Expert: Thurman C. Petty, Jr. - 5/21/2010

Question
You say that Genesis 2 is explaining what happened in Genesis 1.  How do you explain why Cain was afraid of being killed?  By whom? Humans from the 6th day of creation.  His wife? ditto.  All races of humans that were created on the 6th day were non adamic people...that's why where is states in the Bible...8 souls were saved during the flood of Noah, it's referring to 8 adamic souls (Noah's family) from which Christ would come through.  Bible clearly states that 2 of each flesh be brought into the ark...the races were flesh and were included as passengers on Noah's Ark.  Solves the problem of how races got here after the flood...why they are still here along with Cain's descendants are still here. It's so logical, so simplistic, so BEAUTIFUL

Answer
Dear Linda,

Thank you for your combination question/statement.

Genesis 2 enlarges on some of the things that happened in Genesis 1, especially as to the creation of Adam and Eve. Genesis 3 describes the entrance of sin and its affects upon the whole of creation, while Genesis 4 tells the story of Cain and Abel. According to Genesis 4:25-5:3, Seth, Adam’s 3rd son, was born after the death of Abel—130 years after Creation. So Cain and Abel were probably over 100 years old when the feud took place resulting in the death of Abel.

Referring to ancient Hebrew sources that we no longer have, Josephus, a Jewish historian who lived in the 1st century AD, says that Cain and Abel were around 129 when they fought. He also states that Adam had 23 sons and 33 daughters. So, even though Adam and Eve only had 2 sons in the first 129 years, they must have had several daughters by this time, and obviously Cain had married one of his sisters. (It did not become against Hebrew law to marry a sister until roughly the time of Moses. Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister (Genesis 20:11, 12).) So Cain’s fear could have come from possible retaliation from Abel’s wife or his other sisters.

The only race of people created on the 6th day was the human race—Adam and Eve. They were the only people that God created, according to Genesis 1, 2, and 5:

Gen 5:1  This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
Gen 5:2  Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
Gen 5:3  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

Adam was created in the likeness of God (vs. 1), and Seth was born in the likeness of Adam (vs. 3).

There were no non-adamic people created on the 6th day. There were no non-adamic people living on the earth between the Creation and the Flood. There were no non-adamic people on the Ark, or surviving today. The passengers who went into the Ark 2 by 2 were members of the animal kingdom:

Gen 6:17  And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Gen 6:18  But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
Gen 6:19  And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
Gen 6:20  Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.

The “all flesh” of verse 17 would include every living thing—men and animals. The people who would be saved in the Ark were Noah, his three sons, Noah’s wife, and his son’s wives—8 people. The other “flesh” saved on the Ark included fowl, cattle, creeping things—2 of every kind. So the Ark would carry 8 people (souls, compare Gen. 2:7), and 2 of every kind of animal.

The races didn’t come through on the Ark, they were generated from the people who lived after the flood. Study the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9:

Gen 11:1  And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
Gen 11:2  And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
Gen 11:3  And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
Gen 11:4  And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Gen 11:5  And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
Gen 11:6  And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Gen 11:7  Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
Gen 11:8  So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Gen 11:9  Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

The races that live on the earth now all came through Noah. They were scattered at Babel when God confounded their language. They were spread into different areas of the world according to the languages they spoke (see Genesis 10:5).

I suggest that you read the first 10 chapters of the book “Patriarchs and Prophets” by Ellen G. White. You’ll find in it a straight-forward explanation of the Creation and the Flood. Type the following address into your web browser to read the book on-line: http://whiteestate.org/books/pp/pp.asp

Thanks for your question.

Thurman C. Petty, Jr.
PettyPress@gmail.com
www.PettyPress.com (20 books; 40 Bible Study Guides; more)