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Genesis 3 · a question people ask

When God made clothes of animal skins, was that the first sacrifice?

Interpretation

The text says only that "the LORD God made garments of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them." It doesn't mention an animal being killed, or call anything a sacrifice.

How Christians read it

Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.

A first picture of sacrifice

Skins mean an animal died so that they could be covered. Many Christians see here the first hint of the sacrifices to come, and of Jesus' death.

Genesis 3:21 · Genesis 4:4 · Hebrews 9:22

God's care for them

The point is what God does: their fig leaves were their own attempt (3:7); now God clothes them himself before sending them out. This reading stays with what the verse says God did and doesn't draw a line to sacrifice.

Genesis 3:7 · Genesis 3:21

The verses

“The LORD God made garments of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.”
Genesis 3:21 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Genesis 3

Genesis 3: Where are you?

The first sin starts with a question that turns God's yes into a no. God's first words afterwards are a question too, "Where are you?", and inside the judgment he puts a promise: the woman's offspring will bruise the serpent's head.

In Favor, questions like this come up right where they arise as you read, with the Hebrew and Greek behind the words and how the chapter leads to Jesus.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions