(June 17, 2024 at 10:07 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:(June 17, 2024 at 11:01 am)The Grand Nudger Wrote: The cain and abel thing is fun. That's about the pastoralist source telling us that god likes his way of life better than the other guys. Literally translated it's the story of Farmer and Herdsmen and according to magic book - there was a city on earth at the time.
Robert L. O'Connell in The Soul of the Sword (a history of human weaponry, writ short) suggests that the divide between farmers and herdsmen may be one source of organized warfare, in that the two groups were fighting over land, one to use that land for crops, the other for pasturage. It's only supposition, which he makes clear in the book, but I think it's an interesting thought.
When we frame the fable of Cain and Abel in that light, it sure looks allegorical ... but again, that's supposition, on my part this time.
I think that the Cain and Abel story tells us about people as well.
We like the smell of BBQ, kebobs, steaks. We very much like the smell of cooked meat. By we, I mean europeans, middle eastern people, probably Russia and all the people of asia minor.
Vegetable aren’t a favorite of ours.
The jewish god is just a reflection of that. He likes the same things that we do.
It is also possible that the story is used as a tool by priests to get meat from worshipers. They can claim that the meat is for the god and just take it into the church and eat it.
If it is about land use, then there would be farmers fighting farmers, shephards, fighting shephards.