A question about incest in the bible?

Question

If Adam and Eve had 2 sons and they were the only people on Earth then how did they multiply and populate it? Was there some incest going on? I think so.

my point is then how come it is illegal now if it is 2 consenting adults?

so people lived to be 800 years old huh, never heard that one before. Eve have 100s of children so incest was ok? You people are odd!

Answer 1

get it!!! it makes no sense!! A bunch of stories from nomadic sheep herders with illusions of grandeur

Answer 2

Yes, Adam and Eves children married one another. There was no prohibition against this early in man's history. In fact, this is the only way they could be obedient to the command to "be fruitful and fill the earth". The reason that incest was later condemned was because of mankind's growing further from perfection and thus inbreeding would result in much higher incidences of hereditary diseases. (Leviticus 18:6-13)

Answer 3

It is entirely probable, since the human population back in the day was very small. Humans were quite scarce on the Earth about 60-70,000 years ago. There is more genetic diversity in one group of chimps than there is in the entire human population. This points to evidence in our past that there were very few people on Earth at one time.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2975862.stm

However, this article suggests less than 2,000 individuals. So that being said, they were probably related, but also probably not close family.

Genesis is not to be taken too literally. It has to be looked at with the eyes of the soul. It was probably a story that was handed down for many generations before it was actually written down.

Others have suggested that "Adam" simply means "man", and is a word representing mankind, and not an individual. Some say that Adam was merely an enlightened man amoung other men.

It is considered illegal now because there are more people to play with than there were back then.

Answer 4

I've heard fundamentalist Christians here on these very boards say that yes, the sons had incestuous relations with their mother and married their sisters/daughters. That was all allowed back then in order to "populate the earth." Later, god said there were enough people and disallowed it.

Seriously... they have SAID that here. I can't make this kind of stuff up. See the response from ejsy05 up above and the gentleman two answers above me.

How on EARTH can they type that with a straight face??

Answer 5

1st error, Adam and Eve were NOT the first people on earth. This is a HUGE error few realize, notice nor care to actually read up on, specially when its in front of them in black and white.

In Genesis as G_D is creating man He is talking to the "hosts". Define "hosts" using Strong's and it is: a large multitude of people, a group.

Then you can read how Adam's son marries a woman out of no where. She is from these "hosts".

Now if you dig deeper around the world, some insight starts to come to play. The Iroquois Indians in America have a name that is " the original people or the original hosts ". So one might assume they are the ones G_D is speaking too.

To go along with this, many researchers, among myself, have linked at least the eastern coast Native Americans to the Danites and other lost tribes of Israel. The Shawnee Indians alone have a story of how they came to America. And it is a mirror image of the story of Moses. Plus in SE Ohio there is the Serpent Mound which was built by the Shawnee ancestors. Which is the same serpent that is found on the Tribe of Dan logo.

So your incest theory has no basis to even begin. For there were people already on the earth at that time as the Bible clearly tells us.

Answer 6

Adam and Eve had many children......... also people lived to be 800 or so years, and so being middle aged meant being in your 400's....... There were no defects of any kind, etc........ and , I also point out this one little point, people don't like it, but I say it, NO WHERE does it state that others were not created , Adam and Eve were the *first*, and maybe the *only* in the garden, it says nothing about there not being others *outside*........ or even in the garden with them....... but, again, that is just ME....... and besides, I do not worry much about it , it has NOTHING to do with salvation in Jesus......Maybe God will answer all our questions when we see Him..... go in peace......... God bless

Answer 7

There's plenty of issues recognised by Modern standards as being Incest.

Just society has evolved/changed it's definations of "normal" behaviour. Not many Xians males wear tassles on the 4 corners of their robes do they??

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Answer 8

We have over 300 million people living in the United States and we have incest.

Answer 9

It was not until later in time that anyone heard that incest was wrong. Abraham and Sarah were half brother and sister. It was not a sin at that time for them to marry. That is all there was when Adam and Eve had their many children. They had to inner marry.

Answer 10

But wait! There is more! Noah's grandchildren had to marry each other... Lot, a righteous man according to the bible, was gotten drunk by his daughters and not only had sex with them but impregnated them...

These are but a few of the incestuous accounts recorded and approved of in the bible.

Edit, let's not forget that the bible totally endorses your wife letting you have sex with her slave...

Edit: second buck, think about what you just implied: God condemned the "Hosts" who were innocent due to 2 people's choice? What kind of justice ist that?

Answer 11

If you will read the Bible. You will find that there weren't perfect people,except for Jesus. How else was the earth going to be re-populated ? Certainly not by apes.