Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 1:27 AM
To: jack@gjcn.org
Subject: Commentary Comment/QuestionI have to ask … Do you believe that Adam and Eve were the first people on earth?
if you do then I would like to find out where the other people came from the wives of Seth and Cain ?
Is it not conceivable that others were on the earth but Adam and Eve were the first to know reason and understanding?
could it not be possible that when Cain was sent away that he may have (for the lack of better words) married a cave girl?
if you put someone of high intelligence with those of lesser intelligence the higher will usually rule.
Genesis 5:16 thru Gen 5:24 {where did all the wives come from??}Thanks for the chance to ask
Dark_Rein
Note: Full name and email hidden until permission to release such info has been obtained.
Jack Heckathorne’s Reply….
From: “Jack Heckathorne” <jack@gjcn.org>
Subject: commentary question
Yes I believe that Adam and Eve were the first people and that they were created in the six literal days of creation.
Gen. 2:18 says that “It is not good that THE MAN should be ALONE.” …but for Adam there was not found a help mate (a woman) for him” Gen. 2:20.
This indicates that Adam was the only human alive at the time. Then God created the woman (which means from man) and in Genesis 3:20 Eve is called the mother “OF ALL LIVING”. Since the woman was created after the man and she was the mother of all living people (eventually) we can conclude that Adam and Eve were the original people.
Today there are approximately an equal number of males and females born in each country. No one seems to know why but it’s true. In Adams day we can assume the same was true.
Cain was the first born and many years passed. When Cain went to the land of Nod (Gen 8;17) He “knew” his wife. The word knew is a polite way of saying he had sex with her indicating he was already married to her. He didn’t meet her in Nod as some think. Gen 4:1 clarifies the meaning of the word knew. “Adam knew his wife and she conceived”… Cain was married before he went to Nod.
You have to remember that Adam had sons and daughters at least 130 years till Seth was born. In 130 years they could have had many children possibility 60 or 70. The sons and daughters married each other had children and eventually moved to other places and made cities. Evidently when Cain went to Nod a number of generations had past. With long life spans the earth would have populated rather quickly.
Being very conservative lets suppose that Adam had 50 sons and daughters (25 couples) and they only had 10 children per couple per generation of 20 years for 130 years or 6 generations.
25 x 10 = 250, 125 x 10= 1,250, 625 x 10 = 6,250, 3125 x 10 = 32,125, 17,640 x 10 = 176,400, 88,200 x 10 = 882,000.
882,000 people in six generations! In fact, Gen 5:4 says that Adam had sons and daughters for 800 years after Seth. He lived 930 years having children.
Of course they could have averaged many more children per generation but this shows that neither Cain nor any of the children of Adam would have had any trouble finding a wife. Once the earth was populated God stopped the long ages of man so as to not over populate the earth. Genesis 6:6 limits the age of man to 120 years. There is no reason to believe that Gods creation married some imaginary evolved creature.
The big question should be where did the cave girl come from and how did she just happen to match Gods creation of man to the point she could reproduce with him? Hope this helps. Write anytime.
Jack Heckathorne GJCN
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Updated May 26th, 2009
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Question – Reply from Dark_Rein
I’m sorry that this is an addition to such an old post, but reading then thinking about your reply I had to think about it.
Adam and Eve were to replenish the earth, regardless how you look at this word and its meaning it does not mean that there was nothing before or after Adam or Eve but just the chance idea of some evolution carried forward. May not have been Gods intended mates but there were giants in the world and in some religions mating with other beings. Just asking what your belief of this was.
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Jack’s reply:
Please note: Anyone who is not a believer in the Person and work of Jesus Christ cannot understand spiritual things because his is spiritually dead from the time of birth because Adams sin was passed down to us, and it is the Holy Spirit communicating with our Human Spirit which gives us the ability to understand spiritual phenomena.
“But the natural man (an unbeliever) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)
Once we believe in Christ our human spirit is “quickened” which means to make alive something which was once dead.
