• : Genesis Chapters
• 4:
• 1-12
• , 6, 7:
• 1-10,
• 8, 9:1
• -17
• , & 11:
• 1-9
• Cain and Abel
• Noah
• The Flood
• The Tower of Babel
• Key Verses and Themes
• Genesis 4:1-12
• Offerings to God

— We see Cain and Abel use offerings as a means to show thanks to God and to worship Him.

• “brother’s [

righteous

] blood cries unto me”— Abel serves as the first martyrs. See the discussion questions below to see how and why.

— God gives Cain a chance to repent/remorse, but Cain retorted angrily by asking “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God delayed justice so that repentance might occur, but Cain did not repent, and so suffered the consequences (the curse).

• Genesis 6

• — Click on this

link

to see the list of oldest humans recorded in modern history and see for yourself if this verse seems true!

• 2 Genders-

“Male and female” referring to animals entering the ark

• (See
• week 1
• Genesis 8

— Noah too, like Cain and Abel, made a sacrifice to God. Noah built an altar too, and offers animals, like Abel did. Note that verse 20 says that Noah offered “clean” animals and birds, which were according to the Law that Moses received on Mount Sinai from God. Noah was before the law, however, so Moses, who wrote Genesis, mentioned this so that those reading it would know what type of animals Noah offered. Note also that Noah’s offerings were a “soothing aroma” to God, which shows us that God is pleased with offerings, with Cain and Abel showing us that the offering itself is not what pleases God, but rather the intention and purity of heart of he who is offering it to God.

• Genesis 9:1-17

“flesh with life, which is the blood”— Animals are instinctual, and have no souls. When they die, they completely cease to exist, contrary to humans, whose soul remains after their bodily death.

God makes covenants!

— God made a covenant between all of mankind that he would never flood the

• entirety

of the Earth again.

• Genesis 11:1-9

• “let

Us

go down”— Here again we see God speaking in a plural form, which alludes to the Holy Trinity.

References to the New Testament & our Church practices

• Martyrs (Abel)
• Matthew: 23:35

“Righteous blood... righteous Abel”

— Speaking to the Pharisees, Christ references Abel’s death, calling him righteous, which confirms his martyrdom, as he died for righteousness and love for God, at the hands of Cain, someone who lacked those things and hated someone who didn’t.

• Martyrs (Abel)

Hebrews 12:24

Here St. Paul references Abel, reminding us that, though Abel was righteous, only Christ’s blood was completely innocent and blameless!

• Noah & Flood
• Matthew 24:38

“For in the days of the flood”

— Here Christ, again showing His knowledge of the Old, and also how the Old relates to the new, tells us His second coming will be as sudden and unexpected as the flood was for people living at the time. This applies to those who live “insensibly”, i.e., in sin and in complete rejection of God, for just as Noah knew that the flood was to come, so too will Christ’s faithful servants discern that His return approaches by the signs Christ gave in Matthew 24.

• Dove & Olive
• Matthew 3:16-17

Bl. Theophylact

“a dove announced deliverance from flood with olive twig, here Holy Spirit announces deliverance from sins. There, an olive twig, here, God’s mercy”.

• Discussion Questions

How did Cain, Abel, and Noah know to do offerings to the Lord?

St. John Chrysostom

“He [Cain] knew and understood that he should offer from his own possessions some produce to God as to his master, not because God needs them, but for the purpose of demonstrating his gratitude as being himself a beneficiary of such kindness.” The kindness that was God blessing him with yields of cattle and crops (possessions), as he did for Abel. So it was essentially their conscience, just as it was for Noah knowing between good and evil in those days of lawlessness. Noah would have known the story of Cain and Abel as well, and known that God was pleased with sacrifices like those of Abel (with a pure heart and conscience).

Why was Abel’s sacrifice accepted, and Cain’s was not?

Mar Aprim Raba (St. Ephraim the Assyrian

) “Abel was very discerning in his choice of offerings, whereas Cain showed no such discernment. Abel selected and offered the choicest of his firstborn and of his fat ones, while Cain either offered young grains or certain fruits that are found at the same time as the young grains. Even if his offering had been smaller than that of his brother, it would have been as acceptable as the offering of his brother, had he not brought it with such carelessness. They made their offerings alternately; one offered a lamb of his flock, the other the fruits of the earth. But because Cain had taken such little regard for the first offering that he offered, God refused to accept it in order to teach Cain how he was to make an offering”

St. John Chrysostom

adds a similar sentiment, stressing that the purity of intention and attitude that Abel possessed when giving his offering pleased God.

