How did the human race begin when Adam & Eve had two boys- Cain and Abel?

Question

As we know Cain killed Abel, creating the first murder on earth...then it says (Genesis 4:16) "So Cain went away from the Lord...had sexual relations with his wife, and she became pregnant..." Where did this wife come from? Weren't Adam, Eve, and their two sons the only ones on the land?? Adam and Eve then had another child....but another boy-Seth....so this is confusing....unless {don't mean to insult anyone} Cain had relations with Eve....I know I know incest....but was there any other way?? ...help*....maybe I'm just missing a point....

Answer 1

All the races were created in Genesis 1:26-27
Adam was FORMED in Genesis 2:6

Genesis..1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Notice that both male and female were created at the same time?

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.
Notice that only Adam was FORMED alone?

And only afterwards did God FORM Eve...

Answer 2

Actually, at this point the Bible makes reference to other people in the land that are not descendants of Adam & Eve, hence the "Mark of Cain", due to Cain's crying out to God, "Whoever meets me will kill me!"

This implies that there were other people at this point, and brings up one of the discussions in Biblical lore of the idea that Adam and Eve were the beginning of the early line of David, which eventually bore Jesus.

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.’ He based this on the passage in Genesis 5:4 ‘And the days of Adam after he had fathered Seth were eight hundred years. And he fathered sons and daughters.’

Because we are given no idea of the time that passed, this is considered a logical argument. This isn't to say that I agree with it--I feel a lot of facts are dropped into loopholes and supposition--but that's the explanation that's been given.

Answer 3

Go back and read it again. The Bible never says that humanity began w/ Adam and Eve. In fact, Genesis 1 - different author than Genesis 2, portray a very common motif of the cultures before and around the Garden. The creation account parallels and liberally borrows from the Gilgamesh Epic of the Ur of the Chaldees - where you may remember, Abraham grew up.
God's covenant of faith began w/ Abraham. The preceding chapters reflect the common beliefs of people throughout what is now called Mesopotamia. Cain just move on to another village.

Answer 4

Boy you are sure missing the point they had many many other children other than Cane and Abel. They were just the two who are written about. They very well could have been the two oldest who knows? But the bible does say in the process of time. remember these people lived to be about a 1000 years old If Adam and Eve had a child lets say every two years and their children were having children etc how many people would be on earth in say 500 years?

Answer 5

Yeah, what if Adam and Eve had like 200 kids? Their children may have had relations with each other, but since there were no laws established back then you can't really blame them, and if they were the only people you can't blame them either. If there was no way for them to reproduce without having relations with their siblings, I don't think God would punish them for that since they logically had no other way of reproducing. That is why, though, the Old Testament laws were put in effect, so that there COULD be a moral code to supervise the people until Christ could come. Now that faith in Christ has come, and that we are governed by the Holy Spirit, we do not need to abide wholly by the laws of the Old Testament.

Answer 6

They had daughters who had children with their brothers, just as Eve did. She was as much the sister of Adam, as she was cloned from his rib.

There was no incest as that is a learned behavior, not a natural one, and was not an important factor of the time. As near perfect human beings, genetically, they were the same, and lacked mutations in the DNA. That only came about as time passed and humans ruined their health through bad eating habits. As genetic abnormalities crept into the genetic code, it became necessary to limit having children between close relatives. That may change after Armageddon.

Of interest, with the development of better methods of birth control, plus the push to legalize forms of sexual contact other than heterosexual, incest or sexual contact between close family members is becoming considered much more. I recently read a story about a case where a man caught his fiance with her own father. She had started the relationship when she was 27 and didn't see why he was so upset?

Answer 7

If you read the Bible... you will see even before Adam and Eve fell, they had been told to be fruitful and multiply. Cain and Abel werent their first or last children, only the first that had something written about them.

Answer 8

This is an easy one. If the world gets too hot, we've proven that we can survive it because the "Cradles of Civilization" were in hot, dry areas. If the world gets cold, then we've already proven that we can withstand ice ages, and that's without any "high" technology. If the world gets overpopulated, it will, out of necessity, balance itself out. I don't think we need to worry about surviving the next 100 years. The real question is how to we keep the next 100 years from becoming the next Dark Age.

Answer 9

Adam and Eve had daughters as well as sons, they just weren't mentioned by name.

Answer 10

The story of Adam and Eve does not imply that they were the only people created by God, just that they were created by Him, and that theirs was a special relationship.