Blood Sacrifice

Something always bothered me with the Bible, why did God demand a blood sacrifice from animals? What would spilled blood of an animal do to sway the favor of God? Why was Cain's grain offering considered inferior, if Cain was giving the best of what he had that he had grown through his hands, is it supposed to be an allegory that salvation is not work based, but by the grace of God.This just never made sense to me.

From the passage, (Genesis 4), the inference must be made that Cain must have not sacrificed much. It cannot be because Cain sacrificed crops because later in the Bible (Leviticus 2:1-3), it is indicated that grain offerings are perfectly acceptable. Perhaps Cain sacrificed poor quality crops to the Lord.

Good question.

But could you not argue that it takes more work especially in an non advanced (in terms of agriculture) society to have crops successfully grow than it does to kill an animal? When you think about trying to grow crops with little understanding of tools etc and techniques that are now common place, it would seem that Cain had to work harder,would it not?The animal would have already been in existence for Abel to sacrafice,he didnt have to work to bring it forth.

if you are to take Genesis literally then these would have been people so generationally early in the history of man that they wouldn't have barter/currency set up yet, so you could not argue the value of livestock in ancient society vs the value of food grown.Even though that had crossed my mind that food is good for one use only where say an animals milk may be used as a renewable resource for nutrition, it would create other animals, etc.

Hope this is an interesting thread.

Brother, I like where it's going so far. What we need to consider in this discussion, I think, is the Biblical concept of "firstfruits" and the consecration of the firstborn to the Lord. In Exodus 23:16 and 19, the Israelites are urged to sacrifice the first fruits of their harvest to the Lord. In Exodus 13:12, it is stated that all animal firstborn are to be sacrificed to the Lord, with few exceptions. These sacrificial practices were in place as an act of faith. By sacrificing your first fruits, whether animal or otherwise, you were counting on the Lord to provide you with more so that you can survive.

In Genesis 4, we know for a fact that Abel sacrificed some of the firstborn of his flock. But we do not know and I believe that actually it is implied in the negative whether or not Cain sacrificed the firstfruit of his fields. Genesis 4:3 reads "In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD." To me, this seems to indicate that Cain waited some time after his first harvest to offer a sacrifice to the Lord.

Well, from a non-theist's standpoint it's just a natural change in the religion as things change.

Early on animal/blood sacrifices were normal among the varying religions of the time,
and as such were incorporated into the early version of the religion, but as times changed
and people began to look down on the practice and wanted to be different from the 'heathens'
and 'pagans' (though honestly the terms was basically interchangeable back then)
they sort of just dropped the idea.


Just trying to provide answers from all viewpoints.

Originally posted by brotherforchrist
Something always bothered me with the Bible, why did God demand a blood sacrifice from animals? What would spilled blood of an animal do to sway the favor of God?

You might want to read Hebrews 9 and in particular Hebrews 9:22

Hebrews 9:22

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Basically the blood was for purification, so you used blood to purify yourself of sin.

Of course Christ's sacrifice removed the need to use blood for his followers.

My understanding is that blood sacrifice was done as a kind of symbolism for when Christ would sacrifice himself for everyone. Then, as Cug says, after Christ's sacrifice, blood sacrifice was no longer required.

While it may be true that blood sacrifice is required for atonement of sins, we can't be sure that is the reason Cain and Abel are offering sacrifices in this passage. There are many reasons to offer sacrifice, and atonement for sins is just one of them. Once again, Leviticus indicates that certain types of vegetable sacrifices are acceptable to the Lord. Why exactly Cain's offering was found deficient may never be known but I'm sticking by my firstfruits theory.

Oh, okay, I think I missed the point. If I remember Genesis correctly, Cain's offering was not accepted because he did not sacrifice the best that he had, while Abel did. Abel gave the best animals he had for sacrifice and Cain did not give his best quality grains/vegetables or whatever he was growing.

Originally posted by DragonsDemesne
Oh, okay, I think I missed the point. If I remember Genesis correctly, Cain's offering was not accepted because he did not sacrifice the best that he had, while Abel did. Abel gave the best animals he had for sacrifice and Cain did not give his best quality grains/vegetables or whatever he was growing.

Genesis 4 is the appropriate passage if you want to do some research, but at least in English, the passage is ambiguous (in my opinion) and very open to interpretation.

Originally posted by brotherforchrist
Something always bothered me with the Bible, why did God demand a blood sacrifice from animals? What

The blood sacrifice of an animal was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ's yet future sacrifice.

Also God sacrificed an animal after Adam and Eve sinned, and made coats of skin for them. God showed them what needed to be done. When Cain and Abel came around and Abel obeyed and sacrificed as God instructed, his blood sacrifice was accepted because he came to God as God prescribed. Cain didn't offer a blood sacrifice, he tried to come to God by a different way, he disobeyed and wanted to make his own way to God.

People are still doing that today. Some come to God through Christ, others say, "Nah I don't believe that, I'm a good person and I'll still get to heaven." Or no I'll be a Budhist and get there, or no bahai is the way, or islam, or hinduism, or scientology etc.

Originally posted by dbrandt
Or no I'll be a Buddhist and get there, or no Baha'i is the way, or Islam, or Hinduism, or Scientology etc.

Buddhism and Scientology, which is a cult at best and basically just a way to scam people out of money,
are not based on the idea of going to a heaven.

Buddhism is about reaching Enlightenment/Nirvana and cyclical existence.

Scientology, well I've still not figured out what they believe, but it has something to do
with trillion year old souls, reincarnation and a giant alien in a volcano.


So they are not about finding a path to a deity.

[edit on 6/30/2007 by iori_komei]

I was wondering what's so special about blood to make it the main ingredient for rituals? Is it because it 'contains' life? Anyways the Rabbi's used to drip blood infront of the Ark, and the Mayan kings would drip their own blood as a sacrifice, and I just stumbled upon a page on Jordan Maxwell's site showing Muslims cutting their heads during the "procession of Taria" (or Tarla?) to express grief over the 'martyrdom' of some immam. Oh here it is, the 'Day of Ashura' (wiki: "This day is well-known because of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala in the year 61 AH (AD 680).")

Check out this bloody ritual. (notice: if you dont like the sight of blood, dont click the link, or go to a muslim country on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar.. )

Originally posted by ViolatoR
I was wondering what's so special about blood to make it the main ingredient for rituals? Is it because it 'contains' life? Anyways the Rabbi's used to drip blood infront of the Ark, and the Mayan kings would drip their own blood as a sacrifice, and I just stumbled upon a page on Jordan Maxwell's site showing Muslims cutting their heads during the "procession of Taria" (or Tarla?) to express grief over the 'martyrdom' of some immam. Oh here it is, the 'Day of Ashura' (wiki: "This day is well-known because of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala in the year 61 AH (AD 680).")

Check out this bloody ritual. (notice: if you dont like the sight of blood, dont click the link, or go to a muslim country on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar.. )

I really don't think it's something that actually has anything to do with the blood, but something rather to impress the worshipers with the importance of what's being done.

I did some research myself about this and posted a thread on it:

www.belowtopsecret.com...

You may find it interesting.

cheers

blood sacrifices we're made to perg sins. The blood was a way to clean sin. Jesus came to change those things. Now was the time to pray unstead of killing.