departs, until he reached the neck” (Sanhedrin 37b). (29) I am not suggesting, of course, that either Genesis Rabbah or Ephrem’s commentary were used by the author of 1 John. But both of these documents do reflect a common interpretive trajectory that held Cain’s murder of Abel as a form of sacrifice and 1 John may simply be an early witness to such an interpretation.