The Book of Genesis
One of the things we learn in biblical exegesis is that although the book of Genesis reads as history it also implements a wide array of literary elements of myth, allegory, metaphor, and symbolism. It is also unclear where to locate these forms. For instance, a reading of Genesis might suggest that Adam and Eve were historical people, that the Garden of Eden was a location, and that God really created the universe via physical forces, and that Cain, should we assume the trustworthiness of the tradition, really mercilessly murdered his brother in the farm fields.
Having studied Old Testament studies myself most scholars don’t actually think that Adam and Eve were actual historical people, or that there ever really was an actual location such as Eden. Rather, many would put down the first 11 or so chapters of Genesis down to mythology, a mythology that was of great significance to the author and for those he penned the account for. Similarly, most academics and experts don’t actually believe Moses penned the book of Genesis, but that it was rather a compilation of documents or traditions compiled by later authors writing within different traditions. As such, navigating Genesis is never going to be easy as its not always easy to demarcate where the likes of history, symbolism, and myth split, hence why biblical studies and interpretation shows much historical discussion and disagreement.
However, one can affirm that the author of Genesis clearly used a wide array of literary devices. Satan, as being represented in the form of a snake (Gen. 3:1-2), is symbolized as a seductive and narcissistic character. The tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17) is a symbol, and few, if any, scholars believe that there was an actual literal tree of good and evil. Eve being created from the rib of Adam (Gen. 2:22) is probably symbolic of some wider meaning, such as a woman being made for man and man being made for woman. In Genesis 2:7 we read of God forming man from the dust, which is not intended to be literal. And as is the case for a number of biblical characters, names denote a specific meaning. In Genesis, the name Eve means “The source of life” or “Mother of All Living”, and Adam simply means “man”. We are told, in an anthropomorphic use of language, that God “walks” in the garden where he placed Adam and Eve.
The point being that the early Genesis creation narrative is rife with literary devices and tools. To this end it is not always so easy to determine what constitutes actual history, what is conveyed as history but denotes something else, what is merely theological, or what is merely creative writing serving some theological purpose.
The Problem of Biblicism
The contentiousness of interpreting Genesis hasn’t been lost on Christians who themselves have interpreted Genesis differently. Such interpretations differ to various degrees. One problematic view is proposed by the camp known as Young Earth Creationists. Typically, these Christians view the Earth as being roughly 6000 to 10 000 years old, and they employ a very problematic methodology referred to as biblicism. Biblicism is an overly rigid interpretative method which fails to do justice to a number of important hermenuetical components.
As a result of this overly rigid method, this Christian finds himself facing a number of challenges when it comes to the story of Adam and Eve, of whom they believe were the progenitors of the human race. They believe, for instance, that Adam and Eve’s descendants married their brothers and sisters since this was their only choice. Ultimately this is how humanity begun, and because no-one else existed for Adam and Eve’s descendants to choose from, they must have committed incest. The general response hoping to account for this is that Adam and Eve, and their early descendants, were genetically pure as God made them that way. Therefore, any imperfections or harmful genetic mutations manifested only later.
But this is one of many flaws inherent in biblicism. Sure, it’s possible that God could have somehow made the first humans genetically pure, but by saying so one essentially speaks for the Bible as opposed to letting it speak for itself. Usually this is the result of attempting to make the biblical narrative conform to some preconceived framework one brings to the texts. A fundamental principle to engaging in exegesis is to avoid reading what they already believe into the text, rather one needs to let the text speak for itself.
Now, let’s turn to the text of Genesis itself, and see what it says. I contend that the text provides several clues that Adam and Even were not the only people alive at the time.
Cain’s worry
According to Genesis 4:1-15, Eve give birth to Cain and Abel. This, according to some Christians, implies that there were only four family members on Earth at that time. Now, after Cain had killed Abel there were only three people. But after Cain had slain his brother, God appears to him and kicks him out of the Garden of Eden as punishment. Cain then moves to the land of Nod, which is East of Eden, but what Cain then says to God is quite revealing. He tells God that he was worried of being killed by other people who would find him (4:15). Then God replies, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold” (4:15). In this text, God and Cain both imply that there are other humans besides Adam and Eve. If there were no other people, God would not have had to give him a mark in the first place, and Cain would not have had anything to fear.
Cain’s wife
Cain goes out from God’s presence and finds a wife, and impregnates her:
“Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch” (4:16)
The text implies that Cain had to find his wife, an act that could only happen if there were people to choose from. Assuming that we can trust this tradition, it is more likely that Cain came upon a village, a town, or some settlement which already existed. Otherwise, where did he find his wife? We then read that Cain was himself “building a city,” which, given the times, would have probably been a small settlement of sorts. But then why would Cain build a settlement if it was only him, his wife, and son? The text itself implies that many people inhabited the area. Thus, Cain’s narrative suggests that Adam and Eve were not the only humans alive at the time.
Be Fruitful
In Genesis 1:28 God tells Adam and Eve to: “Be fruitful and multiply, and Replenish the earth.” The word replenish means “to fill”, and one cannot replenish something, in this case the Earth (which would have likely meant the local area according to an ancient perspective), if it was not plenished (filled) to some degree before God’s command was issued. If Adam and Eve were the only two humans then this would make God’s instruction arbitrary and out of place. Instead God could have said, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the whole earth.”
Paul on the first man
Paul writes in Romans 5:12:
“Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men inasmuch as all sinned”
Biblical exegetes have generally noted that ‘death,’ as its used here by Paul, refers to spiritual death, not to physical death. On this view, Adam, being the first man to be made in the image of God, would have been the first human to break God’s trust.
Paul’s literal view of Adam being the first man:
Paul writes:
“But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.” (2 Timothy 2:11-14) And: “For indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake.” (1 Corinthians 11:9)
Paul clearly implies that mankind came from a single pair of humans, Adam and Eve, and this would pose challenges not to the position stipulated above (that Adam and Eve weren’t the first humans created by God), but to the internal consistency of the Bible. Regarding questions of consistency, inerrancy, and inspiration, theologians hold to a number of different views. One scholar, Peter Enns, holding to a non-inerrant view of the biblical texts, argues that Paul assumed that mankind came from Adam and Eve. In this way, Paul was expressing his own view, as he did throughout his letters,
“Paul certainly assumed that Adam was a person and the progenitor of the human race, and I would expect nothing less from Paul being a 1st Century man. And again, God speaks in ways and uses categories that are available to human beings at that time. I don’t expect Paul to have had a conversation with Francis Collins (a leading geneticist, and biologist) about the Genome Project, and how common descent is essential. Technically I don’t expect him to understand that… How Paul handles Adam does not determine modern scientific discoveries about the origin of humanity.”
However, Enns’ view is not the only one out there and many Christian scholars would strongly counter his view. Some Christians would argue that to claim that Paul assumed that Adam and Eve were literal historical people is to undermine the very basis upon which he argues and constructs his theological views.
But for the intent and purposes here, Paul’s view is largely irrelevant when we look to Genesis. It is Genesis which gives clues that Adam and Eve weren’t the first human beings, and a such it doesn’t really matter what Paul thought. Genesis thus implies that God did create other people alongside and before Adam and Eve.
Bishop's Encyclopedia of Religion, Society and Philosophy 
This article should be called James Bishop’s theological idiocy in his assumptions behind genesis 101.
I couldn’t have said it better, this writer is obviously confused with scripture, spreading his false doctrine, this is a good example of why everybody should read the Bible themselves instead of relying on others to decipher it for us.
I can’t speak to what someone else “thinks”, but I do know that the words in the bible (KJV) certainly say these things and I have long wondered about it myself because of what I read for myself. If you educate yourself to even a small part of scientific research and the findings of bones similar to ours as opposed to animals, pottery, scrolls, tablets, tools, and other items of various civilization that is common to man throughout the world, then you would also pull your head out of the mud. If you can read and comprehend basic language of actually reading the bible yourself, you would come to the same conclusion that some form of people existed way prior to Adam and Eve. It would seem to me that the comments made here by some, are the very people, who don’t read the bible for themselves, but instead believe what others tell them.
I believe you should read the Bible, the Quran, and the Jewish Tanakh/Written Torah, the Talmud/Oral Torah (which explains the written), and other Jewish writings. If at all possible, learn Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic so you can determine the differences in translations as there have been significant difference in the meaning of words. Some Latin, and Greek might be of use also to follow the translation from Hebrew/Aramaic through to English King James version. Personally, I try to stay away from the hundreds, thousands of other Bible versions where someone has further determined what they think the bible says, and their combination of verses that maybe should not be combined. There is enough issue with language meaning from Hebrew, to Greek, and then to English by various scribes and committees without then adding in 1000s of other people doing their own rendition of what they think the Bible should be. Just getting to the KJV, there are added verses, words, and stories not part of original scrolls. As I understand it – a very simple mis-translation is the Hebrew word “almah,” in reference to the birth of the Messiah. In English we have taken it to mean virgin. In Hebrew, it means young woman, nothing about her sexual status yet the English scribes determined it was virgin. However, as most young Hebrew women were suppose to be virgins, it is not far astray. As more diggings and discoveries have been made, we learn, confirm, or deny various documents. Only once you have read all 3 religious writings in a version as close to the first English translation or the original language of the document – can you determine what was the same or different. By adding in scientific documentation, you can further understand. We have to stay open if we truly want to know what is real, imagined, or just a “passing down” of what someone else thought.
