Cain and Abel's Offerings and Jesus' Sacrifice (1)

Part I: Cain and Abel
He did not look with any favor upon Cain and his offering. - Genesis 4:5

The Account of Cain and Abel

The Bible account of Cain and Abel tells us that "Abel came to be a herder of sheep, but Cain became a cultivator of the ground" (Gen. 4:2)¹. It also tells us of the offerings of Cain and Abel. It tells us that "Cain proceeded to bring some fruits of the ground as an offering to Jehovah" and that Abel "brought some firstlings of his flock, even their fatty pieces" (Gen. 4:3-4a). Finally, the Bible says, "Now while Jehovah was looking with favor upon Abel and his offering, he did not look with any favor upon Cain and upon his offering" (Gen. 4:4b-5).

So the question is, why did God look with favor upon Abel's offering, but not Cain's. Many explanations abound about the answer the this question. Some say, for example, that it was because Cain's offering was not meat, and therefore not pleasing to God. Other's refer to Hebrew 11:4, which states, "By faith Abel offered God a sacrifice of greater worth than Cain, through which [faith] he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness respecting his gifts," thereby implying that the Cain did not have faith. The first of these two explanations is partly true, and the second is true, but does not really go into detail about what it was that Cain lacked faith in. Other explanations are also offered that are completely off the wall and have little or no Scriptural basis.

So let's take a look at what's really going on here. The first thing we should take note of is the fact that Cain and Abel produced offerings in the first place. How did they know to do this? Remember that this was thousands of years before the Mosaic law was in effect. There was no law (oral or written) and no priests to tell them they should do this. Could it have been their parents that told them to make offering? Even if that were the case, where did their parents get the idea from?

Now, you might be inclined to say that they just did it. After all, many of man's traditions do not come from God. This, however, is not a likely answer, when we take into consideration what God required of the Israelites in terms of offerings under the Mosaic/Levitical law. We must then conclude that the notion of providing an offering must have come directly from God at some point along the line, even before God revealed his laws for Israel to Moses as far back as the time of Cain and Abel. So let's look at the various forms of offerings that were acceptable to Jehovah under the law.

The Various Types of Animal and Grain Offerings

There are many types of offerings described in the Torah (lit. "the Law"--the first five books of the Bible). These include various "meat"offerings, grain offerings, wave offerings, and drink offerings. We will focus on the "meat" offerings and the grain offerings, as these are the ones relevant to the current discussion.

Offerings of meat under the law included burnt offerings, communion (or peace) offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings.

Burnt offerings signified acceptance of the sin offering that sometimes accompanied them. Regular times for these offerings included every morning and evening (Ex. 29:38-39; Le 6:8-13; Nu 28:3-8), every Sabbath (Nu 28:9-10), the first day of the month (Nu 10:10) Passover and the Festival of Unfermented Cakes (Le 23:6-8; Nu 28:16-19, 24), the Day of Atonement (Le 16:3, 5, 29-30; Nu 29:7-11), Pentecost (Le 23:16-18; Nu 28:26-31), and each day of the Festival of Booths (Nu 29:12-39). Other times burnt offerings were made were at the consecration of priesthood (Le 8:18-21), at the installation of the Levites (Nu 8:6, 11-12), during the making of covenants (Ex 24:5), along with communion offerings and certain guilt and sin offerings (Le 5:6-7, 10; 16:3, 5), when performing vows (Nu 15:3, 8), and in connection with purifications (Le 12:6-8; 14:2, 30-31; 15:13-15, 30).

Communion offerings were a little bit different. Communion sacrifices took the form of a ceremonial meal in which the participants partook of the food. The priests and worshipers would be present at the meal and an offering would be made as a sacred portion for Jehovah. (Le 7:11-15; 19:5-8) In effect, Jehovah would be represented at the meal along with the priests and worshipers signifying peaceful relations.

Sin offerings were made for various unintentional sins (an Israelites or alien resident who sinned intentionally or deliberately was to be cut off from among his people "because it is Jehovah's word that he has despised"--Nu 15:30-31). Sin offerings took the form of various animal sacrifices from pigeons (the least expensive) to bulls (the most expensive) depending on circumstances and the means of the one making the offering. The details of the circumstances and appropriate sin offerings are laid out in chapter 4 of Leviticus.

