yeshuaslavejeff

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There are seemingly two giant plot holes in the first few chapters of Genesis. They have always bothered me. When I was an atheist I was able to point and laugh, but as a Christian there is no satisfactory answers to be found. Anyone that ever tries to answer them ends up making assumptions that are not backed by scripture--adding to the word of God.
The answers already posted are sufficient, but footnote for better understanding perhaps:
"seemingly two giant plot holes in... Genesis"......

Are you / were you / expecting Yahuweh the Creator to submit to man's dictates(rules) about how to write and what to write ? He didn't and He won't do so.

.. "They have always bothered".....
.. "Anyone that ever tries to answer them" ... "... assumptions .. not backed by ..
.. scripture..." ."adding to the Word of Yahuweh (God) " ....

Give up the error-full ways of flesh/ mankind's ways of thinking (separated from Yahuweh - The Creator - God's Life)...

Instead, START with BELIEVING Yahuweh's Perfect, Truth, Correct --- His Word Never Changes, FOREVER....

Then, ask for His Grace for LIGHT to SEE BY, to see everything His Way.
His Word does and will continue to "bother" the world.
There are no needs to "answer" any seeming contradictions.
There is no need to be "adding to the Word of Yahuweh".... it is Perfect and Complete as He Designed and Planned All.
 
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Hank77

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According to the scripture him, Abel, Adam, and Eve were literally the only people on the planet.
I don't think it says that. When Cain was banished he may have already been married and have taken his wife with him.
Gen 4:16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
Gen 4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

Again, with them being the only people on the planet, incest would be the only viable option--and that genetic line would not have survived, let alone been able to populate the entire planet.
There is no reason to believe that a line that began with incest would not survive. The genetic mutations that cause death could take several generations to develop.
Abraham married his half sister, Sarah.
Your point is well taken, but I was sort of alluding to the idea that they had other children between Abel and Seth that they just forgot to mention.
I agree that there could have been many children born between the birth of Abel and the death of Abel. However, I don't think that any male children were born between the death of Abel and the birth of Seth because of what Eve said when Seth was born.
 
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Mathetes66

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"As a Christian there is no satisfactory answers to be found."

Of course there are! This is an erroneous ASSUMPTION BY YOU, one made by unbelief not belief. I have done the same thing!

Jesus said many times to people like the disciples, religious leaders & people like you & me: 'Have you not read, does the Scripture not say, Do you not know, is it not written, you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God, with men this is impossible but not with God,' etc.

Holy Scripture is the very God-breathed out words of God.

I Sam 15:29 The Glory of Israel will not lie...

Titus 1:1-3 Paul, a servant of God & an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the FAITH of God’s elect AND THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, WHO NEVER LIES, promised BEFORE the ages began & AT THE PROPER TIME manifested IN HIS WORD through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior...

John 17:14,17 For I have given them the words You gave Me & they have received them. They knew WITH CERTAINTY that I came from You & they believed that You sent Me. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 But as for you, continue in the things you have learned & FIRMLY BELIEVED, since you know from whom you have learned them. From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are ABLE TO MAKE YOU WISE for salvation through FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS. All Scripture is INSPIRED (God-breathed out) by God & is profitable for instruction, for reproof, for correction & for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

Those Scriptures above being said, we can with full confidence of faith BELIEVE WHAT GOD SAID in Genesis concerning Cain, just by itself--although it is not isolated from the rest of the testimony of the whole of Scripture, both OT & NT. Don't limit yourself to one passage without the corroboration of the rest of Scripture.

What did God record as His Word, which is THE TRUTH, concerning what happened to Cain? You might also consider things perhaps you didn't notice in the text itself or consider concerning the PASSAGE OF TIME.

Genesis 4:1-16

And Adam had relations with his wife Eve & she conceived & gave birth to Cain. “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man,” she said.

2 Later (again) she gave birth, to Cain’s brother Abel.

(It does not say SPECIFICALLY how much time had passed between their two births, only that later IN TIME, was Abel born.)