I like a lot of what you have said.
The fallen angels were here on the earth along with Satan! How do you forget about that 1/3 of the angels was kicked outta heaven along with Satan that’s how Satan appeared In the garden outta no where he was already here with the rest of the fallen angels and that’s why Cain was worried about being killed but instead when he left the garden he perhaps found his wife a fallen angel! Who ever said all angels were male? And perhaps that was the start of the giants in the old testament!
Rich Allen you are exactly right.
Rich Allen is exactly wrong. Jesus said angels don’t marry. Only angels, not fallen angels, have the capacity to take a body of flesh that is their own through power and authority given by God; fallen angels have to possess people which grants the possessed no special powers aside from having a human break their body to do its will, hence possessed seeming a bit stronger and able to painfully contort their body to get out of being bound. Pretty sure a crazed possessed person (biblically all known possessed are extremely mentally and physically unstable) wouldn’t be seen as beautiful and worthy of breeding. Seths line leading to Noah and beyond would be considered sons of god for the bible says that god has never called an angel His child, daughters of man would be sinful human females doing what they want and appearing sexual appetizing. Having adventuresome children who do great things and becoming famous and conquer other people isn’t something a super half human half demon offspring is necessary for. Remember all these people still live for up to 1,000 years as the flood happened 1500ish or so, so people would have had a long while to become “renoun”. Nothing extra biblical or supernatural needed. God doesn’t have miraculous things happen unless necessary to prove his point that He is God and has power alone. Satan is only the ruler of the world because God allows him to be.
Rose, is correct on the critique of the exposition, if read and understood in the original (or as close as we have to an “original”) language(s), and do the diligent research, one will find that, in fact Cain did NOT marry a “sister”, as is generally wrongly assumed, Gen.1 and Gen.2 are complimentary, and go together, yes, where there is creation, and then fulfilling that creation, however the two Genesis accounts are not talking about the same exact event, as “the adam” (adamu, meaning “mankind”) from Gen.1 is not the same “Adam” (proper name), who is “formed from the earth” from Gen.2. What this explanation is entirely missing, as Rose touches on, is that the “Rib” (Ribosome -RNA) was taken from “Mankind” (the adamu, in Gen.1) and from this the Eve (Gen.2) was supposedly then created. Hence, Eve was created from only the X-Chromosomes of the originaof “mankind” from Gen.1, therefore negating worries of inbreeding/incest, and allowing for the redemption of Adamic (Satanic) fallen man through the grace of God, Christ’s sacrifice. Admittedly, this “interpretation” based on the actual language used has fallen majorly out of popularity due to socio-political agendas in modernity, although if you’re actually going to bother deciphering these archaic literary works, in a RATIONAL way, it is essential to do so by first utilizing the oldest known manuscripts and in the “original” languages, or it will make very little logical sense. Hope that helps.
God makes very clear how to know a false prophet and teachings by looking at the foundation. If the foundation is bad nothing on that foundation will stand. You can look at Joseph Smith, Charles Taze, Muhammad, Buddha etc and know these are false prophets by the writings of scripture so to advise people to read these books anyway can only lead to confusion. There is no reason to read things you know are false unless your purpose is to teach people of a certain group that they have been lied to. The Bible is the inherent Word of God. The Spirit will teach you what is true and right. You need study nothing else
With all tenderness and love i say –
By the same token how can we accept that the ‘Bible’s is correct as this was still but together by man?
The Bible is not the inherent ‘Word of God’ the writings within the Bible exposes who the ‘Word Of God’ is. There are other books that are mentioned within the ‘Bible’ whose quotes from other sources where taken, therefore who is man to deem what is acceptable and not. I can name you three other ‘books’.
Another example is Gen 6 which curls theologians toes when a different narrative is propagated. Much the same as the Cain narrative, thou I do not agree with the authors point 1, Adam was not the farther of Cain. Nevertheless an interesting article.
The books or written scrolls described are not the apocryphal books we have today. Enoch for instance is a blatant forgery that contradicts several other biblical scripts and not what Jude is referencing. Same as many others such as tales of Lilith, Revelation tales from other so called prophets, etc. Nice try, though.
Then pray tell me Chris D – why do the NT scriptures quote from it. As you mention, “Jude is not quoted from it”, yet it’s a perfect word translation. You forgot to mention that 2 Peter 2 also uses passages found in the “Book of Enoch”. You state “Enoch for instance is a blatant forgery that contradicts several other biblical scripts and not what Jude is referencing”. The burden of prove lays on you to prove it. I await your answer with great anticipation.
Tammy…. So you want people to “open their minds” to understand God in “your bible”, Then ask them to close their minds when an opportunity to learn more, comes along? This is why I am not christian/catholic. What do you think about this… The catholic church has come out and stated the open possibility that, out there in the universe may very well exists more of God’s creations…. even some who may not have committed an “Original Sin”.
In that logic, you subscibe to the John Swanson’s idiocy in his assumptions of how the bible should be interpreted.
I agree .
I Have always Believed That People Have To Read The Bible For Themselves Let Your Spirit & Soul Guide You..Too Much Emphasis Put On The Meanings Of Words.. Not Enough Spirit & Soul Guiding Your Findings..
Yeah umm no. My “spirit and soul” guiding me are not superior than “hermeneutics”. In other words the person writing the text ONLY meant one thing. With all due respect I appreciate your kindness and we’ll wishes. Imagine if you left specific instructions for your family about how, I don’t know, there are excellent Hollywood movies but many have perversion in them because specific people who run Hollywood are perverts. And let’s say you even named instances, occasions and examples which were ultra specific (Weinstein, casting couch, lawsuits and cause and effect.) Information. Each of your children read the diary after looking for some lost hierloom in attic. One reads it and thinks..”You know that makes sense. I’ve watched some movies and they are good but they do have alot of unnecessary things. And I have watched YouTube videos so I know that there is definitely dark symbolism and hidden messages in “innocent” kids movies. I’m going to be careful as my dare ancestor has warned me about.
Now imagine another grandchild or daughter, whatever find the same letter and thier response is,
“Well I know what she is saying but “who is to say” what perversion is or not?
She didn’t mean what she said, or “I believe that all movies are expressions of ideas and all ideas are to be respected, while maybe not liked…or something that suggest you didnt have One message or concept you were trying to convey….
If God just wanted us to go by what we feel, believe, or would like to assume, perhaps there would not be an original best selling Bible…
The major mistake we make is reading the 1 and second Genesis in a continuance as though it is the same event.
Let us make man in our own image after our own likeness…..so God created them (plural) male and female (NOT ADAM AND EVE) and God said to THEM* (PLURAL) be fruitful and multiply (NOT ADAM AND EVE) ADAM WAS ONLY CREATED AFTER GOD PLANTED THE GARDEN, and was never told to to replenish the earth. Thus the assumption that God said be fruitful and multiply is still hardwired the way we were taught as children. Adam was created then Eve later, Adam was created in God’s image, but not in his likeness, Adam was made of the Earth, God existed before the creation of the earth,
would you care expand this a little more – I’m trying to follow through on your thoughts. Thx
Professor Keith – Genesis 1 and 2 are discussing the same event and complement each other. Genesis 2 provides more detail about the creation of mankind.
The Hebrew word in verse 26 is אָדָ֛ם (‘adam), which refers to man, as opposed to woman. In verse 20 of chapter 2 the same the same Hebrew word is used, אָדָ֛ם (‘adam), which refers to the man or the name Adam. Both chapters are referring to one and the same person. Thus Adam was created in God’s image and likeness.
I encourage you to visit my blog where I provide a response to Bishop’s post here. https://juliancatana.wordpress.com/2016/12/19/a-response-to-james-bishops-adam-eve-werent-the-first-humans-according-to-the-bible/
We must remember that creation was controlled by God .This means he truly spoke things into being . Man’s logic and understanding can not possibly comprehend how powerful this was . God ways are supreme , whether we accept it or not . and does not depend on individual beliefs .
You can pull you head out of the sand any time now, oh wait, doing that would mean you need to think critically, Never mind!
Beliefs are of the ego higher the soul knowledge brings one closer to know the truths..
You should research and read The Book of Enoch ( great grandfather of Noah) The Book of Enoch tells us that Enoch is ” a just man” whose eyes were opened by God so that he saw a vision of the Holy One in the heavens, which the ” son’s of God” showed to me, and from them I heard everything and I knew what I saw but not for this generation, but for a generation that has yet to come. The Book of Enoch describes the fall of the ” Watchers”, the angels who fathered the “Nephilim”. The “Nephilim” were on the earth in those days, and also afterward when the
” son’s of God” came to the daughters of man and they bore children to them.
This is Gens 6 narrative, Psalm 82 and many others, such as Jude and 2 Peter 3
EIther Cain married some one outside his own genetics, or we should assume that all Jews, Christians and Muslims are living in eternal sin, by marrying their own sisters and daughters
Adam, Eve and their son Cain lived centuries before Jews came into existence with the traveling out of Iraq of Abraham and Jacob’s name was changed to Israel… centuries thereafter the Romans crucified Jesus Christ, then the Christian Movement became a reality. Mohamed was trying to understand the essence of the Gospel of Christ, but those tasked with spreading the Word didn’t bother to answer and explain. Read the Quran and the Bible side by side and you’ll discover the confusion and/or delusion. Example: Both books have the story about the virgins. Now, which one reads more realistic and sensible to you?
