What is the author's purpose in the story of Cain and Abel?

Answer 1

A:The story of Adam and Eve was a highly sophisticated moral tale. The story of Cain and Abel, by the same author, continued the theme of God's creation and told how we are to please God. Written at a time when God rewarded burnt sacrifices, it tells how he was pleased by Abel's sacrifice of a young lamb, but displeased by Cain's sacrifice of grain. Cain's envy of Abel and his murder of Abel are incidental to this story.

The story of Cain and Abel establishes the theme that the very best meat must be sacrificed on the altar to God, repeated later through the Old Testament. Perhaps the early priests who partook of the offerings were anxious to ensure a proper fare.