The story line of brothers, Dan and Keith Scott show similarities to the story of Cain and Abel as told by the Bible.
Genesis 4:1-4:16 tells the story of the first two sons of Adam and Eve - Cain and Abel [4]. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. One day Cain and Abel brought gifts to God to thank him for all the good he had done for them; Cain brought items that he had grown on his farm including wheat, figs, and grapes and Abel brought the first lamb to be born from one of his sheep. God was pleased with Abel's gift because he felt that it showed that Abel was willing to please God and do what God wanted. God, however, wasn't pleased with Cain's gift because he felt that Cain wasn't willing to do as God wanted, which angered Cain and he placed the blame on his brother. Because Cain blamed Abel, he began to think mean thoughts about him and the more he thought them the meaner his thoughts became until one day Cain killed his brother Abel. [3] This biblical story is mirrored in One Tree Hill with the story of Dan and Keith Scott [2]. Dan was the older brother and was arrogant and mean towards his younger brother Keith. Ever since childhood they were bitter rivals, rarely agreeing on anything. Keith was angry at Dan for abandoning his first child, Lucas, and leaving Karen to raise him as a single mother and Dan resented Keith for filling in as a father figure in Lucas' life. In season two there is a fire at the car dealership that Dan owns and he was inside during the fire, having fallen asleep after drinking a drink that was laced with a sedative. The dealership fire was planned out and executed by his wife, Deb who wanted to kill her husband. Dan however, does not know who attempted to murder him and places the blame on his brother Keith [1]. This parallels the story of Cain and Abel because much like Cain, Dan places the blame and becomes angry with his brother when in reality he should have been mad with someone else. Finally, in season three, approximately one year after the dealership fire Dan is still irate and blaming Keith for the dealership fire. During a school shooting Keith enters the school and find the shooter, Jimmy Edwards, in a hallway. Keith tries to convince Jimmy to put the gun and and tries to tell him that it gets better but ultimately Jimmy commits suicide. As Keith is distraught next to Jimmy's body, Dan walks down the hallway, picks up Jimmy's gun and shoots Keith in cold blood, believing he was getting revenge for the dealership fire. Dan then blames Keith's death on Jimmy, saying Jimmy shot Keith before killing himself. This mirrors the Story of Cain and Abel when Cain kills his brother because he is angry that he did not adequately please God [3]. |
Above is a photo of Dan and Keith the day of the school shooting, shortly before Keith is murdered [1]
The video below is from the third season episode sixteen "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept" in which Dan kills Keith thinking he is finally getting revenge for the dealership fire which almost killed him [5]. |
When Dan kills Keith, he is unaware that he is being watched by a student who was hiding in a nearby classroom. That student is Abby Brown, who started sending Dan messages telling him she knew he killed Keith in hopes that he would turn himself in [1]. In her second message to Dan, Abby paints "GENESIS 4:10" on the wall of his office. In the Bible, Genesis 4:10 is a part of the story of Cain and Abel and reads "The Lord said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground" [4]. Dan reads the passage to himself and begins to gain suspicions about his blackmailer.
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Abby Brown painted the words "Genesis 4:10" on Dan's office wall to try to convince him to turn himself in for murder [1]
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