How many ppl did God create in the beginning?

DavidPT said:

Animal-like, as in how one might act, etc. For example, one human is stalking other humans like animals stalk other animals, yet this human is not a literal animal. I don't know if that is good example or not, but that is all I can come up with this early in the morning.

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DavidPT said:

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.


If women already existed before what is recorded in Genesis 2, IOW, what is recorded in Genesis 1:26-27 is not referring to what is recorded in Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 2:21-23, what were they called at the time since Genesis 2:23 records she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man?

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DavidPT said:

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.


If women already existed before what is recorded in Genesis 2, IOW, what is recorded in Genesis 1:26-27 is not referring to what is recorded in Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 2:21-23, what were they called at the time since Genesis 2:23 records she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man?

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adammoon2 said:

This is one of those questions that will have people foaming at the mouth and screaming that someone is a spawn of Satan, no matter which side you come down on. Still, I am an equal opportunity offender, soooooo......

There are two major points of view on these scriptures. The simplest and the one embraced by most fundamentalist groups is that Genesis 2 retells the Genesis 1 creation of man and woman.

The other view is that God creates humanity and then has a separate creation for Adam and Eve.

So, the question becomes which is correct? Lots of argument, lots of accusation of heresy and lots of telling people they are evil, satanic and going to Hell... people have trouble with opinions.

What does the law and scripture say?

The law requires that if a thing be true there should be 2 or 3 witnesses at least. So I am going to run with that. Can we find at least two witnesses to the argument that there are people other than Adam and Eve and the family thereof in the first part of Genesis.

Starting in Genesis 4:11 we see that God curses Cain and tell him that he is banished from the ground upon which he spilled Abel's blood. That means Cain has to leave the area and go out away from the place where his family is living. Then things take an interesting turn.

God tells Cain he will be a wanderer and a restless one at that. This seems to imply that Cain will be nomadic wandering the wilds away from the land populated by his family. Cain then says something strange in verse 14. He says that whoever finds him will kill him.

Wait. What?

Who is going to find him? He doesn't say his family will kill him. He is being sent away from his family! It isn't like he's going off and going to send his dad a post card saying, "Dad, sorry I left in a hurry. I killed Abel and moved to the mountain about thirty miles to the south." He is going to wander in the wilderness where his family will not know where he is. Okay, Cain is crazy. There isn't anyone else and Cain is in panic mode and just being dramatic.

Weeeeeellll, not really. God backs him up. Verse 15: The LORD told him, "This won't happen, because whoever kills you will suffer seven times the vengeance." Then the LORD placed a sign on Cain so that no one finding him would kill him.

So who is God protecting Cain from? God does not tell Cain to stop being a drama king. He does not correct Cain. He not only tells Cain that he will protect him, but puts a sign on him so people would not kill him. What people?

Then we find out something even more surprising. We get a third witness of sorts. Cain has a wife. There has always been a pretty strong prohibition against incest in the Bible, but it is more than that. Cain is banished. He is away from his family, so he couldn't be shacking up with his sister. We are not told that he was getting all Hills Have Eyes inbreedy with his sister before his banishment, so now we have an unaccounted for woman coming to be Cain's wife.

Now fundamentalism is not new. There were fundamentalist Jews too. One of them tried to deal with these questions and tried to create an answer that favored the single creation of man model and called it The Book of Jubilees. That thing is a mess. It reads like the ancient version of Keeping up with the Kardashians. It was rejected for canonization by both the Jewish and most Christian groups (Ethiopia was an exception).

The Genesis text, though, clearly provides at least two witnesses to the fact that there were other people in the world besides Adam, Eve and their children. The one witness is the best witness you could have, God himself.

For me, case closed. We don't know how many people God created during that first go round, but there were other people. Cain says so and God confirms it with Cain and with the appearance of a wife for Cain.

