27.8.06
Adam's Family
Cain took a wife. Now, who could she be? We have the parents, Adam and Eve, plus their two sons, Cain and Seth. The text focuses on these fours characters, but does not claim that the first couple did not have many other sons and daugthers in their long life. They were told to "multiply and replenish the earth". Cain must have then found a sister-wife in the neighbouring towns founded by some of his known or unknown brothers and sisters.
Humans had been created perfect and it is said that the lifespan, back at the beginning of the race, was much longer for that reason. Our bodies have gradually become degenerated. If that's the case, then it is possible that there would be no in-bred effect like there would be now. Some Fundamentalist Christian websites do claim that and I guess I agree with these claims.
As for Cain marrying his sister, that sounds weird to us, but God hadn't given the Law yet. It was not a sin to marry in the family back in those times.
Cain's descendants created culture and civilisation, becoming musicians, like "Jubal, the invetnor of the harp and flute", or blacksmiths, like "Tubal-cain, the first to work with metal", etc. One of them, Lamech, became the first polygamist, as "Lamech married two women: Adah and Zillah". Cain's descendants also became inscreasingly evil, boasting of their crimes and murders, as if wickedness was hereditary. This escalation of violence and wickedness would be swiped away by the Flood a few generations later...
As for Seth's line, they instaured the best act of culture and civilisation, according to Genesis: Authentic worship.
The genealogy that follows, from Seth to Noah, does not have to be taken literally. Ancient genealogies were not about historicity but about determining domestical, legal or religious matters. Many Mesopotamian myths also refer to similar genealogies, in which men had a lifespan of more than 900 years up to the Flood.
Some insteresting aspects in the Adam genealogy:
Adam's first-born son (and consequently Seth who replaced Abel) was begotten "in his own image" (we now would say he was the spitting image of his father) like Adam had been created in the very "image of God".
Enoch did not die, but after walking with God (that is to say, being a reighteous worshipper) apparently was taken by God. Despite the few Apocrypha books that tell the detailed (and most likely fantasy) story of Enoch, the Bible tries to be very discreet about what actually happened! We are just told that he was "taken up".
We are not told about the other sons' or daughters' names in that genealogy of Adam through Seth: The text focuses on the first-borns until Noah comes to the scene with his 3 sons (Shem, the ancestor of the Semitic people, being the first-born).
Humans had been created perfect and it is said that the lifespan, back at the beginning of the race, was much longer for that reason. Our bodies have gradually become degenerated. If that's the case, then it is possible that there would be no in-bred effect like there would be now. Some Fundamentalist Christian websites do claim that and I guess I agree with these claims.As for Cain marrying his sister, that sounds weird to us, but God hadn't given the Law yet. It was not a sin to marry in the family back in those times.
Cain's descendants created culture and civilisation, becoming musicians, like "Jubal, the invetnor of the harp and flute", or blacksmiths, like "Tubal-cain, the first to work with metal", etc. One of them, Lamech, became the first polygamist, as "Lamech married two women: Adah and Zillah". Cain's descendants also became inscreasingly evil, boasting of their crimes and murders, as if wickedness was hereditary. This escalation of violence and wickedness would be swiped away by the Flood a few generations later...
As for Seth's line, they instaured the best act of culture and civilisation, according to Genesis: Authentic worship.
The genealogy that follows, from Seth to Noah, does not have to be taken literally. Ancient genealogies were not about historicity but about determining domestical, legal or religious matters. Many Mesopotamian myths also refer to similar genealogies, in which men had a lifespan of more than 900 years up to the Flood.
Some insteresting aspects in the Adam genealogy:
Adam's first-born son (and consequently Seth who replaced Abel) was begotten "in his own image" (we now would say he was the spitting image of his father) like Adam had been created in the very "image of God".
Enoch did not die, but after walking with God (that is to say, being a reighteous worshipper) apparently was taken by God. Despite the few Apocrypha books that tell the detailed (and most likely fantasy) story of Enoch, the Bible tries to be very discreet about what actually happened! We are just told that he was "taken up".
We are not told about the other sons' or daughters' names in that genealogy of Adam through Seth: The text focuses on the first-borns until Noah comes to the scene with his 3 sons (Shem, the ancestor of the Semitic people, being the first-born).
# poster: Mormon(s) of another kind at 12:34 
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There could have been only two ways that Adam could have had descendents. His children married their own sisters and later nieces and cousins. Or there could have been others created by God. All we have been told about are Adam and Eve, but that doesn't mean God limited his creations to just those two.
As for Enoch, God certainly had the power to magically take him without Enoch's having died an earthly death. We don't know the details of this or many other Biblical stories, and those details don't really matter. What matters is that we believe the God is supreme and all-powerful!
As for Enoch, God certainly had the power to magically take him without Enoch's having died an earthly death. We don't know the details of this or many other Biblical stories, and those details don't really matter. What matters is that we believe the God is supreme and all-powerful!
Interesting comment, Patience. I had read somewhere that God may have had created other people on Earth indeed. The same way as the genealogies don't mention all the sons and mention no daughter, it does not mean there was no other people, you're right... And that gets me thinking, which I like...
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