wife of Cain

[PeterK]

Matthew,

Could this mean that in the days following the creation of Man, ie the humans with souls, they could have married *other humans *that weren’t sons of God in the sense that they didn’t have souls, as a means of producing the Nephilim, who were descended from Adam, and therefore had souls, giving rise to the eventual population of the planet by those descended from Adam?

My answer would be no. There were no ‘other humans’. I follow that all ‘humans’ descended from the first two humans. I emphasize the word ‘humans’ because that is were the problem lies with me. To have a soul is to be human. Everything else is an animal. There aren’t any half-souled creatures running around. Nor did the human soul ‘evolve’. I also don’t follow the soul to be genetically transferred because it is spiritual in essence. Could the ‘human’ form have evolved and then God en-soul it? Yes, but after this happened, out of the heightened self-awareness that follows from having a soul made in the image and likeness of God, these true humans would not have sought animals to breed with.

I am skeptical that modern anthropology and the biblical text or theology can be reconciled with each other. But that is to assume they are in opposition to each other which is not necessarily the case. We have to accept that one discipline handles the material side of things and the other the spiritual. Both work together to provide a fuller understanding than what one alone can provide.

The plain straight-forward reading of the creation narrative has* all *humans descending from Adam and Eve. I also read that particular verse you paraphrased to be referring to the formerly separate but now converging lines of Cain [son of God] and Seth [daughters of men]. This situation is the precursor to the deluge.

Hope that helped.

PeterK

 

[NotWorthy]

Notworthy,

Yes and no. It’s plural in form but not usage. The verbs in the verses are singular. In Hebrew, the tense and quantity of the subject and predicate match. Gen1.1 literally is ‘In the beginning he created God the heavens and the earth.’ as opposed to ‘they created’.

btw, ‘heavens’ is another ‘is-it-sigular/is-it-plural?’ Hebrew word. Later, and literally, "And *he said, *God, “Let there be…” You get the idea. The etymologies for Elohim are many and some quite speculative - like it points to the Trinity.

Post the question as a new thread. Some of the posters here are quite knowledgeable and have great insight regarding ancient Hebrew. But you already knew that, right?

Peter

I might do that. I recall reading that Elohim slips back and forth in Genesis between singular verbs and plural verbs, especially during the story of Abraham. I’ll see if I can dig up my notes on that.

 

[grannymh]

I’ve had this idea knocking about my mind for a while and I just wanted to air it and get a bit of advice or direction about it.
The Catholic Church is ok with the belief that human’s corporeal form evolved from other creatures but that there came a point that God breathed the ‘breath of life’, ie the soul, into Adam, the first man. This is my belief.
Here is my subsequent idea: Adam and Eve are the parents of all present day humans, as all humans nowadays have souls. However, in Genesis chapter 6, the author makes a clear distinction between the ‘sons of God’ and the ‘daughters of men’. Could this mean that in the days following the creation of Man, ie the humans with souls, they could have married other humans that weren’t sons of God in the sense that they didn’t have souls, as a means of producing the Nephilim, who were descended from Adam, and therefore had souls, giving rise to the eventual population of the planet by those descended from Adam?

 

[MatthewBerkeley]

Hi Peter,

thanks for your answer. It makes perfect sense, but it still raises a few questions for me.

Could the ‘human’ form have evolved and then God en-soul it? Yes, but after this happened, out of the heightened self-awareness that follows from having a soul made in the image and likeness of God, these true humans would not have sought animals to breed with.

If this was indeed the case, and the human form evolved and then God breathed Life into Adam, it would resolve the apparent conflict between Genesis and evolution. But the fact that the human form evolved implies there were many ‘creatures’ of the same form as Adam without the ‘breath of life’, ie the soul. So what happened to all these creatures and their descendants, if we all descended directly from Adam?

 

[PeterK]

Matthew,
First, I am not a biologist, anthropologist, paleontologist, etc. This is just me trying to apply reason to your question.

So what happened to all these creatures and their descendants, if we all descended directly from Adam?

This, I guess, is where ‘survival of the fittest’ comes into play. I remember a book I liked to look at in middle school. It focused on all the different types of mammoths that had existed in the age of mammals. There were nice charcoal drawings of each major ‘type’. There were almost 50 different mammoths sporting every variation of tusk and trunk arrangement. Of course, these mammoths are related to today’s elephants - of which only two types remain.

What happened to all the mammoths?
What happened to all the human-like creatures?

I don’t know. But it seems a similar scaling-back of types occurred for many species not just primates. Something environmental? the ice age? disease?

Some way, true humans survived.

Hope this helped.
PeterK

 

[grannymh]

Hi Peter,

thanks for your answer. It makes perfect sense, but it still raises a few questions for me.

If this was indeed the case, and the human form evolved and then God breathed Life into Adam, it would resolve the apparent conflict between Genesis and evolution. But the fact that the human form evolved implies there were many ‘creatures’ of the same form as Adam without the ‘breath of life’, ie the soul. So what happened to all these creatures and their descendants, if we all descended directly from Adam?

Adam and Eve are unique in themselves. Thus, they are the sole parents of the human race.

 

[PeterK]

Hey Buffalo,

…[64-70 A.M.]…[71-77 A.M.]…[78-84 A.M.]…[99-105 A.M.]…[99-127 A.M]…[130 A.M.]…[134-40 A.M.]…[190-196 A.M.]…

What is that in those brackets, dates? A.M.?

PeterK