Beligere, you assume that Jews, Christians and Muslims are the only people who ever lived. When Adam and Eve’s children married, it was a different environment then. The blood, genes and chromosomes were so fresh and new and not recycled that it was not incest. THAT explanation was given by a former evolution professor-turned-Creation Scientist.
Sir,
What are your thoughts re 15% of the world’s population being RH- (circa 2015), which means that the 15% did not descend from the first man with advanced communication abilities and advanced rationality (designated as Adam).
Thank you.
Douglas “Ting” Anama
tingpepay@yahoo.com
I am rh- and i am a Chosen! Praise FATHER GOD following, praising and loving JESUS always! Amen!
I can’t agree that Paul taught that Adam was the progenitor of the whole human race just from 1 Cor. 11:9. Paul wrote elsewhere that Adam was the first man in the way that Christ was the second man. That is, Adam was a shadow of Christ. Adam was a pattern Son, as is Christ. So when Paul used Adam coming before Eve as an example it does not demand that he meant that Adam was the progenitor of our race, but an example for it. Adam was an actual historical figure, but more likely 13,000 years ago rather than the Usshurian figure. But I agree with your title, Adam was not the first man (except in the way that Christ is the last man). https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XRLDYJB
I think that Dr. Charles Panati has the most logical explanation on how humans evolved in his book, the beginnings of everything.
You are pretty confused
Yes he is! Adam was the first man! But Satan and his fallen angels were here first which are not man that’s how Satan appeared in the garden from the beginning! Perhaps Cain wife was a fallen angel!
how did the fallen pick human form
I am sorry but you are sadly mistaken.
Eze 8:1The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
2Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
Isaiah 14:16 Those who see you stare at you, they ponder …
New International Version Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, New Living Translation Everyone there will stare at you and ask, ‘Can this be the one who shook the earth and made the kingdoms of the world tremble?
Always answer out of the Bible, we are misled thinking satan is such a big deal.
Satan was not the Prince of Tyre/Tyrus.
God said “…yet thou art a man.” (You wrote it yourself.)
Satan is evil spirit, but the prince of Tyre was a powerful king and a man, probably a Phoenician/Phoenician-progeny king.
(Now Satan might have tempted the King of Tyrus to hubris, and one might say that satan’s demonic force came to inhabit the King of Tyrus’s soul when King of Tyrus chose to commit the sin of claiming to be God. Some might say he became demon-posessed, even.
But however one expresses it, the King of Tyrus was merely a sin-filled man. Not Satan.
The man, King Tyrus, may have become adversarial to God’s will…
But he never became Satan, THE adversary. The danger of Satan to us is his trickery, his deceit, his sneakiness, his pretense of wonderfulness, his power is to persuade and confuse us through what appears to be smart, or right, or desirable.
God will not let anyone snatch your soul from his hand.
John 10:27-29
But you must resist “jumping out of his palm yourself” for some shiny sparkly goody offered falsely by Satan. He has power only through the weaknesses of man.
With all due respect, you do add (eisigesis) to the text. For example, the text never says that Cain is the first child. You assume that because Cain is the first child to be named. But nowhere does the text say that Cain is their first child. Cain is indeed exiled by God but nowere does the text say how old Cain was when he murdered Abel; he could have been in his 20s or 30s or 40s etc, the text does not say. The text also does not say, how long after the murder of Abel was Cain exiled by God. So yes, Cain indeed was afraid of being killed. We have to assume that enough time had passed and there were other kinfolk who would kill Cain for murdering their brother (the blood feud). Nowhere does the text say that there were other human beings apart from the offspring of Adam and Eve. [The word stranger is never used in the text as you suggest]. You assume that Cain found a wife in the land of Nod; the text does not remotely state that. It simply reads that Cain had sex (knew) his wife, not that he found a woman, married her and then had sex. Also, Adam and Eve had already been expelled by God and were no longer in the Garden. All of these events occurred outside the Garden. One last point, did incest occur? No, the concept of incest being a sinful act in the eyes of God with this early creation did not become unlawful until Moses at Mt Sinai where the Law [Torah] is given to Israel and there incest is indeed unlawful and a sin. In reading your article, you assume too much and add your ideas and opinions (eisigesis) into the text.
Rachel I hope that you are not talking to me but I cannot be sure. How is it that I am the one adding to the text when you are the one assuming children PRIOR to Cain that the text never mentions?
Secondly, you claim that the text says nothing about other human beings besides the offspring of Adam and Eve. That is not so. The text does say, or at least strongly implies, that there were other human beings besides the family of Adam. For example Genesis 2:1 says “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” Look up what the word “host” means in Hebrew. Its not a couple. Nor do the instructions Elohim gives to the host on earth in Genesis chapter one seem a reasonable task for one man and one woman. Nor do those instructions sound anything like God’s later interaction with Adam. In the first instance, reproduction is an immediate mandate, in the second, its almost an afterthought post-fall.
Your third complaint is that the word “stranger” is never used in the text. Well, not that word, but by description. Yahweh tells Cain that if whoever he is worried about kills him then Yahweh will avenge seven-fold. Seven of them for Cain! Sounds like even Cain was still one of His favorites. A bit further one Lamech says “I have killed a man for wounding me.” He was a son of Cain. If you killed your cousin would you describe it as “a man”?
In addition I would say that Genesis 1:26 and 1:27 are not being read in the light of the rest of Genesis chapter one and that if they are then verse 27 also implies other humans. There is just a huge amount of theology in early Genesis which is not in the Bible. Anyone who wants to know the truth of early Genesis, instead of the theology which is not in the Bible that is being taught in most churches today…. https://www.amazon.com/Early-Genesis-Cosmology-Mark-Moore/dp/0996239014/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506626838&sr=8-1&keywords=Early+Genesis%2C+The+Revealed+Cosmology
Genesis account of creation is a synopsis of what took place .Surely one can not believe that every detail was written down . However , every word is true .
I agree every word is true, but postulating large numbers of children before the fall of Adam when the scripture does not mention any children until after the fall, and implies the first two were Cain and Abel…..and further implies that Seth was a replacement for Abel indicating that there were no additional sons at least until Seth was born, is assuming a lot that is not in the text just so you can avoid the conclusion that otherwise seems pretty straight-forward. Adam and Even were not the only two people walking around. Many people were created in Genesis chapter one. Adam was special, but others were around. Even Genesis 2:1 says the earth had “hosts”, which is armies. And the instructions to the first men was to dominate and subjugate the earth and the beasts of it, which fits with it being an army a whole lot better than a single couple.
Very Well spoken. Like the facts and events in the Book of Enoch, there are many truths in the Bible that are just far too supernatural or “untenable” for the average non supernatural and /or outright world church. If Christian churches as a whole, were concerned with exgesis, it would be common knowledge of the ubiquity of Giants (whose remains seem to be found everywhere) heavenly host (also plentiful) and the hoardes of fallen angels cohabiting the earth.And then there is the GAP theory,
And the not so famous verse in Jermaiah when the Lord says of the earth “man had fled and there were no birds of the air” or something to that effect. This teases at an earth age even before Adam and Eve and talks about the Ice that had aftwards covered it. Another implication of the Holy Spirit floating over the Waters…this is postulated by Pastor Robert Mcglaughlin at Gbible.org Sure the text does imply that Cain did need protection from strangers. It’s an open mystery. So people who are not objective would have an easier time poo poo in it then look at the truth. There was no need for Adam and Eve to have sex before the fall..And it is very interesting to find out that there were other people there. And that Cain left and married one. Perhaps that’s why this thread keeps moving
But let’s not forget what the Bible speaks of on those who go on and on about “endless genelogies.
At the Bema seat of Judgement, and the Great White Throne Judgment, not sure how any of this will come up. Adam and Eve were special. But it is definitely food for thought what circumstances the other people were in. But doesn’t change much in terms of accepting the Bible today. Because that is based on Faith, though I know this will be used by some to tear down Protestantism .Excellent Post Mm.
U answered the question without knowing it! Lol Satan and his fallen angels were here post Adam and Eve! That explain the serpent appearing in the garden and that’s who Cain feared killing him and who GOD threatened.. Lucifer I just kicked u and the rest of your demons outta Heaven I’m warning if any of yall kill Cain watch what I do to you next time lol.. So Cain left outta Eden and found his wife! A fallen angel! I’m just speculating like everyone else including these so called scholars but the bible didn’t say anything about ppl would kill him
I can’t understand how people are forgetting about Satan and 1/3 of the fallen angels were already here prior to Adam and Eve that’s how Satan appeared as the serpent and would explain why Cain committed that act of violence in the first place he did Satan’s work and was scared afterwards that he knew he was deceived like his parents and that Satan and his angels would kill him but most likely found his wife a fallen angel!
Gen 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. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
This was not Adam and Eve, Adam was only created after God planted a garden. Thus those created beings were told to replenish the earth long before adam.
Gen 2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 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.
Eve was not here then, she only came on the scene at a later stage.
Wow Rachel I think you nailed it.
Does that mean sin relative?
Hi Rachel the Bible is full of euphemisms, Cain and Abel was indeed the first two sons, Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. the tree here represent satan the serpent. There is no tree that can make you wise or make you realize that you are naked, simply see what the punishment was to understand what really transpired here
Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. 2 And she again bare his brother Abel. ) It does not say Adam knew his wife again because they were twins (superfecundation)
5And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Satan has got seed (SPERM).
