Adam and Eve and Their Children

The age-old questions about whom Cain married, and who were the “sons of God” in Genesis have always piqued my curiosity.  Over the years I have studied the issue quite thoroughly and have never had a problem with understanding what the Bible actually says, as well as what the traditional teachings were from the Jews and Christians throughout history.

Due to a discussion on another blog, I decided to write articles about my understanding of these issues, and then have it as an article I can always link to!  

Today I’m just going to address the first question.  References I make to the Hebrew language or Jewish writings come from “Ariel’s Bible Commentary: The Book of Genesis,” by Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Th.M., Ph.D.

In Genesis Chapter 1, on the sixth day, God created Adam & Eve.  Chapter 2 merely goes back and gives the details.  But at 1:28 God commanded them to “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.”  This would certainly imply that once Eve was presented to Adam as his wife, they would immediately set about “knowing” each other in order to start the population.

Before we go further, we must answer the question as to how long Adam & Eve were in the Garden prior to the Fall.  Since all of creation was “good” on the seventh day of Creation Week, Satan could not have existed as Satan.  There are many theories about how Satan fell from being a “good angel,” but one thing we must get straight is that the “Gap Theory” — which says there was a previous creation destroyed by a war in heaven — is totally untenable, and has been solidly debunked by many scholars.  The “Gap Theory” was developed to fit evolution somewhere in Genesis, and that is a totally unnecessary objective!  At any rate, we have no idea how long Adam & Eve were there prior to the Fall.  Since standard theological doctrine has all of mankind born in sin, we have to say that the first child of Adam & Eve was born outside the Garden after the Fall.  (Some use David’s claim of being conceived in sin, in Psalm 51:5, to say everyone is conceived in sin.  However, the psalms are poetic, and are not always literal but are often from a personal, human viewpoint.  And even if David was conceived in sin, it does not follow that everyone else is!  There are just too many views about that phrase to be dogmatic.) The only way Eve could not have conceived prior to the Fall is if it happened before they had sexual relations, but since they were commanded to multiply, it is inconceivable that they would have remained abstinent, and it is also inconceivable that she would not have gotten pregnant from the first time.  The only thing I can concede is that all children would have been born after the Fall.  (Chapter 4:1 just says that Adam & Eve had sexual relations, but doesn’t say when this took place.  The implication would have to be, for reasons noted, that their first sexual relations were while still in the Garden.)

Now, an important thing to remember is that God told Eve that there would be hostility between her seed and Satan’s seed (3:15), a statement known by Christians as the protoevangelium.

There is much scholarly discussion as to whether Cain was the first child or just the first male child.  Because of the promise of God in 3:15, Eve was looking forward to the Messiah; that is why she was happy about the male child.  The Hebrew literally reads, “I have  gotten a man: YHVH.”  Eve understood the idea of the Messiah being the God-man, and that is who she thought she bore (when it really didn’t happen until Mary in the N.T.).  Jewish Targums also translate this as “I have gotten a man, the angel of Jehovah,” or “...the angel of the Lord.”  (The son of God was often called “the angel of the Lord” or “the angel of Jehovah” in the O.T.).  Other Hebrew in this passage implies that Cain had a twin sister.   So, we now have the firstborn son and daughter.

Genesis 4:2 says that Eve “also gave birth to his brother Abel.”  The Hebrew language used about Abel’s birth implies two twin sisters - triplets!  Also, the Bible doesn’t say how many children were born between Cain and Abel. There had to be quite a large number since Adam and Eve were to be busy “multiplying” and Cain and Abel were full adults at the time of their altercation. 

Another aspect is that as these children reached puberty they would naturally be marrying each other, since they are obeying the command to multiply.  Therefore, as adults when their altercation occurred, Cain and Abel were certainly married with children.  The fact that Cain had many brothers and sisters by now, as well as nieces and nephews, would make him fearful of being punished by his close relatives when God marked him and sent him away.  (Answers in Genesis has an interesting article about average population growth numbers.)

The point is that if Adam & Eve were obeying the command to multiply, then Eve would be pregnant as often as possible.  With bodies that were created perfect, and with the need to fill the earth with people, there is no reason not to think that they would have had twins or triplets in multiple births.

Seth is the next child we are told about, and Eve saw him as a replacement for Abel.  We DO know that Seth was born when Adam and Eve were 130 years old (Gen. 5:3), so one can imagine how many children Adam & Eve had by then.  We are also told that after Seth was born that they had many more children (Gen. 5:4).  Genesis does not tell us about any of the children except Cain, Abel, and Seth, because these three all play pivotal parts in history:  Cain was the first murderer, Abel was the first murdered, and Seth was the ancestor of Noah (and hence the rest of the world after the Flood).

(photo from the Creation Museum's booklet)