We're there other humans on earth before Adam and Eve?

TedT said:

One of our problems with this story is that we do not know how old these two were when they had their fight.

Because they are mentioned without any other child being mentioned it is assumed they are the only children and the first children. BUT that is not proven in the text...Genesis 4 is about Cain and Abel, not anyone else, so no one else is mentioned until their story is over.

But if Adam and Eve had a child each year and these children started to have their own children at age 15 or so, in a very short time, 125 years, (out of a 900 year lifespan that is) the exponential increase would be huge with 125 years being between 9 and 10 generations, on the order of between 20 billion and 289 billion people in this model.

So, if Cain and Abel were born during Adam and Eve's 100 year on earth, it might have had a very large population indeed by that time.

Also it is not proven by the text that these two were just kids when the fight happened. All the cutesy little pictures in your children's bible may be bogus as, well, completely bogus. Figments of the imagination and orthodox bias. This was not just a kid's mistake and childish anger; it was religious war.

Cain was trying to supplant the religion of the coats of skins for righteousness instituted by GOD for Adam and Eve with his first fruits fertility / weather cult of the Ba'als and Asherah (groves).

SO,
if they were 25 years old themselves by the time this religious war came to a head, how many more people were populating the earth, given exponential growth? Next post...

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Believer000 said:

Some people seem to believe that there were humans on earth before Adam and Eve. Who were these humans? And if this is true, - why were they not mentioned in the Bible?, and what is their purpose?. Do these people have descendants alive today?. Are they not liked by God? Are they even humans? Thanks for any replies!. I'm a fairly new Christian, and I am curious about this.

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BeyondET said:

the brothers brought offerings to the Lord, the Bible speaks of God being in the Garden of Edin not outside the garden.

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Believer000 said:

Some people seem to believe that there were humans on earth before Adam and Eve. Who were these humans? And if this is true, - why were they not mentioned in the Bible?, and what is their purpose?. Do these people have decendants alive today?. Are they not liked by God? Are they even humans??

Thanks for any replies!. I'm a fairly new Christian, and I am curious about this.

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98cwitr said:

Personally, I read Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 as separate creation accounts; where God created humans, then created what was to the be line of Israel (and thus Christ) via Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were in the Garden, all other humans were already outside of the garden. Not sure why it's mainstream that Genesis 2 is just a retelling of the immediately prior chapter, nor do I find this to contradict other Scripture.

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After all, where did Cain find a wife? People tell me it was his sister or cousin, which is incredibly odd considering that those siblings would have not been inclined to move away to Nod in the first place.

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Genesis 4:15 is telling, as Cain is fearful of someone killing him. Are we to believe that Cain would be a complete stranger to his close relatives? Doubtful.

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MMXX said:

I remember Arnold Murray taught the theory of a first earth age, that we all existed in, which ended in a great cataclysm. In this earth age we have been reborn to make the decision to follow God or follow Satan. The elect in this earth age are those who stood against Satan in the first earth age. This explains it better than my sketchy memory:

I find the theory entertaining.

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coffee4u said:

How do you explain Romans with two separate groups?

Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—




One of his sisters. They married family members up until the time of Moses. Abraham was married to his half sister Sarah, that was considered normal at that time.



Adam and Eve lived 900 years. I can only imagine how many children a young healthy couple with no birth control could have had. For all we know some hundreds of years had passed by this time.

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98cwitr said:

1 baby every 9 months = About 1000 kids; but we also must then account for potential neices and nephews; which would be upwards of 30000 people. In small town of 30000, everyone pretty much knows everybody, and even moreso if they were ALL direct relatives. This doesn't explain why they'd move away either, and Romans 5:12 doesn't conflict with anything; sin entered through Eve, and thus all of mankind is now under Original Sin.

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We know that brothers and sisters and direct cousins' offspring have some pretty traumatic genetic issues if the procreate with one another, and I've heard the "pure genetics" argument, but it doesn't add up. Brothers and sisters can't procreate with one another and things just be okay.

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Based on just a pure reading of Genesis, God created other people, and Adam and Eve are simply the creation of God's "Chosen People" (ie: The first of the Israelite line of peoples from an ethnic perspective).

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coffee4u said:

Sin entered through Adam.

One man brought in sin not one woman
Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

And we can be sure it was Adam's sin, not Eve's that caused it, because the Bible calls Jesus the second Adam. Eve was a sinner yes, but it was Adam's sin that caused the fall.
1 Corinthians 15:45-49
45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.


46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the earth, madea of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

If you read the Genesis account you will see 'their eyes opened' but this didn't happen when Eve ate, it only happens after Adam ate.
she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened

I was asking, if there were two separate groups of people, how did Adam's sin effect them? Adam caused the fall and all his descendants are born with that sinful nature, but if there was another group descendant from a comply different group of people how did Adam's sin jump over to them and why are they not mentioned at all? I see that as a huge issue with that model.



They do now, they didn't then.
The reason for the traumatic genetic issues we have now comes from mutations. There had not been any or very few at this early stage. Obviously by the time of Mosses this was becoming a concern since God brought in laws to stop it. Before that it was not viewed as being at all wrong. Isaac was the child of half siblings and he was born as a fulfillment of God's promise to them. God would not have blessed Abraham and Sarah this way if it had in anyway been seen as sinful to Him.



Genesis never mentions another group of people.

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SkyWriting said:

The Garden East of Eden, the city.

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