Children Of Adam And Eve: Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve’s children, don’t get much attention in the Bible. Their lives are told in one chapter, followed by a few genealogical transactions in the next. Despite this, the phrase “Cain and Abel” is well-known in our culture, and we all know roughly what it implies. Let’s take a deeper look at what the Bible says about these two men, as well as their less well-known siblings.
Who Were the Children Of Adam And Eve
After being expelled from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had two sons, according to Genesis 4. Cain was the firstborn son, and the Bible does not say when Abel was born.
As adults, Cain and Abel went their separate ways, with Abel becoming a shepherd and Cain becoming a farmer. Cain and Abel both made gifts to God from their products at some stage. Abel presented pieces of firstborn lambs, whereas Cain contributed crops from his harvest. God accepted Abel’s contribution, but Cain’s offering was rejected. As a result, Cain was angered and jealous of Abel, and God advised Cain to be careful:
“Why are you so enraged?” the Lord inquired. “How come you’re so downcast?” If you do what is right, you will be accepted, but be careful! Sin is waiting for you at the entrance, eager to take charge. But you must master it and subdue it.
“Cain later asked Abel to walk with him in the field (the date isn’t specified, only “one day”), and Cain killed Abel. God adopted a strategy similar to the one he used after Cain’s parents ate the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3:9: He approached the offender and inquired about his actions. “Where is your brother?” he inquired of Cain in this situation. “I don’t know… am I my brother’s guardian?” Cain said.
God rebuked cain for his acts, and he was told that he would be “a destitute wanderer on the earth” from now on. Cain said that he could no longer take the pain of roaming eternally and that “whoever finds me will kill me!” God replied that anyone who killed Cain would be punished seven times over, and that he would mark Cain so that anyone who sought to kill him would be warned (). Following this, Cain had a son named Enoch, created a city, and had a number of progeny who learned to play music, forge metal, and herd nomadic sheep style.
Cain’s Killing of Abel: Why Did He Do It?
God accepted Abel’s offering but not Cain’s, and Cain despised his brother as a result. It’s difficult to say why God didn’t like Cain’s contribution. Cain contributed “some of his crops,” according to the Bible, without specifying the nature of the offering (Genesis 4:3). On the other hand, Abel offered “the finest pieces of the firstborn lambs from his herd,” according to the next verse. Abel provided the best, and he took it from the initial fruits of his labors, not after he was confident he had a surplus.
We don’t get any information regarding Cain’s harvests, which could indicate that he didn’t provide the best. Cain’s contribution could simply have been disrespectful to God. Regardless of what Cain did wrong, the fact that God assured Cain that if he did what was right, he would be accepted (Genesis 4:7) implies that there was something fundamentally wrong with his offering.
Cain was not only envious of God’s favoritism for Abel, but he also disregarded God’s warning. Despite being cautioned, he continued to act defiantly. His rebellious attitude persisted even after killing Abel, as seen by his scoffing retort, “Am I my brother’s guardian?” (Genesis 4:9).
Cain’s response was essentially self-centered. As a result, he became a nomad, a man without a community. He lived just for himself and received nothing in return.
Seth, who was he?
After the account of Cain’s family, Genesis 4:25-26 indicates that Adam and Eve had another son named Seth. “God has provided me another son in place of Abel, whom Cain slaughtered,” Eve exclaimed after Seth was born (Genesis 4:25). Seth had a son named Enosh (Genesis 4:26), and Genesis 5 focuses on Seth’s descendants, culminating in Noah, who would become famous for building the ark.
At first look, Genesis 4-5 suggests that between Abel and Seth, Adam and Eve had no children at first look. “After the birth of Seth,” it reads (5:4), “Adam lived another 800 years and had more sons and daughters,” as if there was a long period when it was just Adam, Eve, and their two sons, followed by a tremendous growth after Seth. However, there are a couple of items that are left out.
When God cursed him, Cain first expressed his anxiety, saying, “Anyone who discovers me will kill me!” Who could Cain be referring to if there were no additional children of Adam and Eve around at the time? According to some scholars, Adam and Eve were not the first and only human beings created; rather, they were the ones Genesis focused on because they dwelt in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, however, after Adam and Eve sinned, God declared, “Look, the human beings have become like us,” referring to them as representatives of their entire species. This strategy is continued in 1 Corinthians 15, when Adam is described as the first human. “For as in Adam, all die,” it adds (15:22), “so in Christ, all shall be made alive,” and “the first man was of the dust of the ground; the second man is of heaven” (15:47). As a result, it appears that Adam and Eve were the first humans.
Second, Genesis 5 discusses Adam’s ancestors without mentioning Cain or Abel. “This is a recorded narrative of Adam’s descendants,” it begins, then continues, “When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of a son who was just like him… Seth was his son’s name (5:3). This genealogy does not include all of Adam’s descendants, only a few. As a result, Adam and Eve might have, and probably did, have more children between Abel and Seth. We don’t know how many Cain and Abel had growing up, or if they had numerous brothers or sisters.
This moves us to a different topic.
Did the Sons of Adam and Eve Marry Their Sisters?
Assuming that Adam and Eve were the first man and woman, and that humans did not mate with “Pre-Adamic” entities, Cain and Seth Eve must have married women who were descended from Adam and Eve.
As previously said, we have no idea when Adam and Eve began having daughters (or for that matter whether Abel had a wife and children unmentioned in the narrative). We also know that Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old, thus there might have been numerous generations of individuals born between Genesis 4:1 and Genesis 4:17 (the first mention of Cain’s wife). As a result, we don’t know whether Cain or Seth married their direct siblings—one of them may have married a niece or cousin, while the other may have married a niece or cousin. Regardless, it appears that at least one of Adam’s three sons married a sister based on the math.
This thought is troubling and contradicts Leviticus 18’s prohibition against incest. However, there are several examples of males marrying their sisters or other relatives before this ban was written in Leviticus. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was a half-sister from a different mother (Genesis 20:11-13). Jacob married two of his cousins’ female relatives (Genesis 29-30). Moses’ father married one of Moses’ aunts (Exodus 6:20). The ban against incest does not appear to have been in existence (at least not as rigidly) until God formed the covenant with the Israelites at Mount Sinai, for whatever reason.
It’s difficult to pinpoint why this transition occurred. According to Genesis because all that was created in the Garden of Eden was good, including Adam and Eve, their genes may have been well-developed to the point where their offspring could marry siblings and produce children without genetic abnormalities. This would correspond to the shift in Genesis from early generations who lived long lives and produced children far into their 100s to people who lived shorter lives and had lower fertility rates. From Adam and Eve, who were still having children at the age of over 100 (Seth was born when Adam was 130), to Abraham and Sarah, who were past child-bearing age at the ages of 90 and 100. (Genesis 17:17, 18:12). Except for a few patriarchs, God mandates that mankind only live to be 120 years old in Genesis 6:3, which stays true throughout the Bible.
As a result, it’s plausible that human genetics were so advanced during Cain and Abel’s time that all of the biological issues that incest causes (mutations, etc.) were not a concern. Regardless, later in the Bible, God expressly forbids incest (and expressly so). Regardless of how we understand who Adam and Eve’s sons married, we must acknowledge that the Bible does not provide us with all of the information we require. It gives us the information we need and reminds us that whatever crazy things the people in the Bible did, God understood what he was doing and used it for good later on.
Also Read:
