| OnyxCougar |
11-10-2004 01:10 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by alphageek31337
Also, the only thing I've been able to find in Genesis on Cain reproducing has a pretty abrupt jump:
"Cain went to the land of Nod, East of Eden. And Cain knew his wife."
No mention of other people created by God, no mention of the incestuous relationship that must have developed if these people weren't created by God and, therefore in the mind of biblical literalists, didn't exist. Incest being a sin/abomination against God/a bad idea, where did the rest of us come from? Where does it mention that Enoch's mom is actually Cain's sister? Or were there other people on earth and Yahweh is just the creator-god of the Jews?
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This is actually a super frequent question, and I'll let better minds than mine answer. One answer is found at this site,( http://www.answersingenesis.org/home...cains_wife.asp) and I'll quote for the lazy:
Quote:
We don’t even know her name, yet she was discussed at the Scopes trial, mentioned in the play and movie Inherit the Wind1 and the book and movie Contact2, and has been talked about in countries all over the world. Is she the most-talked-about wife in history?
Skeptics have used Cain’s wife time and again to try to discredit the book of Genesis as a true historical record. Sadly, most Christians have not been able to give an adequate answer to this question. As a result, the world thinks Christians cannot defend the authority of Scripture and, thus, the Christian faith.
{snip}
Thus, there was only one man at the beginning—made from the dust of the Earth (Genesis 2:7).
This also means that Cain’s wife was a descendant of Adam. She could not have come from another ‘race’ of people and must be one of Adam’s descendants.
{snip}
All this makes it obvious that there was only one woman, Adam’s wife, at the beginning. There were never any other women around who were not Eve’s descendants.
{snip}
During their lives, Adam and Eve had a number of male and female children. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that, ‘The number of Adam’s children, as says the old tradition, was thirty-three sons and twenty-three daughters.’11
The Bible does not tell us how many children were born to Adam and Eve. However, considering their long life spans (Adam lived for 930 years—Genesis 5:5), it would seem reasonable to suggest there were many! Remember, they were commanded to ‘Be fruitful, and multiply’ (Genesis 1:28).
{snip}
Some claim that the passage in Genesis 4:16–17 means that Cain went to the land of Nod and found a wife. Thus, they can conclude there must have been another race of people on the Earth, who were not descendants of Adam, who produced Cain’s wife.
‘And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bore Enoch: and he built a city, and he called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.’
From what has been stated previously, it is clear that all humans, Cain’s wife included, are descendants of Adam. However, this passage does not say that Cain went to the land of Nod and found a wife. John Calvin, commenting on these verses, states:
‘From the context we may gather that Cain, before he slew his brother, had married a wife; otherwise Moses would now have related something respecting his marriage.’13
Cain was married before he went to the land of Nod. He didn’t find a wife there, but ‘knew’ (had sexual relations with) his wife.14
Others have argued that because Cain built a ‘city’ in the land of Nod, there must have been a lot of people there. However, the Hebrew word translated as ‘city’ need not mean what we might imagine from the connotations of ‘city’ today. The word meant a ‘walled town’ or a protected encampment.15 Even a hundred people would be plenty for such a ‘city.’ Nevertheless, there could have been many descendants of Adam on the Earth by the time of Abel’s death (see below).
{snip}
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Hope that clears that up.
Quote:
Whereas if you take the book as an allegory, a collection of really cool stories that give you a pretty good example of how to live, then it all makes perfect sense.
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But if it's only allegory, then it's not the infallible word of God. |