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
If it was wrong for Adam to had sex with his wife, why this type of punishment.
I subscrip to this understanding, as strange at may seem. The OT world was entirely different to today, the early christians were will aware of this as can be read in various writings of the 1st century,
Since, in the Genesis 2 story, Adam was told not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil or “thou shalt surely die…” 2:17-2:18
But at that time, Eve was not yet created when Adam was told that “thou shalt die” …for God created animals for the Garden and Adam named them 2:19 “but there was not found a helpmeet for him” 2:20
Not until 2:21 and 2:22 was Eve created. There is no verse folowing where God himself told Eve that she would die from eating that particular fruit.
After the serpent speaks in chapter 3, Eve says “God hath said, “Ye shall not eat of it NEITHER SHALL YE TOUCH IT, lest ye die.” But she doesn’t say “God told me.”
Perhaps this statement is what Adam told her, that God told him. For nowhere does it say that God directly told Eve that she would die from the fruit, after she was created. When God spoke, it was usually recorded by Genesis.
If so, perhaps this is the first instance of man “adding to what God said,” because when God told Adam not to eat it back in 2:17, before Eve was yet created 2:22, no mention is made that he should not “touch it” and no mention is made that God told Adam that he should tell Eve “not to touch it.” I find it odd, simply because the voice of God is left unrecorded if God did speak directly to Eve.
Interestingly, when the serpent spoke to Eve, 3:4 and 3:5,
it seems, from 3:6 that Adam was there too “she took of the fruit and did eat and gave also to her husband WITH HER…
Now there is no addition here, merely observation. The Bible says “husband with her.” It doesn’t say she took the fruit to where he was, but rather that he was already with her. It is left open as to whether it took her a while to decide whether to listen to the serpent or not, nor whether the serpent had slithered away by then, but Adam was with her when she bit the fruit.
And apparently later, “in the cool of the evening” when God walked in the garden and called “Where art thou!” to Adam 3:9, the serpent apparently was still with Adam and Eve since God did not have to call the serpent. See 3:10-3:14 these are the “blame game” verses that remind me so much of children: “I did it but it was her fault, not mine!” & “I did it but it was serpent’s fault, not mine!”
Finally, the very first recorded instance of God speaking directly to Eve, is verse 3:13. So either God never spoke directly to Eve between 2:22 and 3:13 or the first Sacred words of God directly to Eve failed to make the record book.
The egg is the seed of woman. (The egg is XX carrier also, from which her baby females get one and her baby males get one too.)
Now we can say Adam and Eve had no knowledge of “seeds” and no knowledge of genes…but is that not saying that Eve could not comprehend the interesting curse on the serpent in 3:15, which threatens Eve’s seed with the enmity if the serpent seed (as well as the serpent’s seed with the enmity of Eve’s seed)?
So the curse is between egg and serpent. Lots of interesting
mystical egg and serpent ancient tales: the druid egg, the ouroborous (egg or circular shape) even the “egg and dart” in archaeology. Every circle vs snake or circle vs curve or circle vs staff/straight meme in all of ancient lore might come from this.
An interesting oval with a mushroomheaded serpent on it was found at Gobekli Tepe. (Turn the photo of that sideways and see the chick hatch from the egg, lol, no one seems to see it.)
For if it means her decendants, and not her egg, those decendants also are Adam’s descendants as well! For even the girl babies get one of their X chromosomes from daddy, just as the boy babies get a Y from daddy but their X is from MOM. Now Adam and Eve might not have known genetics, but God sure did.
There is more, but this is long enough.
Rachel in reading your article you abandon all logic to allow a shaky story to stand. We are at all times human like in our timing and response to events. Our past if anything shows we repeat are all governed by our desires and that only the spiritually aware are able to over come. The genisis is a poorly written history book that fails on many fronts to accurately address dates, names also fact and folk lore. This leads to misinterpretation
Yes, Adam is not the first men. Many people misunderstood that Genesis about God’s creation on humanity. But God has been using parables since Genesis.
So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will uter things hidden since the creation of the world” – Mt 13:35
If you carefully read the bible, the bible actually contain a lot of spiritual meanings, which you cant read it in literal meanings.
– “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” Gen1:2
If the Earth was formless and empty, how did Spirit of God hover over waters?
– “Let there be light” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he seperated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day” and the darkness “night”, and there was evening and there wS morning marking the first day. Gen1:3-5
however, if you read Gen1:14-16, “God said, Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to seperate day and night” and later it was said in God create two great lights.
If you think about this, does this mean God create light on the first day and on the third day. What is the two great lights that govern the day and the night? It is the sun and the moon. So what was the light that God create in Gen1:3? Refer to John1:1-8. When you read John, light actually refers to Jesus.
There are other verses that proves God speaks in parables. God created plants bearing seed and trees in Gen1:11-13, but God only created two great lights in Gen1:14. Now lets think about this, how can plants survive without sun when God only creates sun later after he created the plants?
This means that plants and trees has other meanings as he later mentioned ahout trees of knowledge of good and evil.
These are just a few points that causes science and religion to argue about the Bible, because they think that verses in the Bible contradict themselves.
However, the more scientist study about the nature, and the higher study they had, the more they cant deny about God, because God is the Creator in which he create all things.
Bible is not just a book about teachings, instructions and prophecies that God gave to his people, but Bible is divided into two: Old and New Testament. God created the New Covenant through Jesus blood, and Bible is actually about a book of God’s covenant TO HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE. Thus, yes, I agree with your thoughts that Adam is not the first of humanity, Adam is not the first Human that God created, but he is the first human that God chose.
Let me know what you think.
email: tracy_allison@hotmail.com
I cannot believe pre-adamic race. Not because I cannot find adequate evidence… But if that would be true the whole being of God and His characters would be so fictitious. Even Jesus Christ and all his disciples including all the historians of the world be in subjection into nothingness. If we are to condemn the whole history….. I think that would not make good sense for anyone…..
How so? Adam was the foreshadow of Christ, not the progenitor of humanity. He was the first stand-in, Christ is the Last. You may be burdened by a lot of theology which is not actually in the Bible, No major Christian doctrine (that is, the doctrines of the last 1500 years, vs the last 150) are changed by seeing it this way. https://www.amazon.com/Early-Genesis-Cosmology-Mark-Moore/dp/0996239014/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506626838&sr=8-1&keywords=Early+Genesis%2C+The+Revealed+Cosmology
Why did you say Cain was kick out of the Garden of Eden, We all know that after Adam & Eve disobeyed God not to eat the fruit in the tree of Good & Evil. God already send them away from the garden of Eden & God Burn the garden.
God didnt burn the garden. He put an angel to guard it. When the flood happened, it was likely destroyed and god if not all, at least took the tree of life from within it and placed it in the center of New Jerusalem/the city of God/heaven maybe, which is still being prepared for the end of Jesus’ millennial kingdom.
Thanks for such elucidation. I only have to comment on “let US make man in our image…”. That refers to a suggestion by a conglomerate “GOD”; that in other to solve the problematic self-aggrandizement, hatred and feuding among the body of first intelligent beings – Titans – gods need to be created as Man, with all the characters and traits of all the gods. They will then live in more free will, and learn love, patience and tolerance for one another.
We have seen that even Jehovah, passing through various incarnations (as Adam, Enoch, Noah, Moses and even Jesus Christ) has greatly developed from ‘caveman’, killer-god of Israel, hater of pagans, and to ‘man of sorrows’ who had to latter (as almighty) ‘so love the world’!
The idea of having to go through various rebirths (Christ called it ‘recreation’) angered the normal other balancing conglomerate ‘SATAN’ – the oposition. It would have loved the quick access to perfection through ‘the fruit of knowledge’ – eating wisdom and forbearance instead of learning through suffering.
Changing the primitive savagery of the gods was the very reason Man came here. And it has borne positive results. Howelse could there be men and women who risk their lives in UN setups around the world; not to talk of those silent donors who give without asking for rewards? Creating Man, and the positive outcome of rebirths of millions of humanity who come back to polish their ‘image’ is the greatest indicator of divine wisdom. Those who teach of ‘hellfire’, though did so during their crude stages of knowledge (including Christ in the 1st Century A.D.), and any continuation of such dogma rather lowers Christianism behind Hinduism; and paint the GOD-Head in negativity.
I have more of these clarifications, including how ‘Life’ began before the first gods could exist, in my unpublished 700-page book – IN THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH.
Let us make man in our image and likeness was not Adam and Eve, God only made Adam after He planted the garden, and then afterwards he made Eve.
Genesis 2 and 1 are the same account, only with different perspectives and focal points, just like the four gospels. It could be that god just used the various humanlike hominid species and made humanity different, set us in our own private garden of special conditions while life went on as normal outside, and things progressed from there, but there’s a lot to argue against it.
If you aaaabsolutely need science and the bible to mesh just blame it on the gap theory. Satan fell, Theia crashed into earth and god jumbled the planets together, or whatever else you need. Personally, you can’t sync them up just like Hawking couldn’t get his theory of everything to mesh. Radiological dating, if the bible is true, is skewed due to the flood, due to the magnetic field being different, the carbon dioxide due to the wall of must theory, etc, so that dating of things is completely wrong.
Science changes but the bible doesnt, so never try to make the bible fit science. Just like the number of billions of years of the universe or the number of planets in the solar system, you’ll be changing things around until the earth dies of old age.