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, while Cain was a tiller of the soil. 3So IN THE COURSE (PASSAGE) OF TIME, Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil as an offering to the LORD, while Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock.

(Again perhaps you missed this issue of the passage of time, for Cain & Abel to be able to grow up; for Abel to have time to build up a HERD of sheep from his FLOCK & then time passing before he was able to offer the best portions (plural) of some of the firstborn (plural) that he gave as an offering to the LORD. Adam & Eve 'had other sons & daughters' over the passage of time.)

And the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5but He had no regard for Cain & his offering. So Cain became very angry (wrathful) & his countenance fell.

6“Why are you angry,” said the LORD to Cain “and why has your countenance fallen? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it.”

8Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel & killed him. And the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I do not know!” he answered. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

10“What have you done?” replied the LORD. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. Now you are cursed & banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a FUGITIVE & a wanderer on the earth.”

13But Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth & from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive & a wanderer on the earth & whoever finds me will kill me.”

(A fugitive is someone running away from doing something wrong)

15“Not so! ” replied the LORD. “If anyone slays Cain, then Cain will be avenged sevenfold.” And the LORD placed a mark on Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the presence of the LORD & settled in the land of Nod (Heb. 'wandering'), east of Eden.

So we believe that what God gave Moses to write down SPECIFICALLY--IS THE TRUTH. Cain did have a fear someone might kill him because he was a FUGITIVE! The word had gone out what he had done & God's curse & mark on him. Lamech, one of Cain's descendants brought this out years later, when he killed someone. Also remember the long age that each person lived to back then. There would be quite a few people living DURING CAIN'S LIFETIME, that would cause such a fear.

Pseudo-Philo, a Jewish work of the 1st century AD, narrates that Cain murdered his brother at the age of 15. After escaping to the Land of Nod, Cain fathered four sons: Enoch, Olad, Lizpha & Fosal & two daughters: Citha & Maac. Cain died at the age of 730, leaving his corrupt descendants spreading evil on the earth.

"According to the scripture him, Abel, Adam & Eve were literally the only people on the planet."

Again this is another assumption you are making, adding to the Word of God. You also forget that people back then lived between 900 & almost 1000 years old, had no DNA deficiencies built up as yet & lived in a disease-free environment for many years, until the population built up.

Just for your information, here is a very conservative estimate of the earth's population between Adam & Eve & the flood done by the well respected Christian apologist, Dr. Henry M. Morris, who has passed on into glory now.

Population of the PreFlood World

Third, you have MISSED how God is bringing forth His revelation PROGRESSIVELY & often with PINPOINT SPECIFICITY. In Chapter 1 for example, God FOCUSES on the GENERAL creation of the heavens & the earth. That ends at the beginning of Ch. 2. Many details are left out. Some things are difficult to understand with just this amount of information. Later revelation is revealed to fill in the gaps. It doesn't make it any less the TRUTH whether we can figure it out or not.

It is the BIG PICTURE VIEW. Yet God's progressive revelation CONTINUES beyond Genesis 1 concerning the DETAILS of His creating the heavens & the earth throughout the rest of Scripture, especially in Job & the Psalms.

Then God focuses on the creation of Adam & his GENERATIONS in Ch. 2-5, then moves on to the chapters concerning the global flood. Sometimes it is pinpoint specificity with Cain & Abel in the FIRST part of Ch. 4 & for a reason-- because in the progressive revelation of the rest of Scripture, they are key people mentioned again & again. Yet let us not miss the GENERAL issues of the generations of Adam in ALL the chapters of the generations of Adam combined.

The last part of Genesis Ch. 4 alone talks about Cain & his offspring & even building a city & some of his generations. Even one of those descendants, Lamech, killed someone also & says, 'If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.' So at THAT TIME, it was well known about God's curse & mark on Cain, WHO WAS STILL ALIVE at the time of the lives of his descendants.

