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Day 2 — Genesis 4-7
Genesis 4
I've read through Genesis probably twenty times in my life and never taken the time to look up any scholarly commentary. I had often heard through evangelical churches "Cain's sacrifice was bad because it was just fruit and you need blood" or an explanation that it was an empty sacrifice not born of faith (scripturally supported) but without much explanation. I looked into commentary on this and found an interesting commentary by Charles Ellicott. The summary being that Cain's sacrifice was obviously not something he did happily (God loves a cheerful giver), God spoke directly to Cain to say as much. Think about that— God still spoke to Adam and Eve and their children the same way He previously did to Adam and Eve. Ellicott also brings up something fascinating about the names, specifically Abel: it was a name given to him, likely postmortem, because of his death.
Abel's sacrifice as an inspiration for later Gnostic beliefs that blood sacrifice is the only thing pleasing to God is interesting too, and appears to be directly refuted by God's gentle criticism of Cain for his unsatisfactory sacrifice and shows a caring attitude towards Cain.
>6So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is [d]for you, but you should rule over it."
Completely different from the idea of a wrathful OT demiurge type figure we're often told of.

RT: https://poa.st/objects/9880ff24-e655-4f6f-9f29-906a30d93d2c

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