Seeing God in the Mosaic Law
Bible verses are NKJV from biblegateway.com. A brief history of the Old Testament eras I had already been a Christian for decades before I learned that Moses didn’t write Genesis. The book tells us clearly that it was written in an era after the Israelites took the land from the Canaanites and after Israel acquired its own monarchy. (Gen. 12:6; 13:7, 36:31, etc.) The same with Joshua and Judges. So, we shouldn’t be surprised to see Cain and Abel offering familiar animal and harvest sacrifices in the post-Garden narrative. The brothers’ sacrifices are echoes of offerings required in the Mosaic Law. The Cain and Abel story is not meant to be perfect history, but perfect theology. The lesson, in order to stand, must be recognizable to the Israelite people. For those who are not familiar with the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, here is a primer, a brief overview of the various important eras, but it's not your grandpa's Sunday School lesson. I add a few n...