Erik Larson
Eden, he burned incense as a pleasing fragrance — frankincense, galbanum,
stacte, and aromatic spices — in the early morning when the sun rose at the
time when he covered his shame."^2 One could have hoped for more. As
Adam was the first to bear the divine image and likeness, to see the pristine
splendor of God's creation, and to communicate directly with the Creator
with no sense of guilt or shame, his worship before the fall could have been
very useful to the author of Jubilees as a pattern for all his posterity. But in
stead we catch only a glimpse of the worship of Paradise as Adam is on his
way out. It is more than we learn from Genesis. A curious beginning, but a
beginning nonetheless. Adam is a priest.^3
The earliest rite of worship, for the author of Jubilees, is the burning of
incense. What is the reason for this? One possible answer is that at the time
of Adam humans were not allowed to eat animals and so it was not fitting
for Adam to offer up animal sacrifice. Full use of animals would come in the
days of Noah, and for the author of Jubilees he would be the first to offer
them. The problem with this solution is the sacrifice of Cain and Abel, which
is pre-Noachic. One could persist by noting that while the word "sacrifice" is
used in the Jubilees account of Cain and Abel, it is nowhere explicitly stated
what those sacrifices were. But several passages in Jubilees seem to presup
pose that the reader has knowledge of Genesis, and the Cain and Abel story
is likely one of them. Alternatively, another reason for incense might be that
the worship of the first human should come closest to that of heaven, and in
heaven no animal sacrifices are made. Perhaps.
That Adam burns the incense on his way out of Eden is significant
since according to Jub 4:26, this is one of the four places on earth that be
longs to the Lord. It is where Enoch offers his sacrifice as well. Adam per
forms his act of worship at the rising of the sun, as would later be com
manded in Exod 30:7.
As noted, the first sacrifice according to Genesis is offered by Cain and
Abel. In Gen 4:3-5 the Hebrew minchah is used to describe the offerings of
both brothers. This word can mean either a sacrifice or a nonsacral gift. In
the LXX this distinction is recognized so that minchah is translated either by
thusia (140 times) or doron (30 times). Interestingly, the LXX refers to Cain's
offering as thusia and Abel's as down, likely to emphasize that there was a
- All quotations of Jubilees are from J. C. VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees, CSCO 511
(Louvain: Peeters, 1989). - This becomes clear by comparison with the author's description in Jub 4:25 of
Enoch as a priest who offered incense, on which see the discussion below.