Serious question about the bible?

Question

I was reading the bible last night and one thing was nagging at me.. Where did all these other people come from when the world started with just Adam and Eve? After Cain and Able, Cain married and had a family. His brother (Seth I think it was) found a wife and they had a family.. where did all these new people come from? Also, how were people in the first book of the bible live for 600 years?

Answer 1

"Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters.

So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. "

Genesis 5:4-5

The process of corruption and death started out slow, but greatly accelerated after the Flood.

Answer 2

I know what you mean. Where did all those people come from? Genesis Chapter 4 is confusing because it leads you to believe that Eve only had sons. I think Eve had daughters too, and her sons and daughters produced more children. Incest was not uncommon in the early parts of the Bible. I'm not sure why people lived so long in the early parts of the Bible. And don't ask me how Noah built an ark large enough to house every animal on earth. I have no idea how that was possible. That really was a miracle. Of course, a scientist would never accept the idea of a miracle. There are very few scientists that believe God created everything.

Answer 3

Several theories (since the Bible doesn't tell you the details):
- Adam and Eve had other children not mentioned in the Bible.
They intermarried.
- God created other humans (other than Adam and Eve -- for example, read on and you'll find "Giants" mentioned in the Bible .. and "angels taking women as their wives", although that is a whole different question).

For the 600 years:
- people lived better (they had better food, their genes were purer, the earth was in a much better condition) -- all these reasons made it possible to live longer.
- but this is the theory that I like: you know how some people have a disease that makes them grow old at a faster rate ... that is, when they are 10 years old, they look like 40 or 60 years old. Well, during Genesis time, they had the reverse "disease" ... they had slow growth rate, such that their body still functioned (teeth didn't fall off, etc) even into 600 or 900 years.
- After the flood, God said man would not live more than 120 years old --- this implies God used to let humans to live more than 120 years old.

Answer 4

You have to remember that the first people - Adam and Eve were created perfect. Their children were very close to perfection. The generations that followed were a little further from perfection than their parents were, and so forth down to our day where we are far from perfect. Therefore they A.) lived longer lives and B.) were able to marry their sisters, cousins and other relatives without negative effects.
This is one thing that we can reason on - that God's "day" is actually 1000 years long, because God told Adam and Eve that in the DAY that they ate of the tree, they would die. But Adam lived almost 1000 years (he lived to be 930 yrs. old). So he didn't die within a 24 hour period.
Outside the garden, awaiting death, Adam fathered sons and daughters, the names of only three being preserved—Cain, Abel, and Seth. To all of his children Adam passed on hereditary sin and death, since he himself was sinful.—Ge 3:23; 4:1, 2, 25.

Answer 5

Cain married his sister. Adam and Eve kept popping out lots of kids long after Cain left the nest. Eventually, he meets a woman. It's his sister, biologically, but he doesn't care, because he didn't grow up with her, so it isn't "weird". Also, there wasn't enough time for genetic mutations to build up, because Adam and Eve's bodies were perfect and long-lasting. It wasn't until the time of Moses, about 2,000 years later, that it became a genetic problem, so Moses forbade incest.
Also, who would you report them to?
Also again, people lived so long because of several factors:
1) They had perfect bodies, very likely they were giants.
2) The water canopy over the Earth before the Flood (which fell down at the time of the Flood) kept out the harmful rays of the sun and increased air pressure on Earth, which would have speeded healing. This increased air pressure would have also created giant animals, dinosaurs and people, as evidenced by the fossil record.
3) Food sources were plentiful, perfect and unspoiled.
Basically, all the factors that cause us to age prematurely today did not exist back then.

Answer 6

This is the BIG QUESTION for everyone, can't wait to find out the answer in heaven, I bet it is one of the most asked. I have a theory that it was one of 2 things, They had more children than just Cain and Able, and they are only mentioned because they are the ones who are relevant to the story, or Adam and Eve are only mentioned because they are the first of the bloodline that God works through but there might have been others created after them. They lived a long time because the world and their DNA were purer at the time, and there was not much in the way of diseases.

Answer 7

God enabled Adam's family to procreate, and since no law had yet been given to man, they were not guilty of incest, but essentially that's what it was. Being under divine ability to fill the earth with men, just as the other animals were able to fill the earth with their kind, they took their sisters as wives. During this time, there was enough genetic material to produce all the races of man known today. They lived almost 1000 years because sin had not yet gained the foothold in man that it now has, and men's bodies did not deteriorate at the same rate. Yet, as sin increased, the lifespan of man decreased because sin has a direct effect on the life of man. "The wages of sin is death." The more sin, the faster the death caused by it. Average lifespan for a man by Moses' time was only about 120 years. Nowadays, it's more like 85. Sin is still killing more people every day than all other causes of death ever known to man.

Answer 8

Yes....
There was intermarrying in families to make up the population of the world. This is a good reason why not to be prejudiced against ANY race...we all came from the same people. We really ARE brothers and sisters.

The reason why people lived in the beginning of our time for so long was because the affect of sin hadn't taken place. When Adam and Eve were first created, they were meant to live forever, but because of the sin with the fruit which caused disobedience to God, sin radically changed the entire world, even their physical bodies. The people lived a lot longer which, I believe, helped pro-create man, but the more sin flourished, the more damage it has done even up to this day.

Answer 9

Incest is a very common practice in the book of Genesis: Cain had sex with an unnamed sister of his to start a family. So did Seth.
People were supposed to live longer because, according to the Bible, God had not yet shorten life expectancy to 70-90 years.

Answer 10

I prefer reality to fairy tales about Santa and Easter Bunny....do you realize how limited the DNA diversity would be with 2 humans and all the incest???....try this, it might help you to get more grounded.....GL

1. Many more individuals are born than can possibly survive, thus there is competition for limited resources

2. Within this vast number there is variation, and because of this variation some of these individuals will have an advantage--however slight--over others

3. The ones who have the advantages are more competitive and thus they are more likely to obtain the limited resources

4. The ones who are succeeding in securing the limited resources are more likely to reproduce and thus pass onto their offspring the more competitive traits

Darwin

Answer 11

Fair enough questions:

Early on in human history, interfamily marriage was less of a risk than it is today because people in the time period you ask about were closer to perfection. It's the same reason people lived a whole lot longer. Methuselah lived to be early 1000. As we got further and further away, humans have deteriorated to the point where the Psalmist was right when he said that our years are 70, or 80 if we have special mightiness.