And where did he get his wife? It becomes obvious from the whole testimony throughout Scripture that it had to be a daughter or a daughter of a daughter BECAUSE ADAM HAS OTHER SONS & DAUGHTERS & all mankind came from one man, Adam & populated the earth.

And it ends in vs 26 with: 'At that time mankind began to call upon the name of the LORD.' Whereas before God spoke directly to people, now all mankind began to pray TO GOD & to call upon Him in prayer. Again Scripture is progressive in revealment, whether specific or general.

Chapter 5 is PINPOINTING on Seth to start & for a reason. He is in the line of the promised Messiah & God specifically uses him to show the distinction between Adam & Eve being made in the image of God & now mankind being made in the image of Adam, as Romans 5 points out.

Then the chapter focuses on the GENERAL generations of Adam: 'he had other sons & daughters.' (5:4).

It does the same with Seth, SPECIFICALLY naming SOME of his offspring, then saying, 'he had other sons & daughters.' (5:6) Again Kenan, the son of Enosh (son of Seth), 'had other sons & daughters' (5:12) and so on. Cain's wife was one of these 'other daughters' of Adam & Eve.

For example, Eve is mentioned as the mother of all the living. (Gen 3:20-- Eve: The Mother of All the Living). So any offspring either were direct offspring of Eve during her lifetime or became descendants of Eve beyond her lifetime.

Paul said that all human beings in time came from one man, Adam.

Acts 17:24-27 The God who made the world & everything in it, being Lord of heaven & earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life & breath & everything.

26And HE MADE FROM ONE MAN EVERY NATION OF MANKIND to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods & the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God & perhaps feel their way toward Him & find Him.

"Anyone that ever tries to answer them ends up making assumptions that are not backed by scripture--adding to the word of God."

I have already shown you have done the same thing in your judgments. You also have thrown out any & all explanations by limiting the answers & already 'predicting' no one will be able to give YOU answers. You have already shut the door to that by your own attitude & mindset.

'Anyone--that EVER TRIES--to answer them ends up making assumptions...'

"There are only two conclusions I can draw from this. Either the scripture is wrong or incomplete."

I have already shown your prior mis-assumptions & this is yet another one. The CANON of Scripture was decided thousands of years ago. God's revealed revelation, the Scriptures, is closed. Jesus Himself showed it was closed for the Old Testament (OT) AT HIS TIME! Yet you accuse others of adding to God's word and now you want to add spurious books long ago rejected as Scripture.

He gave the basic three-fold Jewish OT Scriptures: The Law, the Prophets & the Writings & called them Scripture. Another time He mentions the blood of the prophets down through history since the beginning, starting with Abel in Genesis & ending with Zechariah in 2 Chronicles. This prophet is mentioned in the LAST book of the Jewish OT. (in the Christian Bible it is Malachi, simply arranged differently)

I hope these are helpful to fill in the 'gaps' of your understanding as these have been taught since even the early days of Christianity.
 
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The Righterzpen

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After Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve had other children, and they had children, etc. With whom exactly did Adam and Eve's children mate? Again, with them being the only people on the planet, incest would be the only viable option--and that genetic line would not have survived, let alone been able to populate the entire planet.

Not everyone has all the details figured out; but as far as genetics go.....

DNA Discovery Reveals All Humans Descended from an 'Adam and Eve' after Cataclysm

Scientists Trace Humanity Back to Single ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’, Strengthening Creation Story
 
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coffee4u

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God cursed Cain to wander the Earth, separated from the land, etc. He thought this punishment too much to bear, and was afraid people would kill him for his transgression. Of whom exactly was Cain worried about killing him? According to the scripture him, Abel, Adam, and Eve were literally the only people on the planet.

