The question has been asked, why _burn_ the offering? Why was it not sufficient simply to shed the blood? Perhaps in the beginning this was the practice. There is nothing said about burning the offerings of either Cain or Abel. It is highly probable they were not burnt. Jehovah was satisfied with the mere _sight_ of blood, the destruction of a life. But this, Cain did not offer. There was no _blood_ in his fruit-offering; hence Jehovah was not only unappeased, but insulted. The first mention of "burnt-offerings" in the Bible is the offering made by Noah after the flood. From this on they are common. The purpose of burning the offering was simply to cook it,--to roast it. The offering was nearly always eaten. Sometimes only the fat, considered the choicest part, was burnt as an offering to the god; while the people and priests ate the balance, either roasted or boiled. See a full account of this in 1 Sam. ii, 12f. As man has always made his gods in his own image he imagined the gods, like himself, loved to eat. Therefore, in addition to appeasing the wrath of the god by the sight of the blood of the victim, his favor was supposed to be further obtained by feeding him. As the good host always sets the best he has before his guest, so the best part of the sacrificed victim was placed on the altar for the god. Altho invisible, it was firmly believed that the god consumed the burning flesh or fat, as it was reduced to smoke and ascended to heaven. The parties making the offering,--sometimes only an individual, or a family, but often the whole tribe,--ate the balance. They were therefore, "eating with the god," and consequently on good terms with him, just as eating together today is an indication of friendship, or the taking of salt together among certain savage tribes is a token of peace and friendship, or the smoking from the common pipe among the early American Indians. Later in Israel, the whole offering was burnt. Jehovah was entitled to it all. Men had outgrown the idea of "eating with Jehovah."