Historic Christianity

[Rdr. Arsenios]

I see the story as most likely being written down and shaped by people who already had an appreciation of a value in animal sacrifice, which I do not share, by the way.

It is interesting that Cain was in some ways more affected by the expulsion than Abel. That may help explain his insecurity. There's also a midrashic theme that explains and mitigates the Earth’s culpability in swallowing Abel's blood to help conceal the crime. It was accepted that the Earth might feel a sense of obligation to Cain, who was more devoted to the Earth.

Those accounts are outside my purview... We know from Scripture that his punishment made him far less able to obtain fruit from the earth, and this poverty gave him cause to complain to God that the descendants of Abel would, by their prosperity, be very easily able to kill off his [Cain's] descendants... And God gave him the assurance that the descendants of Able would NOT be permitted to kill them - Which is, btw, necessitated for those who live in the heavenly Kingdom, and are not of the earthly one... So Muslims can kill Christians, but not vice versa... At least this has been the Orthodox rule, for to us, going to war involves being excommunicated from the Church for some 3-7 years after our return, and killing otherwise is forbidden... And the Orthodox cultures prior to the industrial revolution have been the civilized and prosperous ones... Muslim culture has always been unfruitful, but their warfare has been continuous since their origins... After the industrial revolution, not so much is our prosperity, for we tend to embrace a simpler lifestyle, though we still have some industrial and commercial successes... Jacky Kennedy married one of them... But this whole notion that we must work ourselves to death early to make a success of our lives in a career is simply not Orthodox, for we are citizens of Heaven, and only as strangers to the earth do we tread upon it, bestowing what Grace we can, redeeming the time...

The Fall established the fact of Good and evil in the world, and Cain and Abel were their first exemplars, that's all... The first division... Cain murdered, and Abel was murdered, and that was that... Brothers all, in harmony and in conflict... That division and mixture is even now to this very day and hour...

Arsenisos