Chris – I’m glad to see someone else defending the early chapters of Genesis! I invite you to visit my blog and take a look at my response to Bishop’s post here. https://juliancatana.wordpress.com/2016/12/19/a-response-to-james-bishops-adam-eve-werent-the-first-humans-according-to-the-bible/
“because He is God, He can change His mind. He can do whatever He wants with His Law”.
So…. on Monday He said “incest is OK”, then of course He can change it on Tuesday to “incest is not OK” … and why not it’s possible that He change it back on Wednesday to “incest is OK”. 🙂
how do people multpled soon after floods in the days of Noah
Because the flood was not global, yet it Noah and those with him had not been preserved then it would have caused the whole earth to perish. That sounds at first like a contradictory statement, because people come in with misunderstandings about what Early Genesis is really saying. I will try to explain briefly but I can’t begin to demonstrate why it is true here, that takes a 348 page book..
Adam was not the only human being created, nor even the first. The only place it says he was the first man it also says that Christ is the second man. Adam was created as a figure of Christ long after man had gone astray. The events of Early Genesis concern his descendants and the other nations of the world are only referred to in passing.
Genesis Chapter 1 describes the creation of the whole world by Elohim, chapter two is a different but related story in which only Adam and Eve and a few kinds of animals ripe for domestication are made by Yahweh Elohim. When Yahweh decides to destroy what HE has made, it is the much more limited set of things from Genesis chapter two, the Adamic race and those domsticatable animals made to help him turn mankind from savage hunter-gatherers to civilized people with crops and livestock. Yet Elohim had ordained that the world would be saved through the Seed of the Adamic race, so if that race perished the whole world would be separated from God forever.
So it was a local flood with global implications. The text does not read like that in common translations, but if you look at it from the right perspective- that it all points to Christ, and investigate the original language it does.
So the table of nations is not saying that the nations were descended only from those off the Ark. It is saying that those men DIVIDED the nations. They became a natural nobility like Esau who could gather 400 men to fight for him, or Isaac, whom the King begged to leave because he was more powerful in his personal household than they were. The people of the land who attached themselves to the households of Noah’s grandsons and great-grandsons formed the core of what would become nations.
I have barely scratched the surface here, and made many assertions that it would take tens of thousands of words to validate. If you care to know it…. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XRLDYJB
No, James, either the Bible is true, or it is a fable of Man. I believe that the Bible is of God. In the beginning, there had to be interaction between god,and Man, and much of that had to be teaching. Some could be man watching the animals who know what to do by instinct. Other was by God’s teaching.If this is true,Why would God not tell us what people did. This is what so, and so did, and this is how it was handled.
Fred, would you mind if you linked link me the source from which you got to my article?
Nothing should be changed or re-written from the Bible. We are to believe in every word by faith. God can do all things and all things were done in His time. We are not to question the word of God. God Bless you all.
I laughed out loud when I read this. The bible was created for us to have challenges and to question things. God wants that. Look at all the different translations that have been created, are you saying only one version is correct? Jesus invites us into questioning and digging deeper into our faith. Don’t just sit back and nod like a “yes man,” be curious and grow in faith.
perhaps when God chased Adem and Eve, God created humans and place them around the whole that was Adams punishment also, God works in a different way
there had be more people on earth before adam and eve what is god a person from a very advanced people who lived or came to earth years before adam and eve
Heresy at its finest.
The other inhabitants Cain was afraid of could possibly have been Satan and his demons,that were cast out of heaven to earth. Also animals inhabited the world and most certainly could have killed Cain if he was unprotected. So no the Bible does not imply other people at all, this is an assumption by you. As for where did Cain get a wife, it’s not proven but read the book of Adam and Eve written sometime hundreds of years before Christ Jesus was born.
TIm, Cain said “whoever finds me”, those would be “whatevers” not “whoever”. Plus look at Yahweh’s response, it only makes sense as a threat of retaliation to another tribe. Demons can’t be killed like Cain could and animals don’t fit with the “whoever” or the nature of the protective threat. And you don’t just have to explain Cain’s wife, but that he built a CITY. The Bible teaches that there were other people around and not just Adam and Eve. The Bible DOES NOT teach that Adam was the male progenitor of the whole human race. THAT is an assumption, and incorrect one.
I just read “The 12th Planet” based on some older clay tablets accounts. It seems the things that do not add up in the Genesis account are covered up by man’s mental creations about those events. Humans struggle to understand the difference between Beliefs and Historical Facts. All understand the Genesis account is by nature akin to the Greeks creation accounts. The repeated use of the term gods coming down from heaven on their own or by force use to bother me but after I learned humans refer non earth beings as gods then it became clearer in my mind. Humans were explaining the unknown the best way they could within their own language limitations.
Adam lived 930 yrs and had other sons and daughters.How old was Cain and Abel when Abel was killed? A lot of empty space for speculations I think! Bible says all that pertains to life and Godliness is found in the scripture and with the limited knowledge the apostles had, they were able to complete the task God gave them with world changing results! What is writtin? The holy spirit will lead and guide us into all truth and lean not to your own understanding but put your trust in God! I know that the knowledge of who Christ is has changed my life forever and what little I know, to some is a lot, of scripture, always learning, has made it possible to live a righteous life in Christ with peace, love and joy that has no limits with the hope of eternal life! How many yrs to form the earth, was there other people besides Adam and Eve, was there an ark? Bla bla bla! Seek first His kingdom and all His righteousness, I know,” he’s just quoting scripture,can’t speak for himself!”You have to ask yourself, did Christ speak his own words or what His Father spoke? Did he do whatever He wanted to do or only what He seen His Father Do? I find life and peace in His words and ways because I lived my way for the first 19yrs of my life, speaking my words and living my way and it never led to anything other than self in the purest sence of the word! SELF! Death! I now have been given a spirit of peace, love and of a sound mind! And I’ll stop there for where many words are spoken sin is not absent!Lol
Amen!!!
Sometimes you got to look outside of the bible in other books that wasn’t included in the bible collection for answers. This book right here http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/fbe/fbe006.htm The first book of Adam and Eve and I would also suggest The second book of Adam and Eve http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/fbe/fbe085.htm will take care of a lot of your doubts. A sneak peak in The second book… Cain takes his twin sister Luluwa as his wife.
Wrong. You don’t think there was Jewish folklore? A number of apocryphal books are blatant forgeries, or contradict the main books far too much. Enoch is not the same book Jude talks about for instance. Kaballah and the Bible do not mix.
[…] jamesbishopblog.com posits that “The Bible itself implies that God did create other people alongside and before […]
I concur with your interpretations.
nice try james. but your theory cannot be proven and requires much faith. but that is not a bad thing necessarily. much of the bible requires faith, especially genesis. instead of bashing mr. james i would propose we applaud him for his desire to research. i don’t think it was his intention to spread ‘false doctrine’. the first time i learned about a ‘pre-adamite society’ i was doing research in the library while earning my sociology degree. i thought it was an interesting ‘concept’ but dismissed it rather quickly b/c it just cannot be found in the bible without much speculation. i wish god had supplied more details in his word, but he did not. so we are left to rely on the text that is there for interpretation.
Everyone has it’s own believes. But i feel in these times . People want to believe what was teach to them as a child . And people that want to change it Because they are questioning the bible or the word of God just makes it more believable what the book says. If we have no hope in someone or laws to be affred of . Then this world. Or life would have no meaning . what would we look for after death . Nor I or you really know what cones after death. Maybe stories were not told exactly as it should have been . But we do know these people where real .
It seems Adam and Eve were the first humans created in the Garden of Eden but not all of Earth and the doors to the Garden of Eden were closed after they sined.
Do you remember the fallen angels?? Where did they fall to? Earth! There’s your answer to Whom he was afraid!
I am laughed to scorned when I express this viewpoint, but I stand by tis understanding that GOD created man and woman on the sixth day rested on the seventh then on the eighth day created adam and eve.
Hovind, a creationist apologetic, highlighted different writing styles in the early chapters of Genesis, the use of “and” to begin some sentences and not others, and of “theses are the generations of..” This he suggested that the account of creation were written by different people possibly Adam and Moses, and their different angles of narration makes the creation of Adam seperate from “male and female He created them” and the days to seem like 6th and 8th.
It Appears That Some Creatures In The Form Of Apes By Nature, That Though God Created Gradually Changed To Humans, While God Created Special Humans In His Own Likeness With Good Will. Therefore Is Full Of Strife Today.
Exodus 8: 23 “i Will Put Division Between My People And Thy People …
Tonight I’m going to discuss a very controversial topic in almost every Christian Church in existence. The idea that ALL man came from Adam and Eve. One of the most interesting questions that I have heard, in all the years of my preaching and being a minister, was “How did Cain marry a wife if there were no other people in the world?” There are many fascinating theological beliefs about how Cain met his wife, but there really isn’t any evidence of anything they believe. Even with what I am going to present can be misconstrued by others as well, bu t I try and show scripture enough as to why I believe what I believe. Now we can’t just throw any of this information out because we don’t understand it. Before Christ, we knew nothing of Christ. It wasn’t until either you read the Word and then came to the knowledge you needed Him, or someone took the time to explain it to you. Either way, you did not know something, and it had to be revealed to you. So don’t just dismiss what someone says, without listening to what is being said, especially if they are showing you in scripture and Hebrew and Greek language Then take the time to study yourselves to see if it’s true or not. There ar many things that we do not know, and may never know, but it does not mean that someone else might not have the answer; they just might. I would like to think that we an ALL learn from one another because we ALL don’t have all the answers. It’s easy to throw the word ‘heretic’ or ‘false’ teacher around, but how many truly take the time to listen to what these people are saying before they determine if it’s heretical or not? Almost imediately, when they hear something they have not heard before, they throw the scripture out about if someone comes to you with a different doctrine, you run. Although this is true concerning the GOSPEL, I don’t think it applies to the deeper things of God. Yeah, we preach the Gospel, and that never changes, but when getting into the deeper things of God, it becomes ‘theology’, and ‘opinion’, and have nothing to do with our salvation. We can learn from one another about these things. With this being said, I’ll continue.
