How many children did Adam and Eve have? What does the Bible say about the children of Adam and Eve?

According to sociologists, in 2011 there were just over 7 billion people on the planet Earth. And every year this figure increases (forecast for 2050 - 9 billion). The more people live on the planet, the more often we ask ourselves: "How did it all start?" How many people lived on the planet in ancient times, where did they come from, and where does the individuality come from in such a densely populated world? And most importantly - how to remain yourself, not to be like anyone?

Most often we are faced with the fact that the main source of information on this topic is the Bible. It says in it how many children were in Adam and Eve. Of course, there is also the theory of Darwin and various kinds of fantastic versions of the origin of mankind. But the biblical explanation is somehow closer and more understandable to us.

Why we are interested

How many children did Adam and Eve have? Every person is asked this question at one time or another. And it does not matter whether we are motivated by simple curiosity or whether we consciously seek an answer in order to understand what the representatives of different peoples really are. And sometimes in one family there are almost opposite characters, which amazes even more. We are all so different that it's hard to imagine that all people on the planet have only two progenitors: Adam and Eve.

What is known in the Bible

This book mankind has been studying for more than one millennium. And it can be responsibly stated that the Bible does not clearly indicate how much Adam had children. That is, we all know that after the expulsion from paradise and the Fall, Eve gave birth to two sons. And another 800 years later Adam conceived a third son, Seth. These three official versions are limited. What is hard to believe a modern person? How did Adam and Eve manage to live such a long life and never again conceive a child? Even a deeply religious person will not believe in such "luck". What can we say about atheists!

And yet the skeptics have a very reasonable question: if all the children are Eve male, then how did they manage to multiply? The ability to procreate is only in women. Men in this case can only help to conceive a child, but to bear and give birth is only a woman. Some experts question the very existence of only two ancestors of humanity and claim that God created more people. Simply they were the first and "famous" because they sinned. So we only know their history and the name of the children of Adam and Eve.

What else can you read in the Bible?

However, theologians still insist that the Bible has answers to all the questions. It is necessary to search for meaning in each line. In this case, it turns out that it is almost impossible to calculate how many children Adam and Eve had. After all, having expelled them to the Earth, God gave the command: "Be fruitful and multiply". For 930 years of life on Earth, probably, Adam conceived not three sons, but several more.

Take, for example, the facts of modern history. In the Guinness book of records recorded a record number of children born to one woman: 58. And this is at the beginning of the XIX century! Therefore, it is not necessary to doubt that the children of Adam and Eve in the Bible are "not well-calculated". One of the historians who studied this issue came to the conclusion that Adam conceived 33 sons and 23 daughters. But even this is unprovable.

Sons of Adam

The names of the children of Adam and Eve are known to every more or less enlightened person. The biblical story of the fratricide of Abel Cain teaches us not to envy or betray the closest and most loved people. Cain's name became a household name for a malicious, envious and dishonest person.

Returning to the question of how many children Adam and Eve had, it is necessary to recognize that if there were only two of them, after the murder of Abel, all people would be the descendants of Cain. The Bible can not allow humanity to come from a sinful person in the worst sense of the word. Therefore, Cain dies from the Flood. And then only the third official son of Adam remains - Sif, who is considered the ancestor of Noah, who survived in the Flood.

It can be assumed that to determine the origins of mankind everything is quite simple. The children of Adam and Eve are the three sons. One (Abel) died at the hands of his elder brother. Therefore, giving him, Cain, the opportunity to breed further and sow sin on Earth would be wrong. Therefore, as a result of the Flood, it does not survive. But mankind still continues its history, which means that there was a third son. It was he, Sif, who became the continuer of the human race.

Women in the Family of Adam

According to the ancient tradition, the genus is conducted along the male line. Therefore, in the Bible very rarely there is a mention of someone's daughters. Perhaps that's why we do not know any of the daughters that Adam and Eve conceived. Nobody ever wrote about them, and did not mention their names.

