I`ve Been Thinking

[Ellen]

Adam had to offer a lamb.  Did he build an altar?  The picture we see of Cain's offering is on square grey dull stones.

 

I've been thinking, those stones we are used to are from flood results, In Eden stones were gold, silver, emierald, opal, saphire etc.  I think IF they did build an altar it would have been stunning, and I doubt if they were square.

 

 

 

 

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

I don't remember that Adam made any sacrifice in Eden... did I miss something?

[phkrause]

I agree Pam. As long as there was no sin, there was no reason to sacrifice. Sacrificing came after sin.

[Gail]

I like that you have been thinking :)

[debbym]

i can imagine no altar built until after the flood. Noah was a great builder and in his worship maybe this was expressed. Our form of worship is influenced by who we are and what our knowledge and experience and talents give us. For example what instruments we may play, and our literacy, and traditions.

Then again the altar of Noah built may have been a form may have been something handed down from God to Adam, common humble stone. How could we know.

Many of our precious stones are formed in volcanic action and not just laying around....

[Stewart (SDA)]

I like the thoughts Ellen, and agree that Adam offered a lamb.

 

Genesis explains that God made Adam and Eve coats of skins, but the animals that died, died, I believe, at Adam's own hand.

 

Adam was a man of sorrows, and the guilt he incurred would have crushed him, had it not been for the fact that he accepted (by faith) that God had provided a way for his recovery. As a perpetual reminder and lesson to him and his family, the sacrificial system was instituted very early. (And as you intimate, Cain and Able simple carried on the practice that their father had taught them... but of course it was not long before Cain corrupted it.)

 

Yes Ellen, I too believe that Adam constructed an altar outside the entrance to Eden.

 

Your thought about the nature of the stones is interesting. But is it possible that the altar might have been made of earth? The last few verses of Exodus 20 appears to teach that God's "Plan A" was to make an altar of earth -- an altar of stone seems to have been "Plan B". But Exodus 20:25 certainly does make the point that if stones were used, they were not to be cut or shaped by the hand of any man.

 

I do like the idea that the stones in Eden (and elsewhere?) were gold, emerald, sapphire, etc., because all the stones and rocks we see today were meant to be like the "bones" of the earth, weren't they? And originally the earth had no broken bones protruding from it's "skin".

[Stewart (SDA)]

... a common portrayal of Cain killing his brother, has Cain taking up a common rock to strike him... but the "tradition" may be less reliable than we have thought.