First I want to talk about the character of God. God is a HOLY God, and I won’t pull up al the scriptures concerning this, because we all already know this. We all know that God is a Holy God and there are hundreds if not thousands of places in the Word that tell us this, so we won’t discuss it. Now, here is what I believe. I don’t believe for one second that God is the author of incest. Cain would have had to of slept with his own mother, Eve, in order to have children, and he, of course, couldn’t marry her, considering he left to the land of Nod, and left Adam and Eve, OR he would have had to sleep with his sister or neice to find a wife. So where did his wife come from? See, I believe God’s nature is not a God of incest, although incest did occur in the BIble, several times. The differnce is that, since God is not the author of incest, I do not believe He would allow ALL manking to be born into incest. This is what would have happened, in fact, if we ALL came from
Adam and Eve. I can’t accept this. If God wrote laws forbidding this, then He would not of allowed it in the beginning. I reminds me of the scripture about Christ never changing.
Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Though He is not the author of incest, it did happen. It’s not God’s nature for us to be ALL born from incest, but it happened nonetheless. That is the difference. It happened, but was not common. If God allowed us ALL to be born of incest, then why is He so against it in the Word of God? Every person being BORN into incest, and occassionally having incest happening in the Word, for whatever reason , are two different things. The only way that we can fully see this, is to look at the scriptures. We know that from the scriptures, that GOD is a HOLY GOD. This will also bring us into the flood as well. Since I believe God is not the author of incest, then I also have to look at the flood as well. If there were just Noah, Ham, Shem, and Japeth, and their wives, well, we go right back into incest. This is another discussion though, but still needed to put that in here, since it’s something that almost all Christians believe. If I don’t’ believe we came from incest with Adam and Eve, then I have to also look after the flood, and I believe if one thing is in the Word, you will find it in another place. But the flood is a different discussion in and of itself.
I do want to point out that this is no way is a salvation topic. Whether one believes we all came from Adam and Eve, or we believe something else, Christ is our salvation. Nothing more; nothing less! We need to see this. So many want to fight and argue over the things like this, and it causes dissention. There is no reason to cause dissention, fight, or ague, because we are all trying to understand these things. We need to be able to discuss the things in the Word, that we don’t all have an answer to, and hopefully, by discussing with fellow brothers and sisters, we can come to a better understanding of things. But this is not something that will effect our salavation.
People always try and remind me that the law concerning incest wasn’t even written at this time, so it was allowable and okay to do. I must reply with, if this is the case, then why did God judge Sodom and Ghomorrah for their sins? If no laws were written that told us what sin was, then you can’t say it was okay for incest, because of this, when God also judged concerning men with men and women with women. So I felt I needed to rebuff that belief first and foremost. The fact remains, is that God does not like incest, just as He didn’t like what was going on in Sodom and Ghomorra. It wasn’t because the law had not been given at this time. It’s because, that when the laws were written, that He did INCLUDE Both incest as well as men with men, and women with women. We see this in the heart and nature of God when the laws were given. Remember, God never
changes, so we must realize that if incest wasn’t in His heart when He wrote the laws, then it wasn’t in His heart before He wrote the laws.
Many believe that, through generation after generation, that it’s possible that Cain could have married someone who was way down the list in his geneology. I mean, after all, modern science proves that after a few generations of incest, that there becomes to be issues with the children being born. Deformaties and other genetic issues, as well as mental disorders. So Cain would of had to marry someone that was related to him, but not his immediate relative. Let’s look at this scripturally.
Gen 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Gen 4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Gen 4:3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
Gen 4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Gen 4:5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Gen 4:6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Gen 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
Gen 4:9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?
Gen 4:10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
Gen 4:11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand;
Gen 4:12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
Gen 4:13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Gen 4:14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
Gen 4:15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
Gen 4:16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
Gen 4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
So, now, reading in scripture, we see that Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel. Then Cain goes and kills Abel, and ended up leaving and going to Nod. There are not 100’s of generations here. There are not even 2 generations here. So the idea that Adam and Eve had loads of babies that
Cain could have married one of them is not scripturally sound. It’s not even in scripture. Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel. Cain murdered Abel and went to Nod. Very next scripture says he met his wife and knew her. Where did this wife come from? As we can see in scripture, it wasn’t anyone related to Adam and Eve, as they didn’t have time to have any other children, and besides, the bible doesn’t say they did until AFTER Seth was born. So Cain had to have had married someone else.
Many want to say that time is an issue here. That because Adam didn’t have Seth until he was 130, that he could have had 40 or 50 more children before that time. The bible does not say, but remember Noah? Noah didn’t have children until he was 500 years old, so to say that Adam and Eve had 40 or 50 “other” children, before Abels death, is not scriptural. The Bible doesn’t tell us this. So, we can see, because of Noah, that it’s possible Adam didn’t have his first child until he was 130. It happened a lot in scripture, in the beginning. This is what I say to them though: We also must consider that Adam and Eve could have been in the Garden for 100 years before they were evicted. So looking at it in this perceptive, if they were 100 years old, they have Cain and Abel. They are, let’s say Cain and Abel were 20 years old. That’s 120 years old there. Cain kills Abel, and then 10 years later they have Set at age 130. The bible doesn’t tell us this, but if we look at it logically, we can see that Adam and Eve could of been in the Garden of Eden for most of their lives before they were deceived and removed from the Garden. So to say they had all these other children just doesn’t fit into the scripture for me. Besides, the mention of having more children is only mentioned after the fact that Seth was born. Let’s read it.
Gen 5:4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
Now, notice it states that AFTER Adam begot Seth… THEN it states he begat other sons and daughters. So the idea that others believe they had a lot of children, even daughters, before they had Cain and Abel is not scripturally backed up. We all know that women, many times, were excluded from the Word of God, but still, there is no 100 percent biblical evidence of Adam and Eve having any children, mainly daughters, before Cain
and Able. From what I see in scripture, they only had other sons and daughers AFTER Seth was born. So many say that Adam lived 930 years old and could have a TONS of children to populate the earth. Though this is true, it’s also true, through the scripture I see, that none of all those TONS of children were born before Seth, so Cain would not of been able to marry his relatives; there were none.
Now, with all this being said, other use another scripture to try and disprove what I believe. They believe there was a time gap between the birth of Cain and Abel, so they could have had other children. Afterall, womens names weren’t usually written down in scripture, so it’s possible, this time gap, is where they had other children. Let’s look at this.
Gen 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Gen 4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Gen 4:3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
They see this “process of time it came to pass”, and believe it’s related to a time gap of some sort. This passage relates to the “end of the year,” or on the “seventh day; Sabbath”. This isn’t related to years going by as we logically think concering time. Again, Adam and Eve could of been in the Garden for 100 years, so there couldn’t of been that much of a gap in there. So this idea that 100 years went by or something is not biblically sound or proven. If we take the previous scriptures of Adam not having other kids until after the birth of Seth, then this scripture we just read, makes complete sense. There are no contradictions in God’s Word. So when we see something that might appear wrong, we just have to keep digging to find out what it all means, and as we do, God will show us where our minds err, because our flesh doesn’t want to accept or understand it. Sure, here it could appear that’s a time gap and children could have been born, but other scriptures tell us otherwise, as well as looking into the Hebrew meanings to see this has nothing to do with a large time gap. That’s why it’s so important to be Berean Christians.
One other thing to point out here is that Cain was fearful that someone might kill him because of what he did. Many believe it’s because Adam and Eve had many other children, but from the discussion above, I don’t see where that is scriptural. If Adam only had children after the birth of Seth, then who would Cain be afraid of?
Gen 4:14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
Again, many want to say that it’s the relatives of Adam, or why would they even care? I mean, why would they care if Cain had killed his brother, so Cain shouldn’t of been fearful. If Cain killed one of their relatvites, then it would seem that’s why they would care and why he would have been fearful. But let’s think about this. If someone goes to prison for murdering their wife, or molesting a child; killing a child! The inmates find out why they are in prison, they are FURIOUS and want to take matters into their own hands. It happens A LOT in prison. SO if we look at it this way, it makes sense. These people, when they hear that Cain murdered his own brother, could have been furious. Why would you murder your own brother? You own flesh? Your Family? That’s why Cain was fearful. Other people don’t like the idea of a man hurting his own family members; especially kiling them.
So what is the anwer to all of this? Again, not a salvation issue, but I believe that it’s a second creation that was already being fruitful and multiplying the earth before Adam and Eve were even created. First I want to discuss scriptures that someone could use to discredit my belief on there being 2 separate creations. Let’s just jump in.
