First Record of Sabbath Observance.
By R. F. Cottrell
Gen. iv, 3, 4. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of the flock and the fat thereof. “THERE is a pretty clear intimation in this text, that the Sabbath was the time, when, by mutual agreement, Cain and Abel brought their offerings to the Lord. In our version it reads, ‘In process of time it came to pass.’ In the margin the literal reading of the Hebrew is given, ‘At the end of days.’ The word rendered end, is from the root which signifies to cut off, so that the proper sense of the passage is that Cain and Abel brought their offerings at the end, or last day of an established cycle, when the numerical succession of days was cut off. As there was no other period of days established at that time, but the week of seven days, the last of which was the Sabbath; so we can come to no other fair conclusion than that they came together to perform this religious act on the day God had appointed and blest.”