Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 2:4

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 2:4
  • Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 13:31:01 -0700

Dear Doug:

I am looking at 4:26, which indicates that people started calling on
the name of the Lord after the birth of Enosh, son of Seth. That's
where I get my 235 years. The verse does not say the name was
previously unknown, nor why people started calling on YHWH. The text
probably gives more questions than answers.

Similarly, the text does not tell how many people were living at that
time, nor how old Qain and Abel were at the time of the murder, nor
answer a bunch of other questions that we have. Abel could have been
well over 100 years old when murdered, the text does not say.

Karl W. Randolph.

On 7/16/06, Revdpickrel AT wmconnect.com <Revdpickrel AT wmconnect.com> wrote:

In a message dated 7/15/2006 3:08:24 PM Central Daylight Time,
kwrandolph AT gmail.com writes:



Is this still that small a family? After all, we are talking 235 years
after the fall into sin. How many other sons of Adam and Eve had been
born, only not listed because their descendants all perished in the
Flood? The daughters were not listed other than the generic notice in
5:4. By this time several generations of Qain's family were listed,
thus the implication is that there were several hundreds, if not
thousands, by that time. After all, who were the other people that
Qain was afraid of when he murdered his brother?


Karl,

Actually, Karl, according to Genesis 5:3 we're talking about 130 years from
the creation of Adam to Seth, not 235 years. Still a small family.
Applying modern standards of measurement which says population doubles
every ten years that would mean by the time Seth was born the earth's
population was 8,192. It's hard to imagine that they increased any faster,
since all the burden was on Adam and Eve to be fruitful: Cain was in the
land of wandering having babies, Abel was dead, and Seth was a newborn. It
is Seth that began to pray (call on the name of the Lord). Cain's
descentants became murders: the first record of a serial killer was recorded
in Cain's seventh generation.


Doug.
Rev. Doug Pickrel, Litt.D.
Tejas Valley
San Antonio, Texas





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page