Why were Cain and Abel offering sacrifices to God in the first place?
When did God first ask for sacrifices to be given ?
Jehovah is a jealous God. Was he jealous of the pagans sacrificing people
to their gods? ( Abraham Issac then happened )
sacrifice questions ?
by moomanchu 4 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Honesty
When did God first ask for sacrifices to be given ?
Actually God offered the first sacrifice on behalf of fallen man:
Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Gen 3:21 The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.
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Narkissos
Imo sacrifices (in this story and many others, Noah, the Patriarchs, and even the Sinai story just before the Torah was given to Moses) are simply taken for granted as part of human culture.
Most likely, at an early stage there was no distinction between "religious sacrifice" and "secular slaughter". Every killing (whether hunt game or domestic animals) was both a religious and a social event, usually resulting in a communion meal in which the mortals shared the food with the gods (the holocaust or whole offering being only an apparent exception confirming the rule: one or several animal was set apart as the gods' food, while others were shared by the community). Deuteronomy, for the sake of its politics of centralised worship (only one suitable place for sacrifice, the royal sanctuary in Jerusalem) introduces the notion of "non-sacrificial slaughter" (which btw would be an interesting starting point for the whole notion of secular vs. religious) and separates the blood ritual from its originally sacrificial setting. From then on "sacrifice" becomes a more and more exclusively religious notion.
About the Cain and Abel story, I have recently suggested in another thread that it did not originally belong to the "primeval stories" about the beginnings of mankind -- which is still another reason why the sacrifices need no particular explanation.
I think one serious optical illusion we suffer in dealing with many of the older OT stories is that we can't help reading them from a Christian (or post-Christian) => monotheist (or post-monotheist) => religious (or post-religious) perspective. To us those texts have to be essentially religious (according to our narrow concept of "religious" vs. "secular"). And Yhwh has to be a central character, as if the texts were primarily meant to teach something about him. Actually in many cases "religion" and "gods" belong more to the stage background or props than to the central plot.
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moomanchu
Either way God encouraged sacrifices by accepting one and rejecting the other.
The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain He had no regard.
So Cain became angry and his countenance fell.
Then the Lord said to Cain why has your countenance fallen?
It's like a father, with two sons, who recieves a gift from each son .
Dad tells the one son your gift sucks, to the other son he says I love your gift.
Seems like a set up to me ?
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Carmel
Taking the OT literally, especially Genisus, then trying to make sense of it, is akin to playing in a sand box with friends and fighting over the plastic shovel.
carmel