Cain

[TK]

Does scripture require us to conclude the Cain was Adam and Eve's firstborn?

Could there have been earlier births that went unrecorded because the lives of those earlier persons were uneventful, and that Cain's birth was recorded because the of the stroy associated with him?

TK

[steve]

I think you have a valid point. We say he was the firstborn because we read of his birth first. However, since there were many children of Adam and Eve, the timing of whose births is left unspecified, it seems not impossible that some of them may have been born earlier.

[Paidion]

Okay, as long as we are speculating, let me ask, "Could there have been other people created prior to Adam?"

Genesis 1:1-2:3 seems to tell us that God created man, both male and female, out of nothing, as He did the sun and the stars. (Gen 1:27). However, the account in Genesis 2:4-25 tells us that Yahweh God formed Adam from the earth (Gen 2:7) and Eve from Adam's rib (Gen 2:22). Could Adam and Eve have been the beginning of a different race of people from those mentioned in Genesis 1?

I used to be a member of the Reader's Digest forum (this forum no longer exists). One man who used to post, held to the position that Genesis 1:1-2:3 describes the creation of "the other people". He declared that he was one of "the other people" (How he could have known this is anyone's guess). He said "the other people" did not disobey God, and therefore do not have fallen natures as do the descendents of Adam. He told us that for this reason he did not need salvation since he didn't have a fallen nature.

As I see it, these are two diffent accounts of events shortly after the creation of the universe. In the second account the author introduces the name of God — "Yahweh", which is entirely absent from the first account.

[TK]

Paidion-- are you talking about the argued "gap" between Gen 1:1 and 1:2 - or the seeming difference between Gen ch 1 and Gen ch 2?

TK

[Paidion]

The latter.

[kaufmannphillips]

Paidion wrote:
I used to be a member of the Reader's Digest forum (this forum no longer exists). One man who used to post, held to the position that Genesis 1:1-2:3 describes the creation of "the other people". He declared that he was one of "the other people" (How he could have known this is anyone's guess). He said "the other people" did not disobey God, and therefore do not have fallen natures as do the descendents of Adam. He told us that for this reason he did not need salvation since he didn't have a fallen nature.

I want to see the long-form birth certificate.