Expert: Marilyn - 8/18/2010

Question
HELLO AND GOD BLESS. MOST OF MY STUDYING OF THE BIBLE HAS BEEN THE NEW TESTAMENT. I DO READ THE OLD TEST. IT JUST HASN'T BEEN AS MUCH UNTIL RECENTLY. I HAVE READ GENESIS AS A KID AND HAVE NOT REALLY STARTED FROM THE BEGINNING UNTIL RECENTLY. SO I WAS WONDERING...IF YOU HAVE EVER HEARD FACT OR EVEN OPINION ABOUT HOW THE REST OF THE PEOPLE CAME ON THE EARTH AFTER ADAM AND EVE? I DO BELIEVE IN JESUS AND I AM BORN AGAIN SO I DO NOT DOUBT THE BIBLE. BUT, IT CAME UP WHEN I WAS READING GENESIS. IT SKIPS RIGHT FROM CAIN AND ABEL TO CAIN HAVING WED SOME GAL FROM ANOTHER TRIBE AND IT WENT ON FROM THERE. BUT, HOW DID THE OTHER PEOPLE GET HERE? DID ADAM AND EVE HAVE DAUGHTERS AND THEY WED FAMILY MEMBERS UNTIL ENOUGH PEOPLE WERE HERE TO POPULATE? I DON'T DOUBT GOD'S WORD BUT THAT IS A VERY BIG CHUNK OF INFORMATION TO BE MISSING. ANY HELP ON THIS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED! THANK YOU!

Answer
Hello V,

Well, there's two "theories" on this and it comes down to a matter of reason--that is how a person reasons it out--and interpretation of what the Bible says.

The first theory is Adam's children all married one another. Especially to our modern minds this idea is just nasty, though it must be considered as a possibility.

Gerald Schroeder, a Jewish physicist, has written several books about God. In the book, "The Science of God," he discusses the second theory. He talks about the two passages in Genesis that describe the creation of mankind (among other things, like where do dinosaurs fit into the picture). He went back to the Hebrew. I use the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted. (Incidentally, I do not agree with him on when God created human beings, I think human beings are much older than he states in this book.)

Genesis 1:3-31; 2:2 is a general account of the creation of the universe, Genesis 2:3-25 is an account of the creation of the universe but with specific focus on human beings. There are not two separate creations of human beings.

We don't use this style of story telling much these days, we like things to flow in a straight line with flashbacks to fill in details left out previously. When Genesis was written it was common to tell stories from the beginning two or more times from different points of view or with focus on different aspects. Revelation does this too, which is one reason why it's so confusing.

Genesis 1:27, "So God created man in His own Image, in the Image of God He created him, male and female He created them."

The word the NIV translates as "created" is "bara" in Hebrew. It means created from total scratch, or made from nothing.

In Genesis 2:7 it says, "And the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being."

In the Hebrew this verse is packed with information. This verse says God formed the man, "yatsar," which means "made from existing material," the NIV says "dust," but the word translated "man" is "adamah," which means "man made from dirt." In Hebrew what God breathed into the adamah was the "neshama," the human spirit, a different type of spirit from that of animals. Animals' souls are called "nefesh." And not only that, God breathed into the adamah neshama plural. What that means is all the potential breaths of life for every human being who would ever be born were all breathed in that same instant into Adam. Hebrews 7:10 testifies to this fact. It says, "...when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor." In essence, God gave to the man the power to begat more speaking spirits in God's Image. The Hebrew says, and the adamah "became to" another speaking spirit. In other words, something that was in existence before was transformed into a human being. And because the man has the power to begat more speaking spirits, in his sperm is the neshama, any child descended from Adam would be a human being because of that breath of life from God.

In the fist creation story, God tells us that He made human beings in His Image from scratch. It is our spirits which are after God's Image, our bodies, though they do look like God's according to the account where Moses hid in the cleft of a rock and watched God walk away from him. God had a hand with which He covered Moses, He had a back and He walked away, presumably with legs. In Ezekiel 1 God is seated upon a throne and has a waist and a head. But it is important to remember that the entire creation reflects something about God, something about His creativity, His personality, His wisdom. It is not by material things, such as a body, that we are essentially created in God's Image, but by intangible things, unseen things, by which we are created in God's Image--our neshama.

