Why was Cain’s offering rejected?

Why was Cain’s sacrifice rejected in Genesis 4 and what are we meant to learn from this event?  We are not told what was missing from the offering.  There are no explicit revealed pre-existing criteria.  All we have is the comparison to Abel’s accepted offering.  Abel’s offering was his best, Cain’s perhaps not.  What the incident revealed was an underlying issue with Cain’s pride, which led to murder.

Literalists defending incest

Mark Allfree and Matt Davies wrote a book in 2017 called “The deception of Theistic Evolution”. We have previously reviewed their attempts to reinterpret the word firmament to mean an empty expanse (or a multi layered heaven). Another issue they tackle is Cain’s wife. Their conclusion – incest was fine for thousands of years. Um… Evolutionary creationists on the other hand suggest Cain (and his brothers) didn’t marry their sisters. However Davies and Allfree, consistent with almost all literalists, conclude that God intended Adam’s sons to marry their sisters. In their own words:

The Problem of Cain’s Wife

It is notable that Genesis 4 contains the implicit indication that Adam and Eve were not the only humans who existed at the time. Firstly there is the problem of why Cain appears very obviously aware of people elsewhere in the earth, who do not belong to his immediate family.

Cain & Abel

The story of Cain and Abel plays an important role in the foundation of Old Testament theology. While the narrative itself is simple, the themes are deep, and the message deceptively sophisticated.

Just as their parents are the archetypal first human beings and sinners, the brothers represent an archetypal sibling rivalry fuelled by humanity’s predilection for conflict. Their story is traditionally examined from the standpoint of ‘what happened to Abel, and why?’, but a greater lesson emerges when we take the standpoint of ‘what happened afterwards?’

Conclusion from Genesis 1-4

Genesis 1 is a wonderful and exciting part of Scripture but its interpretation is complex.  I suggest there is evidence from within the passage and on the basis of simple knowledge of God’s works to interpret it as something other than literal history.  A minority of early Christadelphians shared this position.

Many of the passages considered in Genesis 2-3 are presented as being hostile to EC.  However, on examination, they are neutral – they neither support nor rule out the doctrinal preconditions which would allow some level of evolution as a tool in the hand of God.  As to the common proposition that Adam was amortal prior to the Fall and experienced a change in nature, the evidence is strongly to the contrary within Genesis.

Would God use incest to populate the world?

People find this question offensive (and some have used this ‘offence’ as an excuse to avoid the issue).  However, it is an accurate reflection of the special creationist position.  Their model of creation requires incest.  If you have no other people then God planned on incest as the mechanism of advancing His purpose of filling the earth with His glory.

The response to this challenge is to suggest that incest was not wrong until the time of the Mosaic Law (for example Ron Cowie)[1]. This answer supposes God’s principles are dependent on revelation to man.  Not a sound position given God doesn’t change (James 1:17), and this contradicts Scripture, specifically Lev 18 which describes incest as an abomination saying:

Cain’s Fear of people and his wife

“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.  And she again bare his brother Abel….”Gen 4:1-2

Following the birth of the two boys the record moves immediately into the sad tale of Abel’s murder.  Cain is exiled and Scripture records Cain’s fear when he says:

“…every one that findeth me shall slay me” Gen 4:14

Cain does flee from his family and in exile proceeds to start a family: