Confused about some things in the Bible

Dear Pastor,

Ever since I was a little boy, I was always puzzled about certain things I have seen in the Bible. I am wondering ifyou could help me.

I was told in Sunday school that Adam and Eve were the first people God created, and they had Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel, and God cursed Cain. He then got married. Who did Cain marry? There must be people who were living in the world before Adam and Eve and these people had children. If there were no other people in the world, where did Cain's wife come from? I have asked different people that question, but nobody seems to know. So, I am turning to you now as a pastor.

I have my doubts about whether Adam and Eve were the first human beings on earth. I am not a heathen, but I question some of the things that I see in the Bible. I will be looking out for your answer.

N.W.

Dear N.W.,

There are many who have questioned whether Adam and Eve were the first people created. I knew an honest Bible teacher.

He believed that the world was populated before Adam and Eve. He was a deep thinker. But, he was not emphatic about the theological position he took. He believed in what is called in theology the 'gap theory'.

I have been asked on numerous occasions where Cain got his wife. We are told in the Book of Genesis Chapter 4 that Adam and Eve had three sons, Cain, Abel and Seth. Now, if Adam and Eve were the parents of the first humans, their children would have had to marry each other. I do not see it any other way, because God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and fill the earth. Cain was a tiller of the soil, and Abel was a keeper of sheep. The Bible says that God accepted Abel's offering, but did not accept Cain's, and Cain was very upset. One day, Cain and Abel were together in the field, where they had a dispute and Cain became angry and killed Abel. The Lord told Cain that he was cursed, and that he would be a vagabond and a fugitive. Genesis says that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord to live in the east of Eden, and Cain had relations with his wife and she became pregnant and Enoch was born. It is a fascinating story.

What I want to point out is that Adam lived for 930 years. See Genesis Chapter 4 to Chapter 5, verse 5. There is no indication from the Bible that there were other generations before Adam and Eve. The Bible says that Eve was the mother of all living. Therefore, everybody is a descendant of Eve, and Eve was made from Adam. Also, Adam and Eve had other children; that is clear from Genesis Chapter 5.

"And the days of Adam after he had fathered Seth were 800 years and he fathered sons and daughters." The Bible does not say how many children they had. But, historians believe that Adam and Eve had 33 sons and 23 daughters. Therefore, to carry out the command from God to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, their children had to marry each other.

The law prohibiting brothers and sisters from getting married is found in the Book of Leviticus chapters 18-20. That law was given to Moses hundreds of years later because of 'bad genes'. However, bad genes did not come into being at the time when God told Adam and Eve to multiply. Brothers and sisters and near generations marry each other. God indeed forbade such marriages hundreds of years later, according to Leviticus 18-20.

I want to close by saying that some say that Cain found his wife in the land of Nod. What the Bible says in Genesis Chapter 4:16-17 is "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and live in the land of Nod and live in the East of Eden. And Cain knew his wife and she conceived and Enoch was born; and he built his city, and call the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch." The Bible does not say that Cain found his wife in the land of Nod. What it does say is that he knew her, meaning that they had sexual relations there in the land of Nod. But they could have been married before Cain went to the land of Nod.

I hope what I have said has helped you, and I hope it will help others, also.

Pastor