No they obviously weren't. If they truly were the only people on the planet Cain would not have said that. Also, think about what God told Adam and Eve to do. "Be fruitful and multiply" also "Eve was the mother of all the living" I can look those verses up if you need me to. Eve was a young fertile woman with no form of birth control apart from breastfeeding. We are not told how many children Adam and Eve had altogether, but we can be sure it was many. We are not told about each child because they were not important to the main events. Imagine if the Bible tried to mention every person ever born? It couldn't. It only mentions those of importance. By the time Cain killed Abel he was an adult, again we don't know how old he was, and people lived for a very long time then as well. Maybe he was 20 when God banished him or maybe he was 60 or over 100 years old, we don't know. When you live for 800 + years I imagine 100 is seen as being very young. We do know that Adam fathered his son Seth when he was 130. "When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.” (Genesis 5:3–4).
Can you even imagine having children from 0 to 130 let alone having more children for another however many hundreds of years? When he was banished there were many many people. Enough people to form some sort of city.

After Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve had other children, and they had children, etc. With whom exactly did Adam and Eve's children mate? Again, with them being the only people on the planet, incest would be the only viable option--and that genetic line would not have survived, let alone been able to populate the entire planet.

They married their sisters and brothers. At this point in time it was not considered incest, that law did not come about until Moses's time. Abraham was married to his half-sister. Abraham's son, Isaac, married Rebekah, his second cousin. Jacob, Abraham's grandson, married his first cousins, Rachel and Leah. Moses' father, Amram, "took for himself Jachebed, his father's sister, as wife." So first we have to put aside our notions on incest. You may think that is gross but it didn't offend them. It was a different time and social structure and it was not seen or thought of as incest. .

There are only two conclusions I can draw from this. Either the scripture is wrong or incomplete. I have heard that the Roman Catholic church buried certain books from the bible, calling them heretical. Book of Nod, gospels of Judas and Mary Magdalene, other gnostic gospels, etc. Is it possible the RCC buried books that fill in the gaps on this part? Thoughts?

No it's complete, they had many many children, those children married and had children with each other. When God made Adam and Eve they contained all the DNA of mankind. They were also as genetically as pure as possible. They didn't carry mutations or genetic diseases. It was perfectly safe for them to have children together. Very quickly they would have been marrying cousins, second and third cousins and ever-widening the base. Today we are so far apart that we don't see the connections at all, but we are all related.
 
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Jonaitis

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There are seemingly two giant plot holes in the first few chapters of Genesis. They have always bothered me. When I was an atheist I was able to point and laugh, but as a Christian there is no satisfactory answers to be found. Anyone that ever tries to answer them ends up making assumptions that are not backed by scripture--adding to the word of God. Does anyone have insight into these mysteries:

Cain's punishment.

God cursed Cain to wander the Earth, separated from the land, etc. He thought this punishment too much to bear, and was afraid people would kill him for his transgression. Of whom exactly was Cain worried about killing him? According to the scripture him, Abel, Adam, and Eve were literally the only people on the planet.

The Wives of Adam and Eve's children.

After Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve had other children, and they had children, etc. With whom exactly did Adam and Eve's children mate? Again, with them being the only people on the planet, incest would be the only viable option--and that genetic line would not have survived, let alone been able to populate the entire planet.

There are only two conclusions I can draw from this. Either the scripture is wrong or incomplete. I have heard that the Roman Catholic church buried certain books from the bible, calling them heretical. Book of Nod, gospels of Judas and Mary Magdalene, other gnostic gospels, etc. Is it possible the RCC buried books that fill in the gaps on this part? Thoughts?

Cain and Abel were not the only sons of Adam and Eve.

"The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters." - Genesis 5:4

This account in Genesis is focusing on the events that occurred between these two particular brothers. It is not saying that they were the only offspring of Adam and Eve, nor does this verse above give chronology of when they had other children. We do not even know when the event between Cain and Abel took place, or even how old they were? I would not be so skeptical, but look at this in the whole context and in all angles.
 