Guilt offerings were similar to sin offerings, but differed slightly in that their specific purpose was to satisfy or restore a right that had been violated because of a sin. When a person unwittingly sinned (often through negligence), and the sin resulted in the violation of a right of Jehovah, a right of the nation of Israel, or the right of an individual the person, that person is said to have become guilty, and thus a guilt offering was required to correct it. For instance, if a person kept something he found that had been lost and lied about it (Le 6:2-3), he must first make a confession, and then make full compensation plus one fifth (Le 6:4-5; Nu 5:6-7). If the person died, it would go to the nearest male relative or to the priests if there were no relatives (Nu 5:8). After making compensation, he was then to offer a ram for a guilt offering. Chapters 5 through 7 of Leviticus outline the various details of the circumstances under which a guilt offering was required, and what the appropriate guilt offering was for each circumstance.

Grain offerings were made along with communion offerings, burnt offerings, and sin offerings, and also as firstfruits; at other times they were made independently (Ex 29:40-42; Le 23:10-13, 15-18; Nu 15:8-9, 22-24; 28:9-10, 20, 26-28; chapter 29). These were in recognition of bounty in supplying blessings and prosperity. In other words, grain offerings were offerings of thanks-giving.

Back to Cain and Abel

Since Cain and Abel's offerings mimicked the offerings outlined in the law for the Israelites, there is strong reason to believe that God told Cain and Abel about the requirements for offerings. The fact is that both offerings (Cain's independent grain offering and Abel's animal sacrifice) were acceptable forms of offering to Jehovah, so why didn't Jehovah look with favor upon Cain's offering?

It's not s much what Cain's offering was so much as what it represented (remember that an independent grain offering is a voluntary offering of thanks to Jehovah--an offering that was perfectly acceptable to Jehovah). So let's compare Cain's offering to Abel's offering, and to do that, we must first identify exactly what type of offering Abel's offering was.

Although Abel's offering was an animal sacrifice, it was clearly not a communion offering, Abel was not sitting down with other worshipers and priests in a formal meal to symbolize peace. This leaves us with the possibility that it was a burnt offering, a sin offering, or a guilt offering. There is no indication that the offering was made as a part of a regular procedure of during any type of festival (and it was certainly not made during the installation of the Levitical priests), and it was not made along with a sin offering or a guilt offering. Therefore Abel's offering could not have been a burnt offering. The two remaining choices are that Abel's offering was a sin offering or a guilt offering. Either of these two options have the same implications.

In order to fully appreciate the final conclusion, think about Adam and Eve. Do you, personally, feel any type of special connection with either Adam or Eve? Do you feel close to either of those two people? I know I don't. But now imagine that you are Cain or Abel, and Adam and Eve are your parents. Do you think if this was your situation, you feelings towards Adam and Eve, as your parents, might be a bit different? Cain and Abel both naturally felt an emotional bond between themselves and their parents (as well they should).

With this in mind, now consider what Abel's offering implied. Remember that Abel's sacrifice was either a sin or a guilt offering. Either way, it implied that Abel was imperfect and needed an animal sacrifice to repent for his sin (remember, this was before Christ's sacrifice). But where did Abel's sin come from? Of course, it came from his parents. And in some sense, Adam and Eve are all of our parents, but for Cain and Abel, Adam and Even were literally their father and mother. In other words, by offering up an animal sacrifice, Abel was implying that his parents had done something they should not have done, and thus caused sin to be passed down from them to their children. Apparently, Cain's emotions and loyalty to his parents made him unwilling to make such an implication through his actions. So, while Cain's grain offering of thanks giving was by itself a perfectly valid offering, God did not look with favor upon it because it spoke to his attitude towards God's laws. He allowed his loyalty to his parents overshadow an offering that, once made, rightly belonged to Jehovah.

Footnotes

¹ Note that all Bible quotes in the blog from now on will be taken from the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures unless otherwise noted.