Another Biblical question. Cain & Abel

As far as I know, the bible doesn't tell why god accepted Abel's offering, but did not accept Cain's? For that matter...How did Cain and Abel know whether their offerings were acceptable? There were no teachings...as there were supposedly only the four of them around.......although god places a mark on Cain so "everyone would know he was marked" God's says that after this Cain went from the presence of the Lord and founded a city in the land of Nod. How do you build a city with no people? Where is the Land of Nod?

[edit on 12/28/2004 by LadyV]

cain was banished to live with the people of the land of nod.

also, adam & eve also had a 3rd son, seth

Originally posted by justyc
cain was banished to live with the people of the land of nod.

also, adam & eve also had a 3rd son, seth

Yes. I know this. As I asked above though....where was the Land of Nod? There was no one in the world supposedly at that time other than Adam, Eve, and Cain, as Abel was now dead....and Seth not yet born.

The Land of Nod

Thus shielded, Cain makes his lonely way into a region called "the land of Nod, on the east of Eden." Wherever Nod is -- the name is from the Hebrew for "wandering" -- we are meant to infer that it's a bleak place indeed, and that east is not the best direction out of Eden.

The Land of Nod, East of Eden, and The Mark of Cain




seekerof

Thankd for the link Seekerof....Just where did Cain's wife come from?

[edit on 12/28/2004 by LadyV]

God preferred Abel's offering of live animals over Cain's fruits of the earth. Hence the sacrificies to him thereafter which seemed to please him tremendously.

No one knows where Nod is, I firmly believe that Nod was in Upper Egypt.

Your probably already aware of this, but maybe this link might answer your question?
Where did Cain's wife come from?

As an added interest, the Land of nod can theoretically be located, if that, if one knew the location of 'Eden', and then what was considered "east," etc.



seekerof

It would appear to me the Ademic "man" was an improved model over one already here (Cro-Magnon / Neanderthals).
One Cabbalist story goes that we were given the children�s version of the story. As this version goes Satan had the first sex with Eve. Eve liked it so much she brought Adam to Satan and had him try out the fruit of Satan�s "snake". Eve was pregnant with Cain. Both were tossed out from what was meant to be a breeding colony for homosexual acts. Satan had gotten to them at an early and uneducated age. Cain being Satan�s son killed Able then in his father�s tradition tried to lie about it.
I like this version since Eve is not the reason for them getting the boot.
There is a lot of conjecture as to the "Mark". I do not side with it being a race. Maybe a specific physical trait among some enemy of the Jews?
One aspect of the Cain/Able tale regardless is that we are all indeed meant to be "our brother�s keepers".

It has been many years since I read the above story sorry for the lack of a link but I read it long before PC-Personal Computers or Political Correctness either one.

In it was also the point that woman being the last of Gods creations was given an extra measure of His compassion but to balance the emotion He also gave her His wrath.

It is thought God preferred Abels offering of a animal because it was the best of his herd. Cain just just grabbed something to give him while Abel gave his very best.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
Cain just just grabbed something to give him while Abel gave his very best.

I don't remember ever reading that in any bible...link?


77: I have actually read many of the Cabbalist stories......thanks for your input there too



[edit on 12/28/2004 by LadyV]

Originally posted by LadyV
Thankd for the link Seekerof....Just where did Cain's wife come from?

[edit on 12/28/2004 by LadyV]

she was probably from the family-clan-tribe
where Lilith, Adams' first wife came from.

possibly, both these females were not sapiens-sapiens or whatever, and
therefore eliminated from the Adamic bloodline/family....

Originally posted by St Udio

she was probably from the family-clan-tribe
where Lilith, Adams' first wife came from.

possibly, both these females were not sapiens-sapiens or whatever, and
therefore eliminated from the Adamic bloodline/family....

I to ohave thought of this before...I figure Lilith plays in here somewhere!

Originally posted by LadyV

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
Cain just just grabbed something to give him while Abel gave his very best.

I don't remember ever reading that in any bible...link?


[edit on 12/28/2004 by LadyV]

It is not substantiated by Scripture but many people that study the bible come to this conculsion. Thats why I said this is thought to be the reason.

Its the same with age old question of "where did Cain's wife come from" has not been answered by Scripture, but there have been several theories advanced as to her origin

Genesis 5:2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created

interesting phrasing there if there was only supposed to be 1 adam

Originally posted by LadyV
As far as I know, the bible doesn't tell why god accepted Abel's offering, but did not accept Cain's? For that matter...How did Cain and Abel know whether their offerings were acceptable? There were no teachings...as there were supposedly only the four of them around.......although god places a mark on Cain so "everyone would know he was marked"

God's says that after this Cain went from the presence of the Lord and founded a city in the land of Nod. How do you build a city with no people? Where is the Land of Nod?

[edit on 12/28/2004 by LadyV]

Cain just brought and offering of his fruit of the ground. Not the best he had.

3So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground.

Abel brought the firstling the BEST of his flock.


4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions And he LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering;

Abels offerings were his BEST and Cains offering were NOT his BEST.

5but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.

Cain became angry and his COUNTENANCE fell or Cain was unhapy...Countenance: the smile of approbation, (or countenance) is to manifest displeasure


6Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?

GOD gives Cain instruction to avoid sin and Cain doesn't.

7"If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."

We don't know where Nod is.

judydawg..... but no where in the bible does it say that Cain didn't offer the best of what he had....

Why does this God always seem to want Blood?

Why isn't the fruits of the earth good enough for him? Why did he prefer to have some of his own creations sacrificed?

That has always confused me. In many eastern religions, fruits, foods, flowers are the best offerings to be made to God, why does Western require Blood?

Originally posted by worldwatcher


That has always confused me. In many eastern religions, fruits, foods, flowers are the best offerings to be made to God, why does Western require Blood?

I have wondered this many, many times...even before man ate meat, a sacrificial kill was expected.....it makes absolutely no sense to me at all....why does a god need to have something killed? Big turn off there....

Originally posted by LadyV
judydawg..... but no where in the bible does it say that Cain didn't offer the best of what he had....

IMHO The point that it goes into deatail about Abel's offerings as the firstlings and their fat portions tells us this was special.

In describing Cains all is says is it was an offering, nothing note worthy. I believe this is the lesson to learn as we are to offer 10% off the top of our earnings.

Sometimes what the bible doesn't say is just as important as what it does say.

On top of this Cain gets angry which puts him in sin.

Originally posted by justyc
Genesis 5:2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created

interesting phrasing there if there was only supposed to be 1 adam

This is very intersting. My bible says Mankind. I'm going to talk to my pastor about looking at a hebrew-english parallel text to see which is more appropriate.
The creation of more than one starting couple makes MUCH more sense obviously from a genetic standpoint. Isn't there a certain type of DNA which a person gets directly from their mother, and therefore we should all have minimal variation on that if there was only one mother?

Finding Nod would get us into a long and unprovable arguement about geographic changes and the location of Eden. The best I can do is lay out a couple of popular theories for consideration/entertainment.
1. If you place Eden in the mediteranean or north Africa then Nod could be Egypt. You could even argue that it was Cain's people who started work on the Sphynx if you subscribe to the theory that very primitive civilizations started the head before Egyptians ever got there. This would be a creationist explanation for water damage on the Sphynx.
2. If you place Eden in the Persian Gulf or Iraq then Nod would probably be somwhere in Iran.
3. If the modern world is impossible to reconcile with the antedeluvian world, we'll never know.