We know that Adam and Eve had 2 sons (of which one was killed.) Did the other son have a wife to have kids with to help populate the earth? What about other races? And if look at Noah, he had a handful of people with him and the rest of the people on earth were wiped out. So, we start our family trees, so to speak, over again. Were there enough people to begin the whole idea of re-populating the earth? Did it involve incest? I hate to ask that. Anyway, I would like it to make more sense to me.
2006-09-01 05:50:46 · 26 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Don't know. Much in the bible is symbolic IMO. And much is open to interpretation. For example the story of Noah and the ark - when he said the "whole world" was flooded, what did that mean to people living in Turkey in Noah's time? They probably didn't have global surveyor satellites to confirm their suspicions that the flood really was worldwide. In fact, they probably didn't even know what the whole world comprised.
Does that mean the Bible isn't true? No, the principles are true enough. But it does have to be read in context of the people writing it. It's not a science textbook. It's a guide to developing a spiritual relationship with God. That's how I see it anyway. Cheers.
2006-09-01 05:55:49 · answer #1 · answered by Open Heart Searchery 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Incest was not established as a law until after Isreal left Egypt and were give the Commands of God which Moses was the instrument. Therefore, if there is no law against something, you have not broken a rule.
Also, people before the GREAT FLOOD(the flood of NOAH) lived to be very old...the oldest living 969 years(Methuselah, who lived until about 3 months before the flood came. he was a righteous man)(and im assuming that God didnot want him to die in the flood)......all this brings me to the reason the for question.
People living that length of time would have had many children. Just because is it not recorded in the Bible does not mean that Adam and Eve only had 2 children...and then Seth after Cain slew Able....they also had girls...which of course would have been their sisters. But because these people lived so long....there was intermarriage and ages were (im sure) quite distance (meaning....instead of only a few years between husband and wife...there might be generations). So was there in incest...NO, there was no law to forbid it. Was there brothers and sister that married....most likely there were...along with cousins, aunts, uncles, and so on....but it eventually filtered itself.
After Noah, the bible records that people would then only live to be about 120 yrs.......(Except for the 6 that survived the flood for they had already exceded the time frame)When was the last time you saw somebody 120 yrs old?.....we live less now than then, because of many reasons, but God must keep the population to a limit. In the day so of the beginning people had to live long in order to populate the earth.
The others "races"(tribes of peoples) were created when Noah's sons(and their wives) were departed from the Ark....and went their ways.. GE 10:32 These are the clans of Noah's sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.
GE 11:1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
2006-09-01 13:15:06 · answer #2 · answered by bandaidgirl 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Adam and Eve had many children; Genesis 5:4. Marriage is not incest. Eve became the mother of everyone living.
God allowed brother sister marriage early on, because they were so near perfection. Later, at the time of Noah, apparently they started off with cousin marriage, as Noah had 3 siblings with mates.
The answer to populating the earth is obvious.
Today, the law of the land should be respected in this area, although close relative marriage is unadvantageous for the children especially. Romans 13:1.
2006-09-01 13:05:58 · answer #3 · answered by tina 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Scientists tell us that humans diverged from other apes about 4.5 million years ago, but clearly, you arn't into evolution.
So here's something for you to think about: you have two parents, right? And each of your parents had two parents, right? So, each time you look back another generation, you have 2 raised to the nth power of ancestors where "n" is how many generations back you are looking. Now look back about 64 generations; this puts you back in the time of the Romans. And 2^64 =18446744073709551616. That is several thousand times more than the total number of people who have ever lived. Something wrong with the math here? A little bit of incest-actually quite a lot of incest-albeit at a genetically discreet remove. With so many millions of ancestors in your background, there will have been many occasions when a relative from your mother's side of the family procreated with some distant cousin from your father's side of the ledger.
2006-09-01 14:02:56 · answer #4 · answered by Sqdr 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Obviously if you take the Bible as a work of non-fiction, then yes , we must all have come from Adam and Eve. Just as obviously the changes in skin colors are enviromental . And just as obvious, Noahs Arc must have had a stowaway or two. Don't try to make sense of the Bible. It is full of contradictions. If you want to believe, believe. Just don't expect too much. The same God that brought Katrina, is the same one that the victims prayed to to be saved. Believe in yourself, treat others with respect. Treat the Bible as a guide written by man. If you take it to the extreme, it is like too much of anything, not necessarily good for you in the long run. Be like George Bush, use to Bible to hide behind when you don't know the answer to something and gullible people will follow.
2006-09-01 13:01:55 · answer #5 · answered by Bob D 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, Noah and his three sons and thier wives were the beginning of the second period of Earth.
Adam and Eve, being the first, thier children had incest, but, since they were "perfect" they had no "bad genes" in order to pass along to future generations.
Noah didnt have a lot of bad genes either, as the LORD used this family to bring about all those who decended from them and that means you and me...
But, over time, the genes started to degrade, and that is why we are not allowed to marry our sisters and our sisters are not allowed to marry brothers.
I wish you well..
Jesse
2006-09-01 12:55:59 · answer #6 · answered by x 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Abel was replaced by Seth in the Godly line. Because of Cain's sin he was cast out of the line of Christ and became the ungodly line. Noah is in the line of Seth. In the beginning there was marriage within the family. God allowed this. There is no excuse for it today. One cannot claim that because we are all related that incest is OK---God is not going to buy that.
2006-09-01 12:57:53 · answer #7 · answered by Preacher 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Adam and Eve
2006-09-01 12:54:01 · answer #8 · answered by Keith Perry 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not to the biblical Adam & Eve but certainly to a small group
of common ancestors...
2006-09-01 12:56:26 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes
2006-09-01 12:56:16 · answer #10 · answered by mutaali t 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