Eve being the mother of all living. I mean, that would imply that Eve would, in theory, actually be the FIRST woman, and, in theory, we all have actually been the decendants of her and Adam; thus, ruling out the idea of a 2nd creation. I mean, why would we even have a 2nd creation if Eve was the mother of ALL of us. Let’s read in scripture and dig.
Gen 3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
Now, looking at it we see the she WAS the mother of all the living. When we look at the Hebrew word here for was, it actually means. “To become”, as some other bibles have rightly translated. The NIV and the International Standard Version, translated it “she would become”. If we read the Word in this sense, we see, “because she was to become the mother of all living”. This makes sense to me when I think of the children of God and the lineage of Jesus Christ. Because she was to become the mother of all the living, I can see that it happened through the lineage all the way up to Christ, which now, allows us to be living IN HIM. So she did become the mother of all those living in Christ Jesus; all the way to the Son of God, to those who have accepted Him as their Lord and Savior. We will further see this through the name change of God in Gen chapter 1 to Gen chapter
2. But to look at this even further. Did she become the mother of the Giants? I mean, the gaints were ‘livng’ were they not? Did she become the mother of all the animals? I mean, animals are ‘the living’ aren’t they? No, she became the mother of all those of Christ, though her geneology, up to the son of God, and then to those who are justified by Him through faith. So hopefully we can see now, that she was NOT the mother of ALL that lives, or the mother of ALL the living. But let’s look at this living.
Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Heb 10:21 And having an high priest over the house of God;
Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Rom 14:9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
This last scripture bring it into complete context with what I believe about the two creations. Inside the Garden, we have Adam and Eve. Eve will become the mother of all the living. The distinction between the living and dead in Romans 14:9, just shows me that there are and were both the living and the dead in our world. Those in the Garden, and up to the lineage of Jesus Christ, were the living (Spiritual). Those outside the Garden, already populating the world, were the dead(Spritually dead-having NOT the Spirit). But now, ANYONE, through Christ Jesus, can become the living, in HIM.
Num 16:44 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Num 16:45 Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment. And they fell upon their faces.
Num 16:46 And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun.
Num 16:47 And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people.
Num 16:48 And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.
Now with all this said, in the NT, people believe the dead are those WITHOUT the spirit of God… But in the OT there was NO Spirit… They were just the DEAD. Yes, some were saved by their faith, but everyone was dead spiritually, and Moses stood between the dead and the living. We’re not talking about dead bodies here. These people were physically alive, so the only way we can understand this in scripture is to understand it spiritually. Moses stood between the spiritually dead, and the spiritually alive; the living. More or less, the Gentiles, and the Sons of God (Nation of Israel).
Let’s look at the name of God now, in Genesis one and Genesis two. Something happens from chapter one to chapter two. There is a reason for this. Let’s look at the difference.
In the account of creation in Genesis chapter 1 we have Gods name as Eloheem, which signifies the SUPREME God. God of ALL! In Genesis chapter 2 we have Gods name as “Lord God”, Yahweh, which is the Jewish God. Does this make a difference? It sure does. One creation was created by the Supreme God of all, while the other created was created by the Lord God, which is the God the Jewish Nation would consider their God, all the way up through the genealogy of Adam, to the coming of Christ; Yahweh! Yahweh is the personal name of Israel’s God. Interesting that The LORD God wasn’t even used at all in the first chapter of Genesis. The reason it was, in the 2nd Chapter, is because Adams lineage would be the lineage that brought Jesus Christ into the world, which would allow ALL MANKIND to become the living in Him, forevermore, by faith. Anyone outside of Christ is considered dead. Intesting the serpent calls God by God, and not Lord God… Satan was cast from Heaven, so therefore, God wouldn’t of been LORD God to him anymore. He doesn’t call God the name of Israels God. So when the serpent comes to Eve in the Garden, he refers to God as just God (Eloheem). This all fits together with Eve becoming the mother of everyone that would bring about the lineage of Jesus Christ, as well as LORD God being the God of them, through the lineage of Christ. Not that He wasn’t God over ALL mankind, but His name changed to LORD God, in chapter two, because He is the God is Israel, and now our God, through Jesus Christ; the God of the living, Yahwey!
So now, we are starting to see the separation going on. Now we are beginning to see everything falling into place here. We are now seeing what we read about in the NT about being therefore separate.
Heb 7:26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple
of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2Co 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
We are separate from sinners, just as Christ is. When we receive Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior, a separation took place. That separation started in the Garden of Eden, by the LORD God, in Genesis chapter two, and now finished through Christ Jesus. But there is sooooo much more going on here. There is a reason the Hebrew uses different names for God during these creations. We just can’t throw all of this knowledge out because we can’t understand it or because our flesh won’t allow us to. It’s there in scripture, so we need to look at it. We must look at the original terminology so we can really see what’s going on here. It’s not by chance that God’s meaning of His name changes in these two accounts of creation. There is a reason, and we’ll continue to see this as I continue this study.
Now we have to realize that these were written like letters, or scrolls, and there were no chapter and verses. Man is the one that broke these down and wrote them in chapters and verse. So, when reading the end of Gensis Chapter One and the beginning of Chapter Two, we see that the story continues in the 1st three verse in Genesis chapter two. So we need to put it all into perspective and put the verses where they belong. Let’s just look at the end of Chapter one and beginning of Chaplter 2. You will see that the flow, the storyline, all fits together as I read it altogether is it’s meant to be.
Gen 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Gen 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
See how it fits? God does all His work and then blessed the seventh day and rested. NOW the chapter ends, and we can begin the next. The reason I point this out, is because now it jumps into the next day. Genesis 2:4, should really be Genesis 2:1. This is not
adding to, nor taking away from the Words of God. It’s putting back into perspective, where man ended chapter 1 before it was finished. It’s easy to see that the first 3 verses of chapter two should have been with chapter one.
Okay, now let’s look at how each creation was created. In Genesis chapter 1 we have the word CREATED, while in chapter 2, we have FORMED. This is very important as we’ll see. There is no coincidence in how the Bible was written, so it’s not by chance these two different words were used. First. The first creation.
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
“CREATED: Hebrew word #1254; bara’ — to shape, to fashion, to create (always with God as subject) used of individual man, used of new conditions and circumstances, to be created, used of birth, used of something new.
Now, the second creation.
Gen 2:7 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.
“FORMED: Hebrew word #3335; yatsar — to form, to fashion, to frame, used of human activity, used of divine activity, used of Israel as a people, to frame, to pre-ordain, to plan (figurative of divine) to purpose of a situation, to be predetermined, to be pre-ordained, to be formed.”
Interesting that this word ‘formed’ includes predetermined or pre-ordained. Does this bring scripture to mind?
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Listen to how the LORD (Yahweh) talks about His people.
Isa 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
Then the next chapter:
Isa 44:21 Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.
When the LORD God talks about His people and the nation, he refers to them being “FORMED” by Him, which is what we see in Genesis Chapter Two; the creation within the Garden of Eden.
Jeremiah wasn’t referred to as being created either, but formed:
Jer 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Titus backs this up as well:
1Ti 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
Why didn’t the Bible just use the word created in both instances, and why does it differentiate between created and formed? It’s as simple as that! What I see from the scripture is that Genesis 1 speaks of the mass creation of humans (male and female) at one time. Genesis 2 begins with one man, then one woman from the man in a separate act. Those in the 2nd creation will become, and did become the children that birthed the Nation of Israel, who knew their God as LORD God (Yahweh). There are other scriptures that can appear to discredit my theology, but even then, I have to look at all things in context, and see that, although I may not understand everything, that what I do understand can be seen in scripture. Can created be used elsewhere, other than formed? Yes, it can, and has, but to ignore everything I have brought up, would be foolish in my opinion. WE have to look at everything if we are going to understand everything. The point being, is that, in the beginning, we see a separation of the Gentiles, the world, and God’s people, and we see that separation happening in the very first 2 books of the Word of God. It can’t be ignored, just because we may not understand it.
Okay, now it’s interesting as well to note that in Genesis Chapter one, that the heavens and earth were created. God said let there be light, called it day and night, created the firmament, diving the waters that were in the firmament, and called it Heaven. Then he calls the dry land earth. He gathered together the waters and called them seas. So when looking in Genesis chapter two, He doesn’t have to recreate them. They have already been made, and why it’s not mentioned during the second creation.
Okay, with all this said, let’s take a look at each creation and compare the differences that I see in them.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE CREATION
1. God created light and divided it into day and night.
2. God created Heaven; what we call our sky.
3. Created the earth and the seas.
a. Grass
b. Herb yielding seeds
c. Fruit tree yielding after own kind
4. Created the Sun, the Moon, and the stars.
5. Birds of the air and animals of the sea.
6. All animals and man.
7. God rested
GENESIS CHAPTER TWO CREATION
Now keep in mind, that I see this as a description of the place which God prepared for Adam and Eve. Notice there are no days involved here. Matter of fact, we saw God create everything and rest on the 7th day, so we are seeing a whole new day here. But this is a description of Adam and Eve’s Abode. Let’s look at it.
We see here that God formed man first. Then He creates a Garden, east of Eden, and places the man whom He had formed in it. Then we see that God causes to GROW, out of the ground, every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food. Now this to grow means to bud or to sprout, or to spring forth, which means that the seed had already been planted, or the trees have already grown, but they haven’t budded yet. We see that God had already created all of this in the first chapter, so He didn’t have to recreate them here. He just causes the “mist” to water and to make these trees sprout, or bud. Now, after God places man, only ADAM, into this Garden, then God tells him in verse 17 of Genesis chapter two, that Adam cannot eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
But this was not told to the creation in Genesis chapter one. Let’s go back and read what was told them.
