Did Adam and Eve Have Children Before Cain?
January 3, 2011
Dear Friends,
In Genesis 3, the Lord delivers the curse on mankind. One of these punishments is for the process of giving birth to be painful.
To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’(Gen. 3:16 NIV)
What is interesting is the language that is used. God says “I will increase your pains.” Think about it, if your boss came to you and said “I am going to increase your workload” there is an implication that you are already doing work. So, if we have an accurate translation here, what God appears to be telling Eve is your birthing pains are going to be worse than they already have been so far. If this is true, this implies that Eve had already had children while in the Garden of Eden! Furthermore, since Cain and Abel are not introduced until the next chapter (see Gen. 4:1-2), this also implies that Cain and Abel are not Eve’s first children.
If this is true, we have another answer to a perplexing question in Genesis. When Cain sins, he says to God,
Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. (Gen. 4:14 NIV)
Who are these people and where did they come from? It is possible that these people are the children of Adam and Eve that they conceived in the Garden as well as their descendents? Might this also explain why siblings could mate without genetic abnormalities because this was prior to the curse when such things would come into existence?
Another issue that comes up if Adam and Eve had children in the Garden is the length of their sojourn in the Garden. Assuming a normal gestation period, it would appear that Adam and Eve spent a considerable time in the Garden prior to their sin in order for them to conceive and come to full term with one or more pregnancies.
I do not believe that the above is by any means an ironclad proof of the foregoing assertions. The verse can reasonably be interpreted to mean something entirely different. However, it is plausible and does not violate any Biblical principles.
There is another interesting thing to consider. What happened to these pre-fall children when their parent’s sinned? The answer, of course, would have to be that they were stricken with the same curse as Adam and Eve. Romans 5:12 then takes on a slightly new meaning, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” (NIV) The “all men” would now include people living at that time. Consider verse 14 in the same light. “Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command.”
If there is a lesson I take away from this, it is that God’s mind is vast and there is a danger in bringing preconceived notions into reading the Bible. Most of us have always heard that Cain and Abel were the first children. In my mind, this was beyond dispute until a sister recently asked this question about the “increase” in pain. I was very excited to see for the first time a whole new way of looking at things even if I am not sure what exactly I think on the matter.
This year marks the twelfth year of the Thought for the Week. We have endeavored over that time to bring you ideas just like the one above that make you think. If you go away after reading a TFTW thinking about God, Jesus or the Bible, we’ve done what we set out to do. We’ve never asked or even assumed that everyone would agree with what we say. In some cases, like in the above, I am not even sure I am in agreement with what is written. It is just a thought. Go away and meditate on it. Share your thoughts with everyone on the TFTW blog.
We start off each week with “dear friends.” This is a nod to Proverbs 27:17 where it says “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” We can’t have a situation where “iron sharpeneth iron” if we all think exactly the same way and there is no room for differences of opinion. We hope that you have enjoyed reading these thoughts for the past twelve years as much as I have enjoyed hearing from all of my friends. May God bless you in 2011! Keep thinking!
Have a great week,
Thanks to MEK for the great question which inspired this thought.
Comments»
The problem that I see with this is that if there were children born to Adam and Eve prior to their sin and expulsion from the garden they would not have been born with the same nature as Cain, Abel, you and I. Those children would still be in the ‘very good’ state that Adam and Eve enjoyed prior to the curse.
Sorry, I had not finished reading – I’m still seeing this as a stretch for the same reason.
Thanks for making me think though.
Good point, Linda.
Another problem with this idea is that Rom. 5:12 has generally been understood to mean that we (the Adamic race) were physically “in” the loins of Adam when he transgressed. See the marginal rendering of Rom 5:12… “in whom all sinned”. On the same federal principle the tribe of Levi paid tithes to Melchisedec many years before Levi was born. The apostle says, “?Levi who receiveth tithes, paid tithes IN Abraham?”. (See Elpis Israel pg. 131, Logos Edition).
If there were children born to Adam and Eve prior to transgression they obviously would not have been in his loins WHEN HE SINNED and therefore would not inherit the sentence of death, as a physical law of the nature, as the rest of the race has. A review of Proposition 5 of the Statement of Faith might also be in order.
Thanks for that – very interesting. I wouldn’t say that it is inconcievable (!) that what is suggested was the case but I have to say I think it is most unlikely.