We are different because of the neshama God breathed, the breath of life which caused a being made of dirt to become another speaking spirit. Lately, scientists have taught animals sign language and they've managed to communicate in a rudimentary way. But nobody expects animals to write a novel or expound on some philosophical matter. Animals aren't going to start writing algebraic equations or write music either. These qualities are qualities we share with God, we are "god" class beings--that's what it means to be created in the Image of God. More on that later.

As you pointed out, Cain found a wife from some tribe. According to the fossils we've discovered, early human beings, called Cro-Magnon, existed at the same time as Neanderthals. Gerald Schroeder suggests that since the biblical text describes God breathing the neshama into an existing body that He chose a Neanderthal, one who like Abraham might have had some special qualities about him that made him the creature of choice, and breathed into that Neanderthal the breath of life and he was transformed into a human being. This would solve the problem of who Cain married--he married a Neanderthal woman, they would have shared enough genetic material to produce viable offspring.

The Neanderthal would have been an animal, but children born of a union between a human male and a Neanderthal woman would have been human. Remember, it was to the male that God gave the power to begat, not to the female. This is dramatically evidenced by Jesus the Lord who was conceived in a woman, was human, but His Breath of Life, His Neshama was God breathed--the Word of God made flesh, John 1. Though Eve's sin was grave, it was not devastating to humanity until Adam also sinned, that is when sin entered every neshama he carried in potential in his body and we all became infected with sin. Thus, Jesus can be born of a woman, Him being the Word, the Speaking Part of God, in a human body made from a woman's egg, and be sinless. Jesus' Neshama was perfect, it was God the Word.

Another idea to consider is that Cro-Magnon man was there and God chose one of them to breathe the neshama into. And after that, only the off-spring of Adam were humans, while the others looked and maybe even sounded like humans but weren't, they were animals.

God did not use evolution in the classic sense of the term, that is a one celled animal gradually changed over time into a multi-celled animal etc. etc. and one day crawled out on land blah, blah, blah. However, the Bible does not rule out a limited type of evolution. "And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds..." Genesis 1:24. The implication here is that the land can influence creatures to change, but a fish will not change into a bird, it will only change according to its kind. Humans have taken advantage of this limited evolution to produce different breeds of dogs from wolves, different horse breeds and so forth. Presently, scientists have discovered that human brains are shrinking. Human beings with dark skin adapted to sun-filled environments while humans with pale skins adapted to sun-less climates. God has given creatures flexibility to adapt and change as the land demands, but according to their kinds.

Cro-Magnon or Neanderthal are not identical to humans, just as a Jack Russell Terrier is not the same as a wolf, but is of the same kind. The difference is the breath of God! But each step along the way in Genesis 1, God allows a period of stasis, then He institutes dramatic change where He moves creation into the next phase. He may have done pretty much the same thing with His work creating humans. He made various types of hominids and they existed, essentially human-looking animals, until God decided it was time to make a dramatic change, and He breathed the neshama into a pre-existing something, maybe an already existing animal.

We need material bodies in order to live in a material universe. This universe was created and given to human beings and we were commanded to have dominion over it, Genesis 1:28. However, because we are also eternal spirits after the likeness of God, we are meant to have access and interact with Him, who Is Spirit and Truth. We essentially were created to have dominion in a material universe and share dominion in a spiritual universe with our Father Creator.

The bit I mentioned I'd discuss later...Jesus talks about this in John 10. He's been involved in an escalating battle of words with the Pharisees. He upped the fervor, heat and upset in John 9 when He declared, "...before Abraham was born, I AM," verse 58. Jesus harkened back to the moment when Moses stood before the burning bush and God told him His Name, "I AM," Exodus 3:14. The Pharisees are infuriated because Jesus has said plainly that He is God. In John 10 He twists their tails even more. He quotes Psalm 82, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? If He called them 'gods,' to whom the Word of God came--and the Scripture cannot be broken--what about the One whom the Father set apart as His very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse Me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'?," John 10:34-36.

When God breathed into Adam the breath of life, He created little "g" gods who were intended to rule planet earth and the universe with Father God as their Over-King. Read Psalm 82 also. Little "g" gods in animal bodies, masters of a material universe with direct communications and fellowship with Heaven.

I think Gerald Schroeder has come about the closest as we're likely to get this side of Heaven to answering your question. Pray about it.

Sincerely,

Marilyn