But, as already noted above, only three sons could not breed and give life to all the peoples inhabiting the modern Earth. Therefore, it is undeniable that Adam had also daughters. Moreover, there is a direct indication of this: and he gave birth to sons and daughters. So we boldly assert that the children of Adam and Eve are not mentioned in the Bible. Probably, for the Bible, only those individuals whose interests fundamentally influenced the development of mankind were of interest.

Otherwise, again the question arises: "Where did Cain get his wife?" The Bible clearly states that when he went to the land of Nod, he was married. But since there is no hint of the origin of Cain's wife, one can only guess who she was to the fratricide: sister, niece or something else.

Marriages with close relatives

If we look at the version that the first people were two, then, no doubt, comes the understanding that the first people married and created families with close relatives. Literally, the first generations of people, besides being a husband and wife, were brothers and sisters to each other.

This is contrary to modern morality, when in many countries there is a ban on marriages between close relatives. But we are talking about events that took place more than two thousand years ago. Therefore, the modern principles of morality and genetics can not be transferred to the behavior of the first generations of people.

Genetic deformities

Genetic deformities are violations and errors in the genes that the mother and father transmit to the child. Not the first day it is known that half the genes the child receives from the father, and half from the mother. For millenniums of mankind's existence, an incredible set of gene sets has accumulated, and almost every set has so-called "mistakes".

Modern researchers have shown that the smaller the kinship of parents, the less likely it is to give the child the same set of these errors. In nature, the strongest wins, which means that in every pair of genes "defective" will be suppressed "strong." And a person will live peacefully, being beautiful and healthy. So, if the pope in the family has a crooked nose and the mother has asymmetrical ears, then the child will most likely get a normal nose and neat ears. In the worst case, the flaws will not be very noticeable.

Completely another matter - parents who are in close relationship with each other. The set of their genetic errors is almost the same, and the progeny is transmitted with a coefficient of "2". Curved dad's nose plus a curve mom's nose will give a completely ugly face to the baby.

Prohibition of marriages of close relatives

In ancient times, no one conducted thorough research. Scientists and enlightened people were few. But the usual "children of Adam and Eve" began to notice such features of the offspring born from close relatives. Therefore, first there were norms of morality, which condemned the intimate relationships between close relatives. There was even an assertion that every kind needs "fresh blood". Therefore, it was customary to choose wives and husbands not even from their village, in order to avoid the parents' kinship for certain.

Over time, most countries introduced a ban on marriages within the same family. Even families such as England, France and Spain began to close their eyes on the genealogy and traditions. After all, the purity of blood from the nobles of these states stood above all else. However, an incredible number of freaks and mentally retarded children forced to review their canons and them. Now no one is surprised that the prince marries a model, and the princess marries an entrepreneur. And a hundred years ago it was impossible!

Biblical morality

In continuation of the topic of prohibitions on closely related marriages, it should be noted that in the Bible for the first time the condemnation of such unions occurs already in the time of Moses. And this is 2500 years after the fall of Adam and Eve. It is understandable that the first generations were, as they say, "absolutes". In the genes of Adam and Eve there were no mistakes, for God created them in the image and likeness of their own. Probably, their children also received the purest genes.

But for sin God cursed people and sent them sickness, ugliness and old age. How many generations this went on, and at what point the same genetic errors appeared, it is almost impossible to say. However, the condemnation of marriages between close relatives came to humanity through the law of God, which was read by Moses. As already mentioned, he lived almost three thousand years later. Of course, for such a time a very large base of genetic errors has gathered. Given the increased population of the planet, it was possible to abandon closely related marriages in favor of the health of nations.

Conclusion

Despite a lot of research, which theologians, geneticists, historians and other specialists spend more than a decade, we do not have an exact answer to the question: "How many children did Adam and Eve have?"

Geneticists who have been researching hundreds of thousands of DNA for 20 years have come to the conclusion that it is quite possible that all people on the planet can be considered relatives. At least, this does not contradict either Darwin's theory of evolution or the biblical version of the emergence of the human race.

I just want to note that if we are all one family, then why do not we so often understand our friends and take offense at each other? Let's live amicably, relatives!