I’m noticing a lot of people having a problem with all mankind being a descendant of Adam & Eve because it would imply that their children would’ve had to engage in incest in order to populate the world and also the fact that Cain settled in the city of Nod and got married so people often ask, “where did the people in this city come from”? I think the main problem is that many people are not seeing the big picture that is presented in scripture. Many people are simply examining the creation account in Genesis and not considering the rest of scripture.
First let’s establish that Adam was the first man because I’m seeing some who believe otherwise.
“So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
1 Corinthians 15:45 NASB1995
I’ve seen some claim that the man created in Genesis 1 is not the same man, Adam who was created in Genesis 2 and that chapter two is actually a different event from Genesis 1. According to 1 Cor 15:45 Adam was the man created in Genesis 1.
Genesis 3 says that Adam named his wife Eve because she is the mother of all the living.
“Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.”
Genesis 3:20 NASB1995
Obviously this only refers to humans and not all living things.
Next let’s establish that all mankind are descendants of Adam. Acts 17:26 says that men of all nations came from one man or one blood.
“and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,”
Acts 17:26 NASB1995
So according to all of these scriptures outside of Genesis we must conclude that Adam was the first man and Eve was the first woman and all mankind are descendants of them including Cain’s wife.
Now if we do the math, Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born. We don’t know how old he was when Cain & Able were born so the closest we can get is from Seth’s birth. According to the math and assuming that Adam was created as an adult which I’m confident we can agree on, Adam could’ve potentially had 153 children by the time Seth was born if Eve didn’t have any twins or triplets, quadruplets, etc. Unfortunately I’m not smart enough to try to calculate how many children those children could’ve had who were of age to marry by the time Cain settled in Nod but I would imagine it should be in the thousands by that time if they began having children around the age of 15 or so. Keep in mind that even tho a lot of people believe that Cain & Able are Adam’s first two born that is not actually mentioned in the scriptures. In
Genesis 5 the descendants of Adam are counted beginning with Seth not Cain & Able. It’s very possible that the only reason Cain & Able were even mentioned in the scriptures is because it’s a record of the first death or murder that took place since creation. So it’s very plausible that an entire city of people, Nod, could’ve existed completely composed of Adam’s children by the time Cain married. God had told Adam & Eve to go forth and multiple so it’s likely that they started right away. We also don’t know how long after Cain killed Able before he actually got married. That could’ve been another couple hundred years for all we know. So the thousands that existed when Seth was born could’ve multiplied into tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands by the time Cain married depending on how long it took before he got married. So it’s not entirely implausible that a city could’ve existed by the time Cain got married.
I know a lot of people have a problem with the idea of incest but it wasn’t actually forbidden until Leviticus roughly 2500 years after creation. If the scriptures specifically say that we are all descendants of Adam then obviously God couldn’t have had a problem with it before He commanded us not to do it. Furthermore the scriptures also tell us that after the flood the whole world was populated by Noah’s 3 sons.
“These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.”
Genesis 9:19 NASB1995
So again this would’ve required them to engage in sexual relations with their close family members.
I’ve heard some claim that God also created “humanoids” and Adam’s descendants reproduced with these humanoids to populate the world and that’s why Adam’s descendants didn’t engage in incest but that idea doesn’t hold up for what took place after the flood since these humanoids would’ve been killed in the flood. So that still puts us right back to incest being necessary to populate the world. Anyway I thought I’d share this evidence from scripture to help people get a more comprehensive understanding of what took place during the population of the world.
