Doesn’t Genesis 4:14 prove that there were other people than just the descendants of Adam and Eve?
Question:
I just read your sermon on three days and three nights and I am glad to finally find a preacher or even a person for that matter, who agrees with me on the day of the crucifixion. I can stop arguing about it now that I know I am not alone in the boat. My contention has been that if Christ did not mean what he said about spending three days and three nights in the grave, then he did not mean any of the other things he said.
I have one other thing that bothers me and no one sees it quite as I do. Here is the problem: In Genesis 1:27-28, God had made man, male and female and told them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Adam and Eve were put in the Garden and knew nothing of arithmetic until they sinned. Who was God talking to in verse 28? It is not logical that he was talking to Adam and Eve. I think it was the ancestors of those Cain was afraid of (Genesis 4:14). I will probably go to my grave alone in my thinking on that one. I agree that Adam was the first man with a name, the first man in the genealogy of the Jews but not the first man God made. On the other hand, I am extremely hardheaded as others can attest to.
Answer:
I'm glad you found the sermon useful. I agree that since it mentioned several times that Jesus spent three days and three nights in the grave there must be a view of the events which cover this time period. Most chronologies are short by a day.
"So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."" (Genesis 1:27-28).
Genesis 1:27 makes it very clear that God created a man and a woman. You state that the command in Genesis 1:28 could not be to Adam and Eve, yet the verse states: "God said to them."
Your reason for rejecting this is that man could not do math until after the fall. I don't know why you conclude that having a knowledge of good and evil must be a prerequisite to do math, but we can show this to be false. Adam had a language before the fall as demonstrated by God giving him instructions (Genesis 2:15-17). He also was able to name all the animals presented to him (Genesis 2:20). And he was able to make logical deductions: "But for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him" (Genesis 2:20). Adam also was able to garden and identify trees. Obviously intelligence was not lacking before Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Second, the state of innocence that Adam and Eve had is shared by every child. "Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it" (Deuteronomy 1:39). Yet, most children are able to multiply long before they become aware of good and evil.
But the statement "Be fruitful and multiply" does not require a knowledge of math to accomplish. The same command is given to the animals (Genesis 1:22). It is a statement saying have sexual relations and reproduce. Rabbits multiply without knowing algebra, and so do people.
Finally, even if we allow that there were other people created at this time, why were they able to multiply and Adam and Eve not? You see, even granting your position you made an artificial division that has no logical basis.
You claim that Genesis 4:14 implies that God made more people than just Adam and Eve. "Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me" (Genesis 4:14). The statement only tells us that there were more people in the world than just Cain, but it doesn't state how they came to be. You assume that they were made by God, but the text doesn't say so.
You also assume that the events in Genesis 4 happened immediately after the departure from the garden of Eden, but that is provably false. It wasn't until after leaving the garden that Adam and Eve began having children (Genesis 4:1-2). These children grew up to become a farmer and a herder. Thus we know years had gone by. Exactly how many is not stated. We also know that Cain and Abel were not Adam and Eve's only children. "And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters" (Genesis 5:3-4). Neither Cain nor Abel is mentioned in Genesis 5, though we know they came before Seth. Since some sons came before Seth, it does no injustice to the passage to understand some daughters also came before Seth.
Cain would have known about marriage (Genesis 2:24) and having children (Genesis 1:28) from his parents. So he knew the world's population was growing. He was complaining to God that he would be killed in the future by someone who finds him wandering and since it appears that men lived for many centuries at this time, it is not a hard stretch to understand that Cain understood the world would have more people in it in the future and likely was already being populated.
So far, we found nothing that requires an understanding that God made more people than Adam and Eve. Genesis 1:27 is very clear in the Hebrew. God created a man and a woman -- a male and a female. There were initially just two.
Then there are other facts. Adam named his wife "Eve," which means "life." "And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20). That statement could not be true if there were other people besides Adam and Eve. Add to this Paul's statement, "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings" (Acts 17:26). Everyone descends from one blood. That is literally true since Eve was created from Adam's side. All people are descendants of Adam.
You actually went further to say there were people created before Adam, but this is a direct contradiction to what Paul stated. "And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being."" (I Corinthians 15:45). Moreover, "The first man was of the earth, made of dust" (I Corinthians 15:47). It is interesting that the Hebrew word 'adam means man, red dirt, and the name of the first man all at the same time. "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). Add to this that Eve was the second human being, "For Adam was formed first, then Eve" (I Timothy 2:13), and your assertion crumbles. Adam wasn't just the first man with a name. He was the first man.
