If animals were not used for food until after the flood, where did the skins come for Adam and Eve’s clothing?
Question:
Hi.
I was researching a topic when I came upon your website. Before I ask the question, I just wanted you to know that I am not asking this to discredit the Bible or God. I understand that it can be challenging to understand some of the Scripture after thousands of years.
My question concerns Genesis 3:21. It says God made Adam and Eve's clothing from skins. It has always been my understanding that animals were not used for food or other purposes until after the flood, which occurred many years after Genesis 3:21.
Do you have any insight about this? Thank you.
Answer:
"The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21).
The implication is that God sacrificed some of the animals He had made to clothe Adam and Eve, though God can create leather directly. It emphasizes that with Adam and Eve's sin, death was now in the world.
It isn't true that animals were not used. Abel sacrificed the best of his flocks. "And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering" (Genesis 4:4). The skins from these sacrifices could have been cured and used for clothing.
Response:
Thanks.
I knew animals were sacrificed. I worded it incorrectly. I just meant that God did not allow it for food until after the flood, even though some were already doing it. But I didn’t think about God using animals after the fall for clothing.
Thank you. It is all very interesting to me.
