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
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