At the start of the weekend, here’s another christian myth to be unfolded: The offering of Cain and Abel. In our children’s Bibles the way God showed he accepted Abels offering was because the smoke coming from his offering went upwards. On the contrary Cains offering was denied and the way God showed that in that the smoke coming from his offering went sideways.
Let’s look at the original text in Genesis 4: “3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (ESV, emphasis mine)
So, actually the original text doesn’t say if and if so, how God showed his acceptance of Abels offering and denial of Cains offering. Nice he?
I hope this series of posts is helping. If you have any other myth that you want me to write about, you can put a comment in one of the posts in the series “Christian myths”. Just give me the applicable Book, chapter and verse and I’ll write something about it.
Cheers!
