Back To The Garden

In the first episode, I talked about the allegory of The Garden of Eden. I included some references to the creation story. As a reminder, these stories are found in Genesis One and they represent the author’s attempt to address the classic philosophical questions: who are we, and where did we come from? As I was considering several topics for this week’s lesson, I came across a talk I had done some time back on the story of Cain and Abel. It occurred to me that this would be a natural continuation of the previous lesson, as well as an interesting view from the perspective of metaphysical interpretation. The story of Cain and Abel is found in Genesis 4. The passage tells of Adam and Eve’s offspring: Cain, the older brother, and Abel, the younger brother. Cain, we are told, was a tiller of the earth. Abel, a keeper of sheep. According to the story, the time came (the ancient practice began, we could say) of giving offerings to the Lord. Cain made an offering from his work as a tiller of the earth, and Abel m