“And you (believers) hath he quickened, (made alive) who were dead in trespasses and sins… ” (Eph2:1)
The Giants
The Giants which you speak of were the result of fallen Angels taking human wives. Of course, this was quite a long time after Adam. Remember, Satan and the angels that followed him, were judged by God and cast out of heaven onto the earth before the creation of man. They are still here, but not in human form, and will be cast into the Lake of Fire at the final judgment. Satan appealed his case to God so, the entire Earths history is to resolve the conflict between the fallen Angels and the elect Angels (the two-thirds that chose to stay with God) and to vindicate Gods judgment of condemning Satan and his followers to eternal condemnation.
“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, (for a long time afterward) when the sons of God (fallen angels) came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:4)
Alone on the Earth
In confirmation to this Genesis 2:18 says that the man (Adam) was alone on the earth.
“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet (woman) for him.”
If the man was alone, in other words without a woman or ancestry, he simply could not have been the product of evolution, nor could the giants because they came from human wives which were descended from Adam. Adam had to have been the original man.
Replenish the Earth?
The problem we have here is common for the King James Bible. It is a problem of anachronism i.e. the changing of English word meanings over time. When a question such as this arises we should go directly to the original Hebrew language to find the true meaning of a word and not to a modern dictionary.
King James Version
“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)
According to some, this verse in the King James Version indicates that Adam and Eve were to refill the planet, implying that that they weren’t the first humans God created but were part of a “second creation.” Many who accept the gap theory believe this. However, take a look at the same verse in the New King James Version.
New King James Version
“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 1:28)
The word replenish in the King James Version was used in the seventeenth century (when the King James Version was translated) to simply mean “fill.” It expressed such ideas as to stock, fill, supply, or inhabit. Replenish is related to the word replete; being replete with happiness is being full with happiness. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the word replenish to mean “to fill again” occurred in 1612, one year after the King James Version was published. Furthermore, it was used in a poetic sense, and Genesis 1:28 is not poetry. The English word has changed meaning over the centuries so that the word replenish today generally means “refill.”
The original Hebrew word for replenish in Genesis 1:28 is male. This word simply means “fill” and is translated that way in the King James elsewhere (e.g., Genesis 1:22). So neither the Hebrew word nor the English word chosen by the King James Version translators meant, at that time, “refill.” The translators’ choice of replenish may have been meant to convey something akin to “fill up” (i.e., to “make replete [full]”), but they were certainly not trying to convey anything about another filling of the earth.
The New King James Version (and some other versions) correctly translates the word in today’s parlance as “fill.” This apparent “contradiction” is simply a translational issue-not an error in the original manuscripts.
Technical textual Exegesis from Hebrew:
Now, in the Hebrew Biblical text here milu=vav-mem-lamed-aleph-vav.. This is in the kalimperative- second person plural “you all.” Further, the term replenish, in (Reuben Alcalay 5 Volume The Complete Hebrew-English Dictionary, Vol.Aleph to Mem: p.1334), means to be full, to become full.
Volume q-z, p. 3074, the word “mila shaanit” means replenish. Thus, the aforementioned term shows there is a specific term: “mila shaanit,” (which basically means to fill a second time, thus replenish), for replenish which is not used here in Genesis 1:28.
Thus, linguistically, and doctrinally, the term fill, thus fill the earth, best suits this textual translation.
Corrected translation: “GOD blessed them and said to them, “BE fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…”
Sources: The Art Scroll Tanach series on, BERESHIT, P.73, On Gen. 1:28, Answers in Genesis http://www.answersingenesis.org/
I’m sorry that this is an addition to such an old post.
but reading then thinking about your reply I had to think about it.
Adam and Eve were to replenish the earth, ..reguardless how you look at this word and its meaning it does not mean that there was nothing before or after Adam or Eve but just the chance idea of some evolution carried forward. may not have been Gods intended mates but there were giants in the world and in some religions mating with other beings. just asking what your belive of this was.