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2PhiloVoid

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There are seemingly two giant plot holes in the first few chapters of Genesis. They have always bothered me. When I was an atheist I was able to point and laugh, but as a Christian there is no satisfactory answers to be found. Anyone that ever tries to answer them ends up making assumptions that are not backed by scripture--adding to the word of God. Does anyone have insight into these mysteries:

One insight (which I found for myself) is to first realize that WE HAVE to go outside of Scripture on many occasions in order to more fully understand Scripture. Getting hen-pecked by this idea that to somehow "be faithful" means we can ONLY read the Bible alone, unfiltered, is the first thing we'll have to get out from under. We're not 'adding' to the Word of God if we realize that the Word itself was always pointing in reflexive matter outside of itself in various ways. So, we need to read the Bible as it was intended to be read for the purpose it was written. And since it's not a history or science textbook, we have to take its literary qualities on its terms for its time and not import cursory, short-sighted assumptions into our interpretations or expectations of the it.

If we can realize that the bible wasn't written to answer our every desired question, this will go some distance in ameliorating some of those nagging doubts that come about because there is "no closure" with some of these biblical problems. But, man-o'-man, I'd also like to know where Cain got his wife! :rolleyes:
 
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Halbhh

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According to the scripture him, Abel, Adam, and Eve were literally the only people on the planet.
That's an idea/assumption that itself is not in scripture. :)

(We do understand that Adam and Eve were indeed the first with God given souls, accountable on the Day of Judgement, thus the parents of us all in the most profound way.)

One can read the first 2 chapters plainly as they are actually written. Without any assumptions at all even.

Then, we hear that humans were created in some quantity on the 6th day in chapter one (we are not told small details, not given detailed history of such as Neanderthals, but of course we generally understand that the individual animals and plant types listed are considered to be only representative, not an exhaustive list -- instead, God created all that is, A-Z, not merely the listed lifeforms only), and this already tells us a very important thing: this is not a detailed history. It's the opposite: a broad brush indication. Representative. Not history. Not detail. )...

.... And so the simplest literal reading is that humans types generally were created before the special creation of Adam, who was instead the first to have a God-breathed spirit, thus also soul (not merely fleshly life alone) breathed directly into him.

That's just the simplest literal reading of all, with the least assumptions it seems.

Here we did not try to make a convoluted timeline. We just read it plainly.

So, therefore, when Cain travels away in chapter 4 to the land of Nod and takes a wife there, she is not a sister, and this is not incest, but instead she is of these other peoples already in existence.
 
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redleghunter

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That's an idea/assumption that itself is not in scripture. :)

(We do understand that Adam and Eve were indeed the first with God given souls, accountable on the Day of Judgement, thus the parents of us all in the most profound way.)

One can read the first 2 chapters plainly as they are actually written. Without any assumptions at all even.

Then, we hear that humans were created in some quantity on the 6th day in chapter one (we are not told small details, not given detailed history of such as Neanderthals, but of course we generally understand that the individual animals and plant types listed are considered to be only representative, not an exhaustive list -- instead, God created all that is, A-Z, not merely the listed lifeforms only), and this already tells us a very important thing: this is not a detailed history. It's the opposite: a broad brush indication. Representative. Not history. Not detail. )...

.... And so the simplest literal reading is that humans types generally were created before the special creation of Adam, who was instead the first to have a God-breathed spirit, thus also soul (not merely fleshly life alone) breathed directly into him.

That's just the simplest literal reading of all, with the least assumptions it seems.

Here we did not try to make a convoluted timeline. We just read it plainly.

So, therefore, when Cain travels away in chapter 4 to the land of Nod and takes a wife there, she is not a sister, and this is not incest, but instead she is of these other peoples already in existence.
Interesting. Did Cain then intermarry with a non Imago Dei humanoid?
 
