A Daily Genesis

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[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 4:17a . . Cain knew his wife,[/B]

Adam was created directly from the dust of the earth. Not so Eve. She was constructed from a human tissue sample amputated from Adam's body. In other words: Eve's flesh was biologically just as much Adam's flesh as Adam's except for gender; viz[B]:[/B] Eve wasn't a discrete species of human life, rather; she was the flip side of the same coin.

After God created Adam and Eve, He wrapped creation and has been on sabbatical every since.

According to the Bible, all human life thereafter came from Eve's flesh.

"Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living." ([FONT=Verdana]Gen 3:20)[/FONT]

Bottom line[B]: [/B]The flesh of Cain's wife descended from his mother's flesh.

An even more convincing example of prehistoric incest is Noah and his three sons and their wives. Nobody else survived the Flood; ergo[B]:[/B] Shem's, Ham's, and Japheth's children married amongst themselves-- first cousins with first cousins.

"Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth. These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was populated." ([FONT=Verdana]Gen 9:18-19)[/FONT]

Obviously the human genome was very pure back in those days. The proof of it is pre-historic human life's amazing longevity-- Adam lived to be 930, and Noah to 950.

Now as to the sin of incest; according to Rom 4:15, Rom 5:13, and Gal 3:17, the Bible's laws are not retroactive. So then, it would be a gross miscarriage of justice to prosecute pre-historic people for incest because it wasn't prohibited in their day; and wouldn't be until Moses'.

It was apparently the creator's deliberate design that all human life descend from a solo specimen.

"From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth." ([FONT=Verdana]Acts 17:26)[/FONT]

The Greek word for "nation of men" is [I]ethnos[/I] (eth'-nos) which pertains to racial diversity.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 4:17b . . and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he then founded a city, and named the city after his son Enoch.[/B]

The "city" probably wasn't the kind of city we're used to thinking. The word for it is from [I]'iyr[/I] (eer) and simply means a community-- a place guarded by waking or a watch --in the widest sense; even of a mere encampment or post.

Whether Cain actually lived in a permanent settlement is doubtful since he was stuck with vagrancy and wandering. Cain's city was very likely nothing more than a rudimentary village like the towns in the Old West and the Klondike that grew up around rail heads and mining camps. Some of those were little more than a village of tents, and that's probably all that Enochville amounted to. Just a nomadic assembly of Cain's clan where they could pool their resources, and watch each other's back as they wandered from place to place in the land of Nod searching for sustenance.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 4:18-19 . .To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methusael, and Methusael begot Lamech. Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah.[/B]

Adah is from [I]'Adah[/I] (aw-daw') and means: ornament. It's not unusual for people to name their little girls after jewelry like Pearl, Ruby, Jade, Sapphire, and Amber. Zillah is from [I]Tsillah[/I] (tsil-law') which is derived from [I]tsel[/I] (tsale) and means: shade (or shadow), whether literal or figurative. Shade is a good thing in sunny locales so Zillah's name may have been associated with shelter, protection, peace, serenity, and rest-- as in Song 2:3.

Lamech's marriages are the very first incidence of polygamy in the Bible, and I have yet to see a passage where God either approved or disapproved of it other than the restrictions imposed upon New Testament church officers. (e.g. 1Tim 3:2, 1Tim 3:12, and Titus 1:6)

Aside from the obvious sensual benefits men derive from harems; polygamy does have its practical side. The gestation period for human beings is nine months. At that rate, it would take a man many years to build up his clan to a respectable size. But with multiple wives, he could speed things up considerably. In primitive cultures, large families are very influential, and their numbers crucial to survival and self preservation.

"Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are sons born to a man in his youth. Happy is the man who fills his quiver with them; they shall not be put to shame when they contend with the enemy in the gate." (Ps 127:4-5)

Cain's line, though distant from its creator, produced a culture of very high intellect and extraordinary ingenuity. Proof enough that just because people don't associate with the Bible's God doesn't necessarily mean they're brainless; I mean: look where much of the outsourcing like computer tech support goes-- to India; an essentially Hindu/Buddhist country. Russia, an essentially atheistic country, was the first in rocketry to put a man-made object in low earth orbit. Who makes the best cell phones and electronic watches? Japan; which is not what I would call a Christian nation. And who leads the progress in natural sciences? Atheists and Agnostics. Actually, it's to be expected that the majority of Christ's believing followers reflect a cross section of mediocrity: a people-group of just average achievement.

"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth." (1Cor 1:26-27)

It's tragic that so many otherwise bright, gifted people are lost to perdition where their intellect, their foresight, their ingenuity, their energy, and their talents will never be appreciated nor put to good use ever again: for example Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs; whose religion of choice was Buddhism: a spiritual philosophy utterly incompatible with the principles of justice underlying the necessity of Christ's crucifixion; and also incompatible with his teachings on resurrection and fiery retribution. Steve Jobs was like a shooting star whose fire burns very bright for a few moments and then goes dark forever. A terrible, terrible loss.

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