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Sheila Davis said:

No argument or anger will be displayed - I dislike it when people do that also - I just end the conversation.
This is my belief and has been for a few decades and as I began to study and I found that there are others who think the same...... 1) Adam and Eve walked the earth possibly two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand or more years. And they had many, many, children before their fall. Their children had children and children's children had children and so forth and so on - as God commanded they were replenishing the earth.
2) Two things that stand out in the book of Genesis after Eve ate and persuaded Adam to eat from the Tree of Knowledge - what occurred first was God put a curse on Eve that he was going to "multiply greatly" her sorrows in conception and bringing forth children. She was going to begin to experience excruciating pain in childbirth - Genesis 3:16 _ pain that women feel to this very date. Because they had many children over the thousands of years span, their offspring had already migrated to different parts of the land - that is how Cain was able to go and get a wife in the Land of Nod, a land which already had a name. Cain and Abel were the first two recorded birth after Adam and Eve fell.
The second thing that stands out in the book of Genesis is 3:22 _ God put them out of the garden lest he put forth his hand and take also of The Tree of Life and eat and live forever. That verse tells us Adam ,Eve, all of their offspring had immortality. They were able to eat from the Tree of Life which gave them immortality. Eating from the Tree of Knowledge negated the fruit of The Tree of Life. God had to put them out so that they wouldn't eat from it again and live forever in the sinful nature and it so that no one could get back to it until he removed it.
As it is also written: by one man sin "death" entered into the world Romans 5: 12-17. Since by Man came death ... As in Adam all die 1st Corinthians 15: 21-22.
Scriptures clearly tell us Christ will restore what Adam lost through his redemptive salvational mercies - which is eternity with him.
And that's my belief and as we know all are free to believe and have their own opinions. Thank you for reading

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adammoon2 said:

Well, there is another interpretation that I was not aware existed. I have never heard the interpretation that Adam and Eve lived thousands of years having children the whole time.

Still, it presents a problem in my mind. If God made humans and had them outside the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve were made within the Garden or place within it, that still tracks with my earlier narrative.

But your interpretation presents unrecorded children of Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden with them. Why were they cast out?

You could be right. It is all speculation anyway. And I will not defend any interpretation as it is all speculation (even my own).

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DavidPT said:

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Click to expand...

adammoon2 said:

This is one of those questions that will have people foaming at the mouth and screaming that someone is a spawn of Satan, no matter which side you come down on. Still, I am an equal opportunity offender, soooooo......

There are two major points of view on these scriptures. The simplest and the one embraced by most fundamentalist groups is that Genesis 2 retells the Genesis 1 creation of man and woman.

The other view is that God creates humanity and then has a separate creation for Adam and Eve.

So, the question becomes which is correct? Lots of argument, lots of accusation of heresy and lots of telling people they are evil, satanic and going to Hell... people have trouble with opinions.

What does the law and scripture say?

The law requires that if a thing be true there should be 2 or 3 witnesses at least. So I am going to run with that. Can we find at least two witnesses to the argument that there are people other than Adam and Eve and the family thereof in the first part of Genesis.

Starting in Genesis 4:11 we see that God curses Cain and tell him that he is banished from the ground upon which he spilled Abel's blood. That means Cain has to leave the area and go out away from the place where his family is living. Then things take an interesting turn.

God tells Cain he will be a wanderer and a restless one at that. This seems to imply that Cain will be nomadic wandering the wilds away from the land populated by his family. Cain then says something strange in verse 14. He says that whoever finds him will kill him.

Wait. What?

Who is going to find him? He doesn't say his family will kill him. He is being sent away from his family! It isn't like he's going off and going to send his dad a post card saying, "Dad, sorry I left in a hurry. I killed Abel and moved to the mountain about thirty miles to the south." He is going to wander in the wilderness where his family will not know where he is. Okay, Cain is crazy. There isn't anyone else and Cain is in panic mode and just being dramatic.

Weeeeeellll, not really. God backs him up. Verse 15: The LORD told him, "This won't happen, because whoever kills you will suffer seven times the vengeance." Then the LORD placed a sign on Cain so that no one finding him would kill him.

So who is God protecting Cain from? God does not tell Cain to stop being a drama king. He does not correct Cain. He not only tells Cain that he will protect him, but puts a sign on him so people would not kill him. What people?

