Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Were Adam and Eve really the first men God made?

source

Matt and I were reading the first chapter of Genesis the other night and as we were reading Matt pointed out that in the first chapter God created man in his image, male and female, but then it wasn't until chapter 2 that he actually created Adam and Eve. 

I've been mulling over this the last couple days and then pulled out the text and read through it again this morning, and I stopped at verse 5 in the 2nd chapter.  If you read that is says that basically nothing was in the earth yet, even though it was all created in chapter 1 already.  Baffling right?!  I don't know how many times I've read this before but this was the first time that I caught all of this.  

I've often thought about Adam and Eve and wondered how their children procreated. Was there incest, because technically if they are the only ones on the earth kids have to come from somewhere right?  Am I the only one that thinks about this kind of thing? Does this suggest that maybe there were other people on the earth before Adam was created? As an artist I can always picture stuff in my head before I actually create it, or at least have an idea of what I'm going to make.  Is this what God is referring to, where everything was "created" in the mind of God and then brought into the earth in chapter 2?  Anyways, I don't have any answers to any of these things but I find it all very interesting and thought I would share my musings with you all. I've copied the text for you to read below (source: bible.com, NASB, all emphasis mine) let me know what you think! 


CHAPTER 1: 26-31
26Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 29Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so. 31God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. 

CHAPTER 2: 1-25
The Creation of Man and Woman
1Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 2By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
4This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. 5Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. 6But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. 7Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 8The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. 9Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. 11The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. 14The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16The Lord God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."
18Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." 19Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
23The man said,
"This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man."
24For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

1 comment:

  1. This is very interesting. Hugo and I have been talking about this recently, and although we don't have any answer's either, it's really interesting to think about. :)

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