Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 3:21

"And Jehovah God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them." — Genesis 3:21 (ASV)

Coats of skins. Animals, therefore, were killed even in Paradise. Nor is it certain that man’s diet was entirely vegetarian until the flood (see Note on Genesis 1:29).

Until sin entered the world, no sacrifices could have been offered. Therefore, if these were the skins of animals offered in sacrifice, as many suppose, Adam must have been taught in some way, immediately after the fall, that without shedding of blood is no remission of sin and that God would accept a vicarious sacrifice.

This is perhaps the most tenable view. And if, with Knobel, we see in this arrival at the idea of sacrifice a rapid development in Adam of thought and intellect, yet it may not have been entirely spontaneous but rather the effect of divinely inspired convictions rising up within his soul.

It also shows that the innocence of our first parents was gone. In his happy state, Adam had studied the animals, tamed them, and made them his friends. Now, however, a sense of guilt urged him to inflict pain, suffering, and death upon them.

But in that first sacrifice, the foundation was laid for the whole Mosaic dispensation, just as Genesis 3:15 laid the foundation for the Gospel. Moreover, from sacrificial worship, there was alleviation for man’s bodily needs, and he went forth equipped with clothing suited for the harder lot that awaited him outside the garden. Better still, there was peace for his soul and the thought—even if still faint and dim—of the possibility of an atonement for him.