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Halbhh

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Interesting. Did Cain then intermarry with a non Imago Dei humanoid?
I surely do not know. :) While I wondered many speculations at various moments, there is even the possibility that during the time of the Garden of Eden, which is a completely unknown duration of time for the outside Earth, it may have even been that God created some more genetic diversity of humans. We are simply not told. But this makes sense not to be told, because it's not the point of the scripture to dwell on mere concrete history detail, but instead to bring us to the most crucially important questions for our souls, such as faith/trust in God, and our relationship with Him, and with each other. Over and over in the OT we see the key thing happening in a situation/passage is a question of faith for instance, and the details given are only in support of the real essential thing: to have faith. So, we are generally told little or nothing that is mere historical detail just for detail's sake.
 
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topher694

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That's an idea/assumption that itself is not in scripture. :)

(We do understand that Adam and Eve were indeed the first with God given souls, accountable on the Day of Judgement, thus the parents of us all in the most profound way.)

One can read the first 2 chapters plainly as they are actually written. Without any assumptions at all even.

Then, we hear that humans were created in some quantity on the 6th day in chapter one (we are not told small details, not given detailed history of such as Neanderthals, but of course we generally understand that the individual animals and plant types listed are considered to be only representative, not an exhaustive list -- instead, God created all that is, A-Z, not merely the listed lifeforms only), and this already tells us a very important thing: this is not a detailed history. It's the opposite: a broad brush indication. Representative. Not history. Not detail. )...

.... And so the simplest literal reading is that humans types generally were created before the special creation of Adam, who was instead the first to have a God-breathed spirit, thus also soul (not merely fleshly life alone) breathed directly into him.

That's just the simplest literal reading of all, with the least assumptions it seems.

Here we did not try to make a convoluted timeline. We just read it plainly.

So, therefore, when Cain travels away in chapter 4 to the land of Nod and takes a wife there, she is not a sister, and this is not incest, but instead she is of these other peoples already in existence.

I don't know. This does not seem like the simplest reading to me. It seems like it just transfers the problems to a different area. Plus there is still a boat load of assumptions and implications going on. Not saying you're wrong, but it certainly isn't very clean imo.
 
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Halbhh

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I don't know. This does not seem like the simplest reading to me. It seems like it just transfers the problems to a different area. Plus there is still a boat load of assumptions and implications going on. Not saying you're wrong, but it certainly isn't very clean imo.
By 'clean' do you mean something like all-details-about-human-history accounted for/laid out clearly/cleanly? Please see also post #31 just above then, because there are some good reasons (one is given just above) for why all details are not given to us. Another even more crucial reason we are not told all details: such total detail could eventually be proven once archaeology became advanced enough (and God would foresee that such would happen eventually!)....and then we'd end up with extensive easy evidence proof of scripture to a level that would make it impossible to deny that God exists, even for the hard hearted and the arrogant. Easy evidence that is sufficient to be unquestionable to anyone, just overwhelming mere evidence, objects, observation of fact, is not a path to God through faith! -- Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.

Faith is not built by observation of what is easy to see/prove. Easy proof would preclude faith. It would actually preclude/preempt/obviate faith.

Instead of cynical, distrusting obedience to the path of salvation given through Christ to God from mere selfish self-interest based on just seeing facts, God wants the level of trust we call faith.
 
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topher694

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By 'clean' do you mean something like all-details-about-human-history accounted for/laid out clearly/cleanly? Please see also post #31 just above then, because there are some good reasons (one is given just above) for why all details are not given to us. Another even more crucial reason we are not told all details: such total detail could eventually be proven once archaeology became advanced enough (and God would foresee that such would happen eventually!)....and then we'd end up with extensive easy evidence proof of scripture to a level that would make it impossible to deny that God exists, even for the hard hearted and the arrogant. Easy evidence that is sufficient to be unquestionable to anyone, just overwhelming mere evidence, objects, observation of fact, is not a path to God through faith! -- Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.

Faith is not built by observation of what is easy to see/prove. Easy proof would preclude faith. It would actually preclude/preempt/obviate faith.
No, I do not mean all the details. I commented earlier on how that is not possible. I mean that there are many assumptions and those assumptions have to line up with one another just right for it to work.
 