Then we find out something even more surprising. We get a third witness of sorts. Cain has a wife. There has always been a pretty strong prohibition against incest in the Bible, but it is more than that. Cain is banished. He is away from his family, so he couldn't be shacking up with his sister. We are not told that he was getting all Hills Have Eyes inbreedy with his sister before his banishment, so now we have an unaccounted for woman coming to be Cain's wife.

Now fundamentalism is not new. There were fundamentalist Jews too. One of them tried to deal with these questions and tried to create an answer that favored the single creation of man model and called it The Book of Jubilees. That thing is a mess. It reads like the ancient version of Keeping up with the Kardashians. It was rejected for canonization by both the Jewish and most Christian groups (Ethiopia was an exception).

The Genesis text, though, clearly provides at least two witnesses to the fact that there were other people in the world besides Adam, Eve and their children. The one witness is the best witness you could have, God himself.

For me, case closed. We don't know how many people God created during that first go round, but there were other people. Cain says so and God confirms it with Cain and with the appearance of a wife for Cain.

Now, I know others will not like this interpretation of the scriptures. But Hebrews 6:18 says that God cannot lie. So, when God confirms Cain's fears, He was confirming the presence of other people out in the wilds, or He was lying to Cain. That in light of Hebrews 6:18 leaves us with confirmation of the presence of other people out in the wilds.

So, as I said, that closes the case for me. You may choose to believe whatsoever you will.

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DavidPT said:

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.


If women already existed before what is recorded in Genesis 2, IOW, what is recorded in Genesis 1:26-27 is not referring to what is recorded in Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 2:21-23, what were they called at the time since Genesis 2:23 records she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man?

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SkyWriting said:

Adam was the first man re-made into a spiritual creature. He was re-made to be in the Image of God. Before that he was just an animal without the breath-of-life in him.

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Sheila Davis said:

Yes, God changed a few DNA sequences. The image of God is not having two arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, etc - even the great apes and primates are fashioned as such. The image of God is having the capability to know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil and his breath of Life blown within man (which is a tiny portion of his spirit) is the only one of God's creations that he gave those gifts to. I agree what existed before man was nothing but an animal, with animal instincts, even as animals are today.

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SkyWriting said:

I'm not disputing you. But there is room for discussion.


28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

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Sheila Davis said:

thank you _ indeed there is room for discussion.

King James Version verse 30
and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the Earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

The newer Bible completely changed what was originally written.

It doesn't say even in the newer Bible that God himself breathed the breath of life into any animal, fish, or creeping things.
Genesis 2:7 and the Lord God formed Man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life; and Man became a living soul.

When you go back 2 Genesis 1:19 _ and God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and the fowl that may fly above the Earth in the open firmament of t heaven.
Verse 24 and God said, let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and the beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
God made the waters and the earth to bring forth life which he, which I believe he had already seeded - after all almost everything comes from a seed of some sort..
Man is also the only one God formed himself.
Nowhere Genesis 1 or 2 does it say that God himself breathed the breath of Life into any of his creations except man or that any of his creations became a living soul other than man.
I am not asking you to agree with my understanding but asking do you understand why I believe as I do?​

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SkyWriting said:

No. I can't imagine what you are seeing.

Genesis 7:22
New International Version
Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

New Living Translation
Everything that breathed and lived on dry land died.

English Standard Version
Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.

Berean Study Bible
Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

King James Bible
All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

New King James Version
All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died.

New American Standard Bible
of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.

NASB 1995
of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.

NASB 1977
of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.

Amplified Bible
Everything on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath and spirit of life, died.

Christian Standard Bible
Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils —everything on dry land died.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils—everything on dry land died.

American Standard Version
all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land, died.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Everything that had the breath of the Spirit of life in its nostrils, of everything that was on dry land, died.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And all things which have the breath of life, and whatever was on the dry land, died.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And all things wherein there is the breath of life on the earth, died.

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Sheila Davis said:

Understandable - I wasn't expecting you to understand or agree. Now you jump to Noah.

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