Did Adam and Eve's children commit Incest?

[LilAngelHeart]

I think that that's just one of those things that falls within a grey area for God to be the judge. Sure they committed "incest", but they also had no belly buttons, they had no marriage liscence, they ran around naked, plus a lot of other things that we wouldn't do today but they had no choice being the only people on earth at that time.

It's the same as with an adult who's mentally retarded and has the mind of a 6 yr old, is he held accountable because of his chronological age, or not because of his mental age, mentally he is younger than the age where a person becomes accountable for their sins which is around 12-ish.

There are just some things that don't really fit anywhere and God is the judge. What they did wasn't a sin and wasn't not a sin. If that makes sense. LOL! It just doesn't fit anywhere.

 

[g4goddess]

this may sound silly, but I always had the notion that God just made wives for Cain and Abel like he made Eve for Adam. I have nothing to back that up, but it seems possible.

 

[SolomonVII]

Even if the story of Adam and Eve is not taken literally, and the theory of evolution is accepted, the probability that we are the product of what we would now call incestuous relationships is very high. According to the Eve theory of evolution, all human beings can trace their ancestry back to one mother, called Eve. Rather than having evolved from the intermingling of a large number of different tribal groups, it would appear that all the people on earth today came into existence through the procreation of a small number of closely related members of the same tribe.
of course, even today what many people of our society would consider to be incestuous is considered normal in other cultures. In many countries in the Middle East, it is often expected that first cousins will marry each other.

 

[Blissman]

Can we take some insight in to this matter if we look in the Old Testament, and examine that there were seven tribes of Isreal? (BTW, it is interesting how the numbers 1,2,4,5,7,10,13,40 are very common in the Bible (of course so too is six because it is one number less than perfection, which is 7).

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

Question for anyone who wishes to consider: How could God judge the world if we did not all partake in original sin with Adam? If there were more than one bloodline, not tainted with sin? There is an important wisdom here. And What did it signify that Adam and Eve did not need to wear clothing? When did they begin, and what was the significance of God providing animal skins to cover them? This isn't just a temporal occurence. There are very important spiritual truths behind these occurences.

 

[LilAngelHeart]

Question for anyone who wishes to consider: How could God judge the world if we did not all partake in original sin with Adam? If there were more than one bloodline, not tainted with sin? There is an important wisdom here. And What did it signify that Adam and Eve did not need to wear clothing? When did they begin, and what was the significance of God providing animal skins to cover them? This isn't just a temporal occurence. There are very important spiritual truths behind these occurences.

Hmmm... those are interesting questions. Not sure what you mean by "How can God judge us if He didn't partake in the original sin of Adam" , what I will say about that though is that Jesus came to earth to become sin, Jesus had all of the sins of the world on His shoulders to where God the Father couldn't look at him.

I think if there were another bloodline not tainted with sin those people would have to be kept seperate from us to protect their purity. The sin nature is in the bloodline. If not kept seperate, intermingling with those who have the sin nature would have quickly ended their purity as well. What I wonder is what would have happened if Adam had sinned and Eve didn't, one stayed pure and one sinned. The sin nature is passed on by the man so if Eve had not sinned, her children would still have the sin nature, if Adam had not sinned and Eve had, then the sin nature would not exist it would have ust been Eve's sin.

I also wondered how would the world retain the pure sinless nature once Adam & Eve multiplied and there were more people on the earth, how could so many people not sin, but here's what I think. I think that if Adam & Eve had resisted the devil, satan would have had to leave mankind alone forever because the Bible says resist the devil and he must flee. Once Adam & Eve had resisted the devil and refused to give in, satan would have had to leave earth and mankind forever.

the significance of Adam & Eve going without clothes, I'm not sure of, but I do think that eventually even if they had not sinned God would have made clothes for them once they had children, I don't think people would have been going around naked forever. I think they became naked spiritually when they sinned and Adam wanted something to cover His spiritual nakedness which is why he hid from God, he was ashamed to show himself to God after he knew he did wrong.

 

[LilAngelHeart]

That's why Adam was suddenly aware of his nakedness when they had been naked all along, it was a spiritual nakedness that made him ashamed to let God see him.

 

[MoonlessNight]

this may sound silly, but I always had the notion that God just made wives for Cain and Abel like he made Eve for Adam. I have nothing to back that up, but it seems possible.

There is an ancient story (which has no basis in the bible whatsoever) that states that before God created Eve he first created Lilith as a wife for Adam, but she displeased him (or something along those lines, I can't remember precisely what she did wrong), and was banished from Eden, so then God created Eve, and everything worked out fine until Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, but that's a different matter.

Anyway, the relation is that according to this belief Cain's wife was Lilith, so therefore he did not commit incest. But as I said before, this story has no Biblical basis, and isn't accepted by most Christians and Jews. And come to think of it, even it does not explain where Seth got his wife.