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redleghunter

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I surely do not know. :) While I wondered many speculations at various moments, there is even the possibility that during the time of the Garden of Eden, which is a completely unknown duration of time for the outside Earth, it may have even been that God created some more genetic diversity of humans. We are simply not told. But this makes sense not to be told, because it's not the point of the scripture to dwell on mere concrete history detail, but instead to bring us to the most crucially important questions for our souls, such as faith/trust in God, and our relationship with Him, and with each other. Over and over in the OT we see the key thing happening in a situation/passage is a question of faith for instance, and the details given are only in support of the real essential thing: to have faith. So, we are generally told little or nothing that is mere historical detail just for detail's sake.
I was just curious. In Genesis 1 man and woman are told to be fruitful and multiply and that was before the fall. I've heard some theories that Adam and Eve did have children in the Garden and that explains more human beings and that Adam being the 'federal head' of mankind that the curse would apply to any children in the Garden. But I replied to that theory with Genesis 4 which significantly implies Eve proclaiming Cain as a first child.

So I guess we can come up with multiple theories. :) But as you said we must focus on the story as told. The historical Adam and Eve is the story of the Fall and God's revealed plan of Redemption.
 
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Halbhh

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No, I do not mean all the details. I commented earlier on how that is not possible. I mean that there are many assumptions and those assumptions have to line up with one another just right for it to work.
I totally agree, and more: we should not put too much weight on our ideas, but try to always notice our assumptions (which isn't easy; for instance the young earth viewpoints (the variety of different theories in that group) use various assumptions but usually those advocating one of those various viewpoints do not have awareness of every assumption they are relying on (or have innocently assumed without any awareness). So, these attempts to lay out theories about more details are all speculative, and we always need to remember that -- those are just ideas of men -- and especially that such theories are not important compared to listening to the scripture, to be changed by the word, with a humble attitude that God knows more than we know.
 
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coffee4u

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Interesting. Did Cain then intermarry with a non Imago Dei humanoid?

No, he married his sister the same way they all did.

The Bible even says that "Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother all the living.” Genesis 3:20. So we are all decended from her.

We know that sin came down to everyone via Adam
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned"
1 Corinthians 15:21–22, 45
For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit."
 
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Halbhh

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because she would become the mother all the living.
That's right. And.

Attending to all of the words of scripture, we should see then also:

Genesis 2:17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die."

So, Here we have both life and death spoken of, for Adam and Eve. (Eve is the mother of the "living", and here a warning of death is given....)

What kind of death did Adam experience that very same day he broke faith, distrusted God, eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil?

?

He definitely did experience just what God said. (God didn't err in his warning.)

But it was not a flesh death that same day....but was a death in the kind that Christ tells us the prodigal son was in (and was rescued from) --

Luke 15:32 But it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"

!
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord for His amazing Grace and mercy and love.
 
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coffee4u

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What kind of death did Adam experience that very same day he broke faith, distrusted God, eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil?

The Bible lists three types of death.
Physical death-This is from cells dying and ageing to last breath when the body dies entirely. Adams body started to die when he took the first bite.
The second death is spiritual death - separation from God while we are here.
The third death is eternal death - permanent separation from God.

We know sin and death came to us all because of Adam.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned"

Genesis 3:22 "Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”

Death is both physical and spiritual and death is also the last enemy.
1 Corinthians 15:26 "The last enemy that will be destroyed is death."
It is an enemy, an interloper not a mechanism God uses for change. God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" he didn't say "Behold death and bloodshed for billions of years is very good"
 
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Resha Caner

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I always find this discussion interesting due to the assumptions people make.

A big one is, "Oh, brothers and sisters couldn't possibly have procreated. That's sinful!" Uhh. Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Cain murdered someone. I think sinful behavior had already long been the order of the day.

Another relates to the idea that Genesis gives an exhaustive history. There is no reason, theological or otherwise, why that must be the case. But the interesting flip side for those who realize Genesis is not exhaustive is to then assume wild speculation will lead to an answer.
 
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