That is why the Scriptures teach us that God wants a pure heart, mercy, forgiveness, etc. from us (

Psalm 51:16-17, Hosea 6:6, 1 Samuel 15:22, Proverbs 21:3, Matthew 9:13)

, not just offerings. We know God is not like man, who is easily swayed by glamour and riches, and shows partiality because of it. So, again, that is not why Abel’s sacrifice was accepted. That is why Christ said of the Widow’s offering to the treasury of a few cents that she

“has put more into the treasury than all the others”.

Mark 12:41-44

So our modern-day sacrifices (besides Qoorbana) are doing those things, repenting, having a broken heart when we sin, and obeying God, which means carrying our Christ’s commandments to be merciful, loving, in prayer, etc.

How does the type of death that Abel endured relate to Christians (in the New Testament/Covevant)?

Abel was killed due to envy and hatred that arose in his brother on the account that Abel’s sacrifice had been accepted, and Cain’s had not. What caused this difference in God’s reaction to their offerings?

See above.

This being said, Abel mirrors Christ’s martyrs in that both were hated by the unrighteous for their faithfulness to God, killed out of env, and that fact that both their bloods are written to being crying out to God (their Redeemer), as we see in

• Gen 4:10
• Rev 6:9-11

Is Gen 6:5-7 telling us that God felt that he had made a mistake in making man?

No, God does not make mistakes, and He had foreknowledge of everything, so he knew man would be this wicked. The church fathers state that the Scripture was written in such a way as to say “repented/regretted” “to impart more fully to us a true understanding of the Scriptures, speaking "as if" in terms of human emotions. By using the term "repentant God," it shows the force of God's rejection. God's anger is simply the punishment of the sinner.”

What are some possible reasons man was so wicked in Genesis 6?

There was no law on the Earth at this time, as it was before Moses, who brought the 10 commandments and ordinance of the Mosaic Law, and obviously before Christ. So, man is living in a period after falling into sin and being expelled from the Garden of Eden, and before being given set laws and statutes from God via Moses. Thus, wickedness abounded. This shows the dependence of man on God and His goodness and Holiness, as man left to his own devices defaults to sin and rebellion, as he is the offspring of the sinful Adam.

Then how did Noah find grace in God’s eyes, “walking with God and being just”

Despite there not being a written law, there was still human conscience and God’s spirit to guide the actions of man (see verses below). Additionally, Noah would have known there was a God, as his forefathers would have told him so, as it is certain that Adam would have passed down this knowledge to them (oral tradition), and so Noah would have an idea of God and what He is like (Just and Holy).

Jeremiah 31:33

“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their [i]hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Romans 2:14-15

, “for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves,

15

who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)”.

What does the excerpt on the Tower of Babel teach us about man’s nature?

Despite the flood killing all men except for Noah’s family, man STILL defaulted back to pride and evil, and this time, with the flood in mind, saying

“Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth”

. They decided on a tower because they thought it best to avoid a future flood, despite God promising to Noah that he would never again flood the entire earth! So man’s nature is to return to evil and rebellion against God. Keep in mind since all men descended from Noah after the flood, these people KNEW what had happened with the flood.

• Why does God say in Gen 11:6 that

nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them”

Is God admitting he would be powerless? And why does he say

• “Us”

in verse 7

It’s as if God is saying “If I don’t stop them now, nothing will, because they truly have united together in trying to build this tower”. “Us” is another indicator of the Holy Trinity.

Questions that came up during reading

Who are the "sons of God", "daughters of men", and "giants/Nephilim" in Genesis 6:1-5?

The sons of God are the children of Seth, who as Adam's son, and the daughters of men are the children of Cain.

The giants/Nephilim are said to be simply that, giant-sized humans.

This is not important to our salvation nor faith.

In Genesis 11:7 God says "Let us go down", does the fact that it says "go down" tell us that it means Jesus went down and saw?

Not necessarily, as this idea is rarely found among church fathers, and is particularly absent among the earlier ones.

Did Jesus ever appear on Earth before he took on flesh in His birth as we know it?

Some of the church fathers write that, yes, He did.

• One such example is where we read in
• Genesis 3:8
• that God
• "walked"
• or

"strolled"

in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve have sinned, which some church fathers attribute as a manifestation of Jesus Christ, as the verb used is indicative of man. However, many church fathers do not have this interpretation.

• Another example is that in

Genesis 18:1-3

, where three men appear to Abraham, but Abraham refers to the three as the singular "lord". Some church fathers say Christ Himself was one of the three men, and that the other two were angels, as two angels came to Lot in the next chapter.

• This Week's Study

—Update the "Group Bible study Form" sent out on remind

—Read

all the verses and chapters of Genesis we skipped, and ask questions on the form under the "Contact Us" page!