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If we just try to stick with the text, then the best thing we can say for sure is...
That there is no verse talking about any other people.
That we can not support the idea that there were other people with the Bible, therefore any claim is just a guess.
That we might "suggest a guess" that there were other people, but we need to always make sure we add that there is no verse to support it, but we are just guessing based only on the fact that there is no clear verse against the idea.
Nothing wrong with making a guess, so long as we always understand that it is a guess not based on anything in the text.
If we just try to stick with the text, then the best thing we can say for sure is...
That there is no verse talking about any other people.
That we can not support the idea that there were other people with the Bible, therefore any claim is just a guess.
That we might "suggest a guess" that there were other people, but we need to always make sure we add that there is no verse to support it, but we are just guessing based only on the fact that there is no clear verse against the idea.
Nothing wrong with making a guess, so long as we always understand that it is a guess not based on anything in the text.
"Now when we come to Adam and Eve, He gives them a name and we know it’s just one. Are they the first ones though? Maybe not. Because we later have Cain, that says his sentence is too great, wherever I go, they will kill me (Gen. 4:13-14). Who will kill him? Who? There was only Abel and he killed Abel. So if there’s only Adam and Eve and their two sons, Cain and Abel… well Cain killed Abel, so now there’s only one man left, and his mother and father. He says to God, wherever I go, “anyone who finds me will kill me." Who? He killed the only other man alive on earth. Well if we interpret it that way, there are problems." ~L.Ray.Smith
I think the above is support for much more than a 'guess.' In fact i would go so far as to say that the GUESS is believing that adam and eve were the only humans in existence when God decided to create HUMANITY.
Gen. 1:27 Let Us make humanity in Our image after Our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle…
But my answer still works no matter what guy is attempting to answer this issue.
The Bible simply does not address some questions, and any answer we come up with is moot...it will never be able to be proved so it will always be under a cloud .
We are not told the names of all the kids that adam and eve had.
We are not told the number of kids that had.
We are not told if Eve had lots and lots of twins, or stuff like that.
So if I were to come out with a teaching that held that Eve had baby twins named "Luke" and a daughter named "Leia" it would be a guess with nothing to support it.
I just cant try to support my guess by saying,. 'The Bible does not say Eve didnt have twins, so I suggest she did!"....that would be a silly thing to base an idea on.... a lack of Bible proof against something is not the same a support for it!
My advice:
If the bible teaches it clearly?, then believe it.
If you have to base an idea on the lack of proof against it?....forget it and move on to something you can prove...
11-03-2009, 08:26 PM
2K5Gx2km
n/a posts
First let may say that this post is approaching the text with the idea of coherance not necessarily correspondance.
Chapter 1 shows the creation of all things.
Chapter 2 focuses on the creation of mankind.
Chapter 3 show the fall of mankind.
Chapter 4 talks about Cain and Able. Now nowhere does it say that Adam, Eve, Cain and Able were the only ones around. Verse 1 just says that Adam knew his wife and bore Cain and Abel. It did not say when they did this. Since the Bible says in Chapter 4:25-5:3 that Adam lived 130 years and begot Seth and Seth replaced Able (4:25) it is fair to that that Cain and Abel were born between a 100 and 120 years after creation.
Now throughout Chapter 5 it says that Adam had sons and daughters each time it mentions the named decendant. So from creation to when Cain and Able were born there was probably a good size group (couple hundred) of people.
The name Cain and Able are picked out for the story purpose not because they were the first to be born.
This does not take into account that it might be semi-historical or that Adam and Eve just represent Humanity - maby God made more than just two people at the begining.
Anyway I do not think there is any incoherancy with the story even if it is not correspondant to true history.
10 points for mental gymnastics to all theists that responded.
IF there were other people created, it stands to reason, that these were not occupants of the garden of eden, thus the other created people did not go through the alleged fall.
Hence the whole concept of christianity falls flat on its face right there summarized as follows:-
Adam = FAIL
Jesus = WIN
Thus we can dismiss the entire bible as anything foundational or real.
IF ONLY the theists stated unequivocally that the bible is how ancients saw their world back then and should be taken with a pinch of salt, then of course adherence to these myths would be less ridiculous. Sadly we are told that the good book is the "inerrant word of god" and inerrant means w/o error.
10 points for mental gymnastics to all theists that responded.
IF there were other people created, it stands to reason, that these were not occupants of the garden of eden, thus the other created people did not go through the alleged fall.
Hence the whole concept of christianity falls flat on its face right there summarized as follows:-
Adam = FAIL
Jesus = WIN
Thus we can dismiss the entire bible as anything foundational or real.
IF ONLY the theists stated unequivocally that the bible is how ancients saw their world back then and should be taken with a pinch of salt, then of course adherence to these myths would be less ridiculous. Sadly we are told that the good book is the "inerrant word of god" and inerrant means w/o error.
That is to assume there ever was a fall in the first place. Not everyone believes that man was created in a state of grace from which he later fell. In fact, i don't believe that. Man was never in such a place but rather, man was created spiritually weak and subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of God. Man did the only possible thing He could do when faced with temptation and not upheld by God.
Romans 8:20 "For the creature [and or creation] was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope."
I think what I have written is very close to the text.
If you find even one thing I have written that is not supported by the text, let me know and I will have a 2nd look at it.
But what I have written is what I think the Bible supports.
Remember a Christian reads the OT in the brighter light of the NT and never the other way around.
This is because we are the new wine and the old wineskin could never hold us in!
There's nothing in the Bible to suggest that Cain didn't have brothers and sisters that might have already moved off, or that would move off to other lands at a later time.
That's right, the buybull is to be taken literally up until it is inconvenient to do so.
The Hebrew term ’a·dham can be translated as 'mankind'.
Is there any Bible that was translated by good translators that has "mankind" there?
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