the 5th, 6th, and 7th person on the Earth...

The earliest people were cavemen.

From Eve's womb?

Yeah, I would have said they came from Eve, provided we were working from a creationist viewpoint, not an evolutionary one...Or am I not understanding the question correctly?

Well, when a man and a woman love each other very much...

The first century AD Jewish historian Josephus states in book 1 chapter 2 of his Antiquities writngs that Adam & Eve also had daughters longside Cain & Abel prior to the point of having daughters as specifically mentioned in Genesis 5:4.

But the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve had to know each other and have children in order for the human race to populate. And then with the next generation cousins would have to know each other. It isn't until the 4th or 5th generation that you don't have issues of this nature. Or, am I missing something?

Adam and Eve's children married each other. there was no injunction against what would later be known as incest at that time. Someone asked Elder Paisios about this and that is how he answered. I believe its in his Epistles book. I know I have read other Saints saying the same thing (I think St. John Chrysostom is one ...). Anyhoo, the Church has historically understood the Genesis narrative and the OT lineages as literal.

The genetic problems with incest would not have appeared until later generations, being mutations.

Mozartboy said:

The genetic problems with incest would not have appeared until later generations, being mutations.

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truism!

Mozartboy said:

The genetic problems with incest would not have appeared until later generations, being mutations.

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Not exactly true. I had a dog who died last summer at the age of 7, due to heart murmur problems. He was a product of incest, his mother was the aunt of his father. He had mild retardation due to the incest. If you don't believe me, ask Uncle Clem, he met Tikhon.

But what do we do with this?... When Cain killed Abel, he was given a mark or a sign by God so that when he was sent out, the "other people" would not kill him...

Why should the Bible have to tell us everything about history? Why doesn't it tell us more about the development of the ancient Chinese or whatever?

If what we call ancestral sin makes Adam our ancestor, then the answer is obvious. But it's a matter of deduction and is obviously not recorded (and therefore we are free to have opinions - which are not to be confused with the truth - on this one. (Open to correction)

ClementofRome said:

But what do we do with this?... When Cain killed Abel, he was given a mark or a sign by God so that when he was sent out, the "other people" would not kill him...

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They all lived hundreds of years. They were turning over generations in, like, 20. So that would make 10 generations in 200 years. A lot of people get made in a 10 generations.

gzt said:

They all lived hundreds of years. They were turning over generations in, like, 20. So that would make 10 generations in 200 years. A lot of people get made in a 10 generations.

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Is that a working assumption or something that we can be certain of? Just asking...

A working assumption. Actually, now that I look at it, they had children rather old. Still, several generations came to pass before he died.

Lucysmom said:

Wise guy! I figured there probably weren't a lot of branches off the family tree trunk, but who's to say that God didn't also create other people?

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Well, it doesn't fit well in the narrative.

Very interesting question. One of my seventh grade (sunday school students) actually asked me the same thing not too long ago. I basically said "the same way it happens now and that's a discussion better had with your parents!" I know I'm a wuss, but birds and bees are not part of my curriculum and I honestly didn't have a better answer Biblicaly. I'd be curious to hear if the Church has an official position on this...

i saw a chart once that showed how the generations overlapped -- if i remember correctly it had Adam living nearly to the time of Noah ... but i havent fact-checked that or anything.