This is kinda along the lines of my favorite who told the real lie in gen 3.
I was watching the movie 'the bible' the other night (couldn't sleep.) I was looking at its depiction of cain and thought cain is being pigeoned holed. Now I am not condoning murder and the actions of cains rage. But it seems that he was driven unfairly by outside sources.
The bible tells us that Cain became a cultivator of the soil and abel a herder of sheep. Now they were still eating the food of the land a basic vegetarian diet. If this is the case cain was the principle bread winner. Also god had cursed the land so this made cains efforts that much more of a toil. Meanwhile able tended his sheep and what do sheep eat?
Gen 4:3 tells us that it was cain who proceeded to bring some fruits of the ground as an offering. Than Able got some of the firstlings of his flock, fed presumably on the harvest of his older brother. As we know god looked with favor on able and his offering and basically snubbed Cain's.
Now the WT has read alot into this account about heart condition and the character of cain. But if you just read the account of its on merit you have to wonder why God dissed cain. Here is a man who not only worked hard for the survival of the young human family, he chose the harshest of occupation trying to reap food from a cursed earth. After he mastered this occupation he was the one who initiated the sacrifice, while his brother followed his lead.
After all of this his efforts were spurned for no good reason. Its no wonder his countenance had fallen. Again in no way do I condone his actions after this, I just question how he was manipulated into this situation for no good reason.
Whelp I guess this is my last topic started here. Its been fun and Enlightning thanks for listning to my rants and so called epiphanies.
Karl