Gen 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Now I point this out, because I see two things going on here. The first, is that this creation was told that they could eat EVERY tree that bare fruit, while we just read in Genesis Chapter 2, that Adam was not able to eat of every tree. The other thing is the wording of “earth” and “garden”. The first could eat every tree that bare fruit in the earth, while Adam was told to eat every tree BUT the one tree in the Garden. So I am seeing two different commands here, in two different places; the earth, and then the Garden.
Now, another difference I see, is the purpose of man, or mans responsibility. They are different in the two accounts of creation in Gen 1 and Gen 2. Let’s look at those.
Let’s read Genesis Chapter 1’s responsibility:
Gen 1:28 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.
Now Genesis Chatpler 2:
Gen 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
We are similar on the same track!!!!!
God is not an author of incest, I agree, but God is not an author of any arrangement after the fall of man. After man fell there was derailment from all that God had authored. By this Im arguing that Cain most probably married his relative. Had Adam not sinned, we will never know how man would have reproduced, probably not sexually.
Hi James,
Genesis 1:1-2 provide the entire presence of an already created, existing universe, as in all the stars and planets incl. our own solar system as a backdrop of God/Yahweh/Jehovah/LORD’s creative stage on which the 7 creative day epochs are playing out.
The initial condensed overview of the 7 creative ‘days’ ends at verse 4 of Genesis chapter 2 whereupon the account continues with more relevant details and continues on to explain via the whole of Genesis, how humanity got itself into their present sorry state along with Jehovah’s means to solve that once and for all.
All humans who ever lived, live and yet shall, who were NEVER born into sin, other than Israel who had a law to sin against, will have the original assignment in Genesis 1:26-28 restored to them when all the evidence is in that Humanity are unable to direct their own steps successfully, as evidenced by the mess we find themselves in at the present time – please see these verses written to Israel:
Jeremiah 10: 23 ‘O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.’ ASV . . . and
Psalm 146:3 ‘Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.’ NAS
Much more in exquisite detail on my website. Ask me for it.
Bye for now.
Dieter G
I chanced upon this article as I was seeking an answer to another question. If what you think you say is right then have you also thought first and foremost that Jesus Christ came in vain?!!! For if sin did not enter the earth through the one man Adam then it would be pointless for the Bible to say that through One Man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. It would also mean that there were other ‘created’ men who were SINLESS??!!! I say ‘created’ because God created a FULL grown man & NOT a baby. While He did say to Adam be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth – indicating that like He had placed seed in every other creation, He had also placed seed in Adam to be able to procreate. When the Bible says in Genesis 1 – male and female created He – it is to me prophetic terminology by God speaking mankind into existence as MALE & FEMALE! When one reads the Bible with the purpose of understanding the ‘goodness’ of God and not to find fault with Him – it would be easily understood to the reader that there was a lot of time involved from the time of Adam’s fall to the dialogue between God with Cain! Indicating that it is not just a mere turning of a page and entering into the next chapter that summarizes the various events of Genesis. We MUST consider the passing of TIME! It is just like how there is this dispute of the Time period of the existence of earth – some say it is more than 6000 years like a billion years; some say there was a another earth; but the Bible says 6000 years. The same involves the period of days of actual creation – the Bible records 6 (six) days. I believe it is actual six days – because to me EVERY WORD in the Bible is Holy Spirit breathed and pure. For I see a good God in it. Of course there is so much more to say……
This may not be true,coz after Cain killed Abel Adam &Eve had more other children who were both male &female for instance seize.however their was no insast coz of the small number wch existed,we learn that Jacob married his uncle Laban’s daughters. For that matter therefore Adam was the fast human to exist
Suppose the fruit of the tree was disobedience. And caused them not able to look at God. Now they know what they should and shouldn’t have done.
Cain did not find a wife , he went there and knew her. Look it up!
The problems that we have with scripture isn’t the fault of scripture. We can’t change it to suit our understanding. Our understanding has to change to see it’s truth. Yes it’s hard, changing what we think we know is very hard. We will see things that are terrible and awesome as we learn. Have faith in God to get you through because trials will come and faith is whole heartily necessary. Don’t ever quit…
This is so good. Thank you for this
If God created other humans (our kind) before or after Adam, then everything falls apart! It is through Adam that the human kind became sinful and therefore we need Jesus to save us from our sins. So if God created other humans then they cannot be sinful, as they did not eat from the forbidden tree which then leads to Jesus not needing to come to this earth, as the Bible says he is the savior of the world! The Bible says all have sinned, there is not one without sin. We know according to the Bible how sin came to this world…this “bishop” or whatever he is, is really going into murky waters…
I am one of those Christians who believes and say that Adam & Eve was the FIRST man & woman a.k.a. First Humans. I received my knowledge from the Holy Bible in 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 and Genesis 2:4 that you can read here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%202%3A4%2C%201%20Corinthians%2015%3A45-47&version=KJV;CJB.
Why are people so focused on Adam being one individual does not the name Adam also mean mankind and one individual and could of not one individual aka Adam and his wife also be have sinned…. would not the theory of there being more than two individuals make more since of whom Cain was afraid of and allow for incest to of always been an abomonation. I do not believe the bible contradicts itself but I do question the terminology used when it comes down to Adam and Eve.
Human beings were already created before ADAM. As it says in Genesis 1:27. Then commanded the these male and female human beings to multiply and fill the earth. Then after that God rested and afterwards we can read the creation of Adam and Eve.
👍
I like Dinosaurs
I don’t know what is weirder, trying to prove a belief is wrong or trying to prove its right
The fact that these thoughts exist, proves both sides need each other,
KISS and make up
The account of Adam and eve, their eating from the tree of the tree, their expulsion are therefore symbols and divine mysteries. They have all-embracing meanings and marvellous interpreter, but only the intimates of the divine mysteries and well-favoured of the all-sufficing Lord are aware of the true significance of these symbols.
My question to you is are you trying to find answers or therorizing what might have been. Most people who try to find flaws with the Bible do not really believe that it is the inherent, infallible word of God. So in Genesis, God spoke the words to Moses and Moses penned the words down. If we believe God is our creator and that the Bible is infallible then we have to accept that God in His perfection designed things the way they were and are. No we don’t know every answer and won’t until we go to meet Him. It isn’t wrong to try and find answers but I don’t think we can dwell on those questions that we can only theorize about. God is showing us all throughout the Bible that we are imperfect and we cannot be with Him without perfection. As you know Jesus bridged that gap and took the worlds sin (our sin) upon himself so that we can be with Him eternally. Again, if we believe the Bible is wholly truth and God is wholly perfect and He is our only salvation, then that’s really what God wants us to understand, in that He loved us enough to create us and that He wants to be with us eternally. He wants no one to suffer eternally separated fro Him. He knew you and I before the world was created. He’s more concerned about being with you and loving you than we can ever imagine. All we have to do is realize our sin / separation, believe that Jesus died for our sin / separation and that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead and we can be saved from our own destruction. I can’t get into a discussion about being smarter or know more now than in the first century. I do think we rely on ourselves too much and not allow God to work His miracles. We are too consumed with all our idols, myself included.
This is speculation. You don’t know how much time had passed before Cain killed Able. It could have been 200 years and Adam and Eve obeying God having more and more children then they have children and do in and start spreading out. If incest was going on it’s because there was no law st that point and time which is why Cain got away with murder. So just because these so called scholars are not looking outside the box doesn’t mean what they say is so. It’s pure speculation in their part
Adam was the first man created with the spirit of God within him. If you read Ezekiel 33 it refers to the Syrians as a Tall cedar Tree within the garden of eden further alluding to the creation of other humans prior to the Adam. People believe the creation of the Adam was in Genesis 1 when he said let us make mankind in our image and that genesis two is a more descriptive retelling of Adams creation when different Hebrew words are used describing what was created. Genesis 1 was a multitude of mankind and genesis 2 was the son of God Adam as stated in Luke.
Thank YOU FATHER GOD!! For showing me im not the only one that knew this!! IN JESUS HOLY NAME i come! Amen!
To suggest that there were other humans that were created other than Adam and Eve brings up a theoretical parallel to a scenario where Eve ate the fruit and Adam did not. This is a suggestion of two races of man, one in the likeness of God and the other that isn’t. If this was plausible, Adam would probably have not eaten the fruit. I don’t think there were other humans created other than Adam and Eve. These are my thoughts.
What about Adapa’s relationship to Adam? Adam is likely Adapa part deux, (Epic of Gilgamesh) just as Noah is represented by Utanapishtim in the same Sumerian tale.
Click to access Andreasen_AdamAdapa_AUSS.pdf
Being a Roman Catholic we were thought to believe the word of God.
Faith has given us the open mind to have our thoughts question what has been written over and over about what God planned for us.To Live in his likeness. That in itself is up to us to figuer out. We believe in The Holy Trinity. God The Father . God The Son and The Holy Spirit.
That in itself leaves a lot to comprehend.
What did Adam or Eve do to deserve such scrutiny.
There has never been or will they ever be any answers to these
questions. In this time or this space. What in Heaven were they thinking.
One guestion. WHY ?
Maeve.