I don’t think the phrase “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing” requires the interpretation placed upon it. God is promising to multiply the woman’s sorrows around the area of the conception, birth and upbringing of children, ie, not just one sorrow but many all piled up. Adam Clarke puts it like this in his commentary – “I will greatly multiply, or multiplying I will multiply; i.e., I will multiply thy sorrows, and multiply those sorrows by other sorrows, and this during conception and pregnancy, and particularly so in parturition or child-bearing”
If we apply the same argument to the rest of the verse we would have to say that they were already experiencing pain if that pain was to “be increased” but we know that wasn’t the case this being before the curse.
The fact that Cain was worried about other people again does not demand that they had children before they left the garden, we know that they had other children which we are not told of (Cain’s wife, for instance) which could easily have been born after they left the garden. Cain was also perhaps thinking ahead to a time when there would be many more people, all closely related to him.
Apparently there is no big genetic issue with having kids with siblings for just the one generation. In fact breeders of purebred animals do it deliberately to purify blood lines. Obviously if it goes on for generations then weaknesses will be introduced. In these early days when I would imagine there to be a far greater degree of genetic purity than today then there would be even less of an issue.
The deafening absence of a mention in the record of others who were removed from the garden is surely significant, and it would complicate matters no end – Adam and Eve were both individually involved in the act of eating the fruit an so are rightly punished, but would God punish a child or children who had not participated in the sin?
The way in which we are told that Adam “knew” his wife at the start of ch 4 after the curse possibly carries the implication that this was the first time. The fact that they had no knowledge of their own nakedness I think hints at a general naivity towards sexual matters and I don’t imagine they had sex before the fall – more of a feeling than anything but it all adds to the big picture.
“Another issue that comes up if Adam and Eve had children in the Garden is the length of their sojourn in the Garden. Assuming a normal gestation period, it would appear that Adam and Eve spent a considerable time in the Garden prior to their sin in order for them to conceive and come to full term with one or more pregnancies.”
We don’t know how long they were in the garden for so it could just have easily been a short time as a long time. This is rather a case or using one unknown speculative thing to speculate about another unknown speculative thing. A speculation too far methinks!
Dan,
Thanks for the well reasoned response. You make a lot of good points.
The only issue you brought up that I would disagree with is the notion that God doesn’t ever punish the children for the sin of the parents. God seems to indicate side of that issue in the Bible (ie. sometimes He does, sometimes He doesn’t). For those where God clearly says that He will bring the iniquity of the Father’s on the children see Ex. 20:5; 34:7; Num. 14:18; Deut 5:9. We could also look at this issue anecdotally as well where God tells the children of Israel to kill men, women and children in conquered territories. It doesn’t seem “fair” to us, but God, in His infinite wisdom, sees things much better than we mortals do and has His reasons.
God does see things much better than we mortals, and he does have his reasons.
The Bible reveals that His reason for death existing in the world is because of SIN. The wages of sin is death. Sin (ie: diabolos) has the power of death. Rom 6:23, Heb 2:14.
As Bro. Pearce intimates, we only have record of Adam and Eve being placed under the Edenic law and personally committing the first sin. The pre-transgression children you suggest are not mentioned at all, much less as sinning personally.
The children you suggest, who were born before transgression, would not have come from Adam and Eve’s defiled, sin stricken bodies either. So, how do they inherit death?
Sin, in both it’s aspects, is the only way man inherits death according to the inspired Apostle.
One would think that would be pretty fundamental.
2 Tim. 2:23
Mike,
IF these children exist (and I did present the evidence which you choose to ignore) then they would have inherited mortality by the same mechanism we inherit mortality; namely, they would have also inherited the consequences of that sin. See Korah’s family as just one example of such an arrangement. It is not a foreign Biblical concept for the living children to inherit the consequence of parental action.
2 Tim. 2:24
What is the “mechanism” by which we inherit mortality in your view?
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” (Rom 5:12 NIV)
I think we’ve covered this already.
Ok, we can leave it there if you feel you have covered it.
I take you to believe then that Rom 5:12 can apply to individuals who were not in the loins of Adam when he sinned, and were not propagated from Adam’s defiled, sin prone body. (IF, of course, such individuals were actually born to Adam and his wife before transgression, as you feel your evidence shows.)
Have a great week!
A “mechanism for inheriting mortality” is as foreign to Scripture as the “very good state”
I agree with the fact that there might have been of off-spring in the garden. I have read the points from all the people and one thing that has always puzzled me is that fact threat the bible says that God put angels with swords of fire to guard the garden. If the garden is no longer on earth, then why would u need guards? Couldn’t God just take the garden? Or were there residents there that might have had a connection to Adam and Eve but did not share the same punishment since they did not break the command? As a last thing also what if these offspring are in fact the people that latter on are referred to the sons of God that mixed in with the daughters of man? They could be the sons of God since they had no sin and would be attracted to the daughters of man because they were also human.
