Just recently I have heard a question that has been circulated among many different mediums. Just the other night this same question came up in my history class and I would like to know how to answer it. Forgive me if I have somehow missed the logic in this question, but I am writing to you for assistance. The question has to do with the fact that Adam and Eve’s boys had children. The question being how did they do this if they were the first family on the planet.<\/p>\n\t
“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<\/em>” (Genesis 5:3-4).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Adam and Eve did not just have three sons: Cain, Abel, and Seth. Genesis 5:4 tells us there were other sons and daughters as well. Thus, the simple answer is that the siblings married each other.<\/p>\n
Generally, this is met with revulsion because it has been strongly ingrained in us that close relatives should not marry each other. But the reason for this requirement is that birth defects are very high when near relations marry. Yet, this did not exist in the beginning. The creation was very good when it was completed (Genesis 1:31). After the fall of man, it began it slow decay and with the decay came genetic defects.<\/p>\n
Recall also that Eve was made from Adam’s rib (Genesis 2:21-22). In a sense, you could call this the first cloning, and yet Adam married Eve and we all descend from them.<\/p>\n
As we read through the history recorded in the Bible we see the nearest of relatives spreading. Abraham married his half-sister (Genesis 20:12). Abraham told both Pharaoh and Abimelech that Sarah was his sister (a half-truth) and since they never stop to wonder if Sarah and Abraham were married, we can assume that by this day marriage between full brother and sister did not happen. By the time we reach the days of Moses, marriage between near relations was forbidden (Leviticus 18:6-18). However, marriage between cousins was allowed. Today, even this close of a relationship is avoided because of the odds of birth defects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Just recently I have heard a question that has been circulated among many different mediums. Just the other night this same question came up in my history class and I would like to know how to answer it. Forgive me if I have somehow missed the logic in this question, but I am writing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[217,488,189,534,64],"class_list":["post-7562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adam","tag-eve","tag-genesis","tag-incest","tag-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3307,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-did-cain-get-his-wife\/","url_meta":{"origin":7562,"position":0},"title":"Where did Cain get his wife?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 14, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where did Cain get his wife? Answer: Genesis 5:3-4\u00a0tells us, \"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41224,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-create-other-people-besides-adam-and-eve\/","url_meta":{"origin":7562,"position":1},"title":"Did God create other people besides Adam and Eve?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Mr. Hamilton, I have a question: Were there any other people on Earth at the time of Cain and Abel or at the time of Adam and Eve were created? Because the Bible says Adam and Eve were the first two humans created. However, in Genesis, after Cain killed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42117,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-cain-go-to-another-land-and-take-a-wife-after-being-cast-out-of-the-garden\/","url_meta":{"origin":7562,"position":2},"title":"How did Cain go to another land and take a wife after being cast out of the Garden?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When Cain was cast out of the Garden. How did he go to another land and take a wife? Adam and Eve did have more children but not until after Cain was cast out. Were there people here before Adam and Eve? Answer: You are making assumptions that are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17666,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-did-cain-get-his-wife-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":7562,"position":3},"title":"Where did Cain get his wife? (2)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: As I continue my journey through Genesis I find myself asking a new question. I understand Adam and Eve. I get that they had two sons, Cain and Abel, but after Cain killed his brother he was cast over to another part of the land. How did Cain meet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16815,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-genesis-414-prove-that-there-were-other-people-than-just-the-descendants-of-adam-and-eve\/","url_meta":{"origin":7562,"position":4},"title":"Doesn’t Genesis 4:14 prove that there were other people than just the descendants of Adam and Eve?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just read\u00a0your sermon on three days and three nights\u00a0and 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31950,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-woman-in-the-bible-had-the-most-children-and-how-many-did-she-have\/","url_meta":{"origin":7562,"position":5},"title":"What woman in the Bible had the most children and how many did she have?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What woman in the Bible had the most children and how many did she have? Answer: I can find no mention of any particular woman having specific amounts of children in the earliest parts of the Bible.\u00a0It often\u00a0tells the firstborn's name and then goes on to say that they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}