 

[MoonlessNight]

Can we take some insight in to this matter if we look in the Old Testament, and examine that there were seven tribes of Isreal? (BTW, it is interesting how the numbers 1,2,4,5,7,10,13,40 are very common in the Bible (of course so too is six because it is one number less than perfection, which is 7).

First, I thought there were twelve tribes of Israel (one for each of Jacob's sons, except for two).

Secondly, I don't see how the number seven solves the problem of incest. Please explain your insight.

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

Hmmm... those are interesting questions. Not sure what you mean by "How can God judge us if He didn't partake in the original sin of Adam" , what I will say about that though is that Jesus came to earth to become sin, Jesus had all of the sins of the world on His shoulders to where God the Father couldn't look at him.

I think if there were another bloodline not tainted with sin those people would have to be kept seperate from us to protect their purity. The sin nature is in the bloodline. If not kept seperate, intermingling with those who have the sin nature would have quickly ended their purity as well. What I wonder is what would have happened if Adam had sinned and Eve didn't, one stayed pure and one sinned. The sin nature is passed on by the man so if Eve had not sinned, her children would still have the sin nature, if Adam had not sinned and Eve had, then the sin nature would not exist it would have ust been Eve's sin.

I also wondered how would the world retain the pure sinless nature once Adam & Eve multiplied and there were more people on the earth, how could so many people not sin, but here's what I think. I think that if Adam & Eve had resisted the devil, satan would have had to leave mankind alone forever because the Bible says resist the devil and he must flee. Once Adam & Eve had resisted the devil and refused to give in, satan would have had to leave earth and mankind forever.

the significance of Adam & Eve going without clothes, I'm not sure of, but I do think that eventually even if they had not sinned God would have made clothes for them once they had children, I don't think people would have been going around naked forever. I think they became naked spiritually when they sinned and Adam wanted something to cover His spiritual nakedness which is why he hid from God, he was ashamed to show himself to God after he knew he did wrong.

Right, exactly. So this demonstrates God's wisdom in creating a single bloodline through a single lineage. This is to overturn a past argument that somehow God is unreliable because He did not introduce the law until a sufficient number of people had populated the earth. But this one reason is only a very tiny piece of the puzzle of why the law was introduced later. But in Adam, we all sinned. So we are all in the same boat.

The shame dod not occur until the sin did. So it is the sinfulness that is represented by the need for cover, and God covered the sinfulness with a blood sacrifice. Originally Adam & Eve had contrived their own. But like any other self-contrived covering for sin, which is the effort behind the postmodern movement, the fig leaves were insufficient, because they did not involve the required sacrifice that God Himself would provide. The animals God used to make the skins pointed to the ultimate blood sacrifice to do the real covering: the blood of God's precious Son.

Both Adam and Eve were covered. There is tremendous significance in this.

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

That's why Adam was suddenly aware of his nakedness when they had been naked all along, it was a spiritual nakedness that made him ashamed to let God see him.

Absolutely.

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

What about the children of Noah?

God didn't introduce the law yet. I'm certain it had to do with the fact that He was planning to destroy the rampant wickedness that completely consumed the earth at that time. ...and yet we all come from Adam.

 

[LilAngelHeart]

Oooh okay I see. That's very good word.

 

[dan00000]

OP:

a) who else was there

b) who are you going to report them to

 

[Blissman]

Does Cain's plea to Noah (and his not having been punished) mean that God had learned from Cain?

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

Does Cain's plea to Noah (and his not having been punished) mean that God had learned from Cain?

I'm sorry; I'm not sure I understand your question. Cain was Abels' brother.

 

[Lillithspeak]

There is an ancient story (which has no basis in the bible whatsoever) that states that before God created Eve he first created Lilith as a wife for Adam, but she displeased him (or something along those lines, I can't remember precisely what she did wrong), and was banished from Eden, so then God created Eve, and everything worked out fine until Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, but that's a different matter.

Anyway, the relation is that according to this belief Cain's wife was Lilith, so therefore he did not commit incest. But as I said before, this story has no Biblical basis, and isn't accepted by most Christians and Jews. And come to think of it, even it does not explain where Seth got his wife.

Lillith was made as Adam's equal and refused to become his subordinate. She left the Garden of Eden and is now considered a mythical figure in Judaism; as the owl or screech owl that swoops out of the night sky and steals children. She was Lillith, the first uppity woman!

Lillithspeaks

 

[Blissman]

I'm sorry; I'm not sure I understand your question. Cain was Abels' brother.

The Lord was going to punish Cain for killing his brother, Able. Cain pleaded to the Lord, 'How can You punish me for killing if you had never told me that it was wrong to kill'. The Lord re-considered his decision and did not punish Cain. One could argue that God had learned from man.

 

[Blissman]

God didn't introduce the law yet. I'm certain it had to do with the fact that He was planning to destroy the rampant wickedness that completely consumed the earth at that time. ...and yet we all come from Adam.

Did we descend from Adam, or from Noah?

 

[Salsa_1960]

Did we descend from Adam, or from Noah?

If you believe the Bible literally, (as opposed to figuratively), the answer is both.