Jews & Christians: Adam, Eve & their children; incest & non-human descendants- What are the implications for us?

[Marybeloved]

Genesis clearly says that Adam was put to sleep and God took a rib from him and formed Eve- Wouldn’t this make Eve some type of sister or daughter of Adam as she got her DNA and humanity from him?

Their children: Didn’t they have to marry each other to continue the species?

How does this affect the Divine Law on incest, sex and marriage?

Cain is the only who “married outside the family”- He is said to have met and married some others after God sent him away from his family when he murdered his brother, Abel- So who are these other folks and wouldn’t this make them non-human (not descendent from Adam, the first man)? What’s the implication- Are there some of us who aren’t really human?

I’m curious to learn how the different traditions that believe Genesis handle or explain these things.

 

[gmcbroom]

They most likely see it as a matter of Pre history. It’s important and allegorical views of the past. Before Moses. After Moses is when salvation history and faith became somewhat standardized into the precursor monotheism we’ve come to know as religion.

 

[Khalid]

Genesis clearly says that Adam was put to sleep and God took a rib from him and formed Eve- Wouldn’t this make Eve some type of sister or daughter of Adam as she got her DNA and humanity from him?

Their children: Didn’t they have to marry each other to continue the species?

How does this affect the Divine Law on incest, sex and marriage?

Cain is the only who “married outside the family”- He is said to have met and married some others after God sent him away from his family when he murdered his brother, Abel- So who are these other folks and wouldn’t this make them non-human (not descendent from Adam, the first man)? What’s the implication- Are there some of us who aren’t really human?

I’m curious to learn how the different traditions that believe Genesis handle or explain these things.

They were both biologically perfect, so incest didn’t have any negative consequences.

It’s a non-starter for me because I hold pre-Adamite beliefs (i.e. to state it oversimply, there were non-human hominids that existed before God endowed Adam with a soul, making him the first human, thus expanding the gene pool sufficiently - given that the pre-human, non-ensoulled hominids interbred with the ensoulled humans - to mesh with the findings of modern evolutionary biology and allow for common descent from at least one first parent) similar to those Edward Feser (of Last Superstition fame) elucidated in, which I refer you to for a much more thorough and erudite treatment of the topic.Modern Biology and Original Sin