Hey Andy, if Adam and Eve really were the first two people, then who, when one of their sons killed the other and got exiled, was he talking about when he said “anyone who may see me may kill me”?
Hi! A lot of people have asked me this over the years, especially since the Bible only really talks about a few of Adam and Eve’s kids. So we’ll touch on that. However, since the Bible isn’t meant to be a history book with extensive details about creation and the beginning, we’ll also look at some other points that the Bible mentions, but doesn’t go into much detail about.
How Many Children Did Adam and Eve Have?
Though the Bible only focuses on a few of Adam and Eve’s children, the genealogies of Genesis 5 say that Eve also had “many other sons and daughters”. Now, granted, we have no clue as to how long Adam and Eve were in the garden before they sinned. We also don’t know how many children they had before sin entered the picture. However, I do believe we can say that villages in those days didn’t have nearly as many people as we see in a city today. So we’re not talking about tens of thousands of people, or even millions that Cain had to watch out for.
Where Were These “Children”?
Also, we don’t know if anybody had left the garden before they were kicked out and forbidden to re-enter. We do know, however, from later chapters in Genesis that everybody pretty much stayed within that area. It wasn’t until God tumbled the Tower of Babel and made it so nobody could understand each other that people moved to other areas of the world. So news about Abel would have traveled pretty quickly among family members.
Who Did Cain Fear Would Kill Him?
After learning of Cain’s sin, these other siblings and/or their descendants may want to kill Cain for what he did to their brother, Abel. And we know from other written historical events in Genesis that not all (nor many) remained with the Lord after leaving their parents. So it would have been extremely dangerous for Cain to venture out of the Lord’s presence. So dangerous that God had to put a marking on Cain to protect him from this (the mark of Cain was meant to keep anyone from killing him. And anyone who did would risk the penalty that came with such an act).
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