(The Naming of) Cain and Abel

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the Lord.’ Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.  (Genesis 4:1-2a)

The first humans to ever be born were given names with meaning.  Eve explains why her first-born, Cain, is so named.  From the Hebrew verb קָנָה qanah means ‘to get or acquire’, Eve would draw attention and remind Cain that he was an act of God, from which she benefitted and by which he was ‘gotten’.  

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