Hopefully I didn’t miss anything. I don’t want to enter into the debate. I don’t have all the answers. I just wanted to clarify these points for people on both sides of the issue.
May the LORD be with you all!
?Jubilees states that Cain’s wife was Avan, his sister.We come to Genesis 5. What is the purpose of the genealogy? It is to give us the ancestry from Adam to Noah, even from God to Noah. The purpose of the genealogy is not to give us the names of firstborn sons. It is not picking up where the chronology ended in chapter 4, but is starting over from the beginning. It is not giving a chronology of birth order so that the repeated statement, “had other sons and daughters,” implies that all of these sons and daughters came after the name of the son just identified. What it means is that, yes, there were other children; but the only child that matters for the purpose of the genealogy is the ancestor of Noah each time. So the other sons and daughters gain a mention, but the fact that their mention is read after the son who is explicitly identified is not meant to imply that they were born after that son. The order on the page does not imply order of birth, but rather order of purpose. Chronology of birth order is not in view in Ch 5. The names of Noah’s ancestors are in view. That’s my take.
Genisis 5:4 (Adam had other sons and daughters.)
I thought you told me earlier that you believe God’s word to be truth, didn’t you?
Correct - not on Scripture. The Trinity does not appear there either Catholics use Scripture and Tradition together with interpretation by the Magisterium. Protestants do not…
Genesis 4. Read it and tell me when Adam and Eve had children.
Of course I do. Don’t you? You seem to want to add to it to fit a literal reading. Doesn’t make much sense.
Let’s see where you find that Adam had no children until after Cains exile other then Abel.
Now that you have that out of your system, can you show me where your finding your information that Cain was an only child after he killed Abel?
Genesis 4. Where in scripture do you find any children other than Cain alive until Genesis 4:25?
Hmmm…
Do you think this portion of scripture is in cronological order? I assure you, it is not written like that. Adam had other sons and daughters. One of the jobs God gave them was to populate the earth. In 130 years, I would think they already had several grandchildren, great grand children and so on. This is not written in scripture, but I can see nothing to say they waited 130 years before having a 3rd child.
Really? Where in scripture do you get that?
Certainly, once Cain killed Abel and was exiled, raised a family and started a city.
I see. So you take scripture literally except, um, the parts that you don’t take literally.
I can only tell you that you are wrong in this assumption. The bible is not written in cronological order. I suggest that you call a bible preaching and bible believing church, and ask to speak with an elder or the pastor. They will probably be excited to sit down with you and discuss biblical truths. I would hope they could help you gain some clairity. Keep reading your bible by yourself, but I believe you could use some guidance.
Sure. You see, that is the problem with your literal reading of scriptures. You have to interpret (not read literally) scriptures so that your literal reading makes sense. You don’t really believe that scriptures must be read literally. You just insist that others read it like you want it read.
This is not a logical arguement.
What’s not? Adding a personal interpretation to scriptures so that you can claim to read them literally? I agree.
Those posts are giving you trouble, not me. Remember, I believe those chapters are not literal history. You claim that they are literal. YOU have to add stuff to your “literal” reading for the passages to be literal.
You are flatly disagreeing with the bible an what Christ church teaches.
No, I’m not. You, on the other hand, seem to be trying to add to scripture. Tell me, where in scriptures does it allow you to do that?
Are you catholic?
Absolutely. As I said, I belong to Christ’s Church. I don’t need someone outside of that Church telling me how to add stuff to scripture so that I can read it literally.