I love this. I am so happy to find it, as if you were lost. For a few days I have been wondering about Giants, sons of God, and daughters of men( I believe it could have gone the other way too-Daughters of God and sons of men). I believe this is why the flood. Children born to Adam before he sinned, were referred to as the sons of God, and were born to live forever; when they mingled with those destined for death, giants were born. God was not about to always strive with this situation. He had to put an end to it, so the flood. But, I am thinking that some of that strain remained in the loins of Noah, because there were giants with whom Joshua had to contend. David had to kill one. So…OK then. I have a question. God is eternal. We are created in His image. In order for man to continue, we procreate. What is the purpose of “The Bride O Christ”?
I would like to weigh in on this issue. I appreciate all who have taken the time to respond and to post added comments. All of us gain a fuller understand ding through this.
Since Eve was the first woman, she would also be the first to experience human childbirth. While seemingly axiomatic, let us reflect on this for a moment. There were no midwives to instruct and Goode. There was no organized body of medical knowledge. While this passage is often termed the curse, this could simply be a case of sharing news that would not be very pleasant.
Our closest mammal neighbor is the ape. Apes do not walk upright as we do. Humans walk upright and this means that the birth canal MUST be narrower to deliver the infant.
Apes and chimps (not saying we are descended from them, merely using the species as a point of comparison), can carry a fetus to term and deliver an infant that is more fully developed. Infant humans must stay in the care of parents for a longer period of time before they are ready to assume tribal/village/family life.
Because of the warning that Eve receives, we are introduced early to the survival importance of family with an intact mother and father.
This is very interesting because I just started coming to the conclusion though not convinced of it yet, that they did have children prior to the fall. As to what happened to the “sinless children” well thy died because the tree of life was now inaccessible. Or they intermarried with the fallen and thus infected. Or it is as simple as Federal Headship of Adam extended to all his offspring before and after the fall. Therefore, all were held on sins dominion of death.
This is just what I was looking for to clear up a Bible Study this evening… I am better educated on all aspects of the possibilities of the children of Adam and Eve pre/post fall. I have to believe that our God’s heart ached when Adam and Eve fell and even more to have to exclude their children since the children were also closed out of the garden and lost the privilage to the Tree of Life. This would have chanded them to have their own type of fall from grace since they could no longer be in His presence directly. All of your explinations and linke to more scripture have also helped explain the marriages of the “siblings” that produced and populated the Earth. It is almost like the children pre/post fall were a type of step siblings to eachother due to the differences in their conception.
THANKS!!
I think Adam and Eve had daughters first. Maybe not in the Gardan but according to Gen 4:6 the fallen angles had sex with them but God had to put a stop to that. That is where we the Nelphlem (giant) race.
Hermeana,
I think that you are mistaken about Gen. 4:6. It is not angels being referred to there. Hebrews 1:5 makes it clear that God never refers to angels as “sons.” I think the verse is saying that believers (sons of God – 1 John 3:1-2) started intermarrying with non-believers. These men were “giants” not in the physical sense, but became powerful men.
Thanks for your comment!
Kyle
Kyle, the book of Job does refer to Angels as Son’s of God. The Bible also uses this term to refer to Kings (rulers) in the book of Psalms which is referenced by Jesus. The Bible also refers to Sons of God as those in the lineage of faith. The angels interpretation is definitely not the right one but there are two other alternatives that can be used without having to speculate that Adam and Eve had children in the Garden. It’s just me but I would rather use the Bible to interpret itself rather than speculate on things. Also, a person doesn’t have to experience the pain of childbirth in order to get the point that it’s going to get worse. If Eve ever stubbed even her toe in the Garden then she new what pain was and God telling her that he was going to increase that in childbirth would make perfect sense to her without ever having given birth. Oh yeah and Adam doesn’t give Eve a name until after the Fall. Names indicated a lot of things to the Hebrews and function was one of them. Not giving Eve a name until after the Fall that indicated that she would be the mother of all living things says a lot.
Your comment didn’t address some issues. 1. Did the author of the Hebrews miss the Job reference about angels as the son of God since apparently God does call them sons? 2. I think you are speculating yourself when you suggest Eve may have stubbed her toe.
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