According to sociologists, in 2011 a little more than 7 billion people lived on planet Earth. And every year this figure is increasing (forecast for 2050 - 9 billion). The more people live on the planet, the more often we ask ourselves the question: “How did it all begin?” How many people lived on the planet in ancient times, where did they come from, and where does personality come from in such a densely populated world? And most importantly - how to stay yourself, not to be like anyone else?
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 Adam and Eve had. Of course, there is Darwin’s theory and various kinds of fantastic versions of the origin of mankind. But the biblical explanation is somehow closer and clearer to us.
Why is it interesting to us
How many children did Adam and Eve have? This question at one time or another is asked by each person. And it doesn’t matter if we are driven by simple curiosity or whether we are consciously looking for an answer to understand how in reality the representatives of different nations are so different. And sometimes even in the same family there are almost opposite characters, which is even more amazing. We are all so different that it is hard to imagine that all people on the planet have only two ancestors: Adam and Eve.
What is reliably known from the Bible
Mankind has been studying this book for more than one millennium. And we can responsibly declare that the Bible does not clearly indicate how many children Adam had. That is, we all know that after being expelled from paradise and the fall, Eve gave birth to two sons. And after another 800 years, Adam conceived the third son, Seth. The official version is limited to these three. What is hard to believe in modern man? How did Adam and Eve manage to live such a long life and never conceive a child again? Even a deeply religious person will not believe in such "luck." What can we say about atheists!
And even skeptics have a reasonable question: if all the children of Eve are male, then how did they manage to multiply? After all, only women have the ability to bear children. Men in this case can only help to conceive a child, but only a woman can bear and give birth. Some experts question the very existence of only two ancestors of mankind and claim that God created more people. They were simply the first and “famous” for having sinned. So we only know their history and how the children of Adam and Eve were called.
What else can be read in the Bible
However, theologians still insist that the Bible has all the answers. You need to look for meaning in every 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 Earth, God gave the command: "Be fruitful and multiply." For 930 years of life on Earth, Adam probably conceived not three sons, but several more.
Take, for example, the facts of modern history. 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, there is no reason to doubt that the children of Adam and Eve in the Bible are "poorly counted." One historian who studied this issue concluded that Adam conceived 33 sons and 23 daughters. But this is unprovable.
Sons of Adam
The names of the children of Adam and Eve are known to every enlightened person. The biblical story of Abel Cain's fratricide teaches us not to envy or betray the closest and dearest people. The name Cain has become a household name for an evil, envious and dishonest person.
Returning to the question of how many children Adam and Eve had, it must be admitted that if there were only two, then after the murder of Abel all people would be descendants of Cain. The Bible cannot allow humanity to come from a sinner in the worst sense of the word. Therefore, Cain dies from the Flood. And then only the third official son of Adam remains - Seth, who is considered the ancestor of Noah, who survived the Great Flood.
We can assume that to determine the origins of mankind, everything is quite simple. The children of Adam and Eve are three sons. One (Abel) died at the hands of his older brother. Therefore, to give him, Cain, the opportunity to breed further and sow sin on Earth would be wrong. Therefore, as a result of the Flood, he does not survive. But humanity still continues its history, which means that there was a third son. It was he, Seth, who became the continuer of the human race.
Women in the family of Adam
According to ancient tradition, the genus is conducted along the male line. Therefore, the Bible very rarely mentions someone's daughters. Perhaps that is why we do not know a single daughter, whom Adam and Eve conceived. Nobody has ever written about them and never mentioned their names.
But, as noted above, only three sons could not breed and give life to all the peoples inhabiting the modern Earth. Therefore, the fact that Adam also had daughters was undeniable. Moreover, there is a direct indication of this: and he bore sons and daughters. So we boldly affirm that not all are mentioned in the Bible by the children of Adam and Eve. The Bible was probably of interest only to those individuals whose life has fundamentally influenced the development of mankind.
Otherwise, the question again arises: "Where did Cain get his wife from?" The Bible clearly states that when he went to the land of Nod, he was married. But since there is no hint of Cain’s wife’s origin, one can only guess who her fratricide was: a sister, niece, or someone else.
Marriages with close relatives
If we dwell on the version that there were two first people, then, without a doubt, it comes to the understanding that the first people got married and started families with their closest relatives. Literally the first generations of people, in addition to being husband and wife, accounted for each other as brothers and sisters.
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 cannot be transferred to the behavior of the first generations of people.
Genetic malformations
Genetic malformations are abnormalities and errors in the genes that the father and mother pass on to the child. It is not the first day that a child receives half of the genes from his father, and half from his mother. Over the millennia of the existence of mankind, an incredible number of sets of genes have accumulated, and in almost every set there are so-called “errors”.
Modern researchers have proved that the less the relationship of parents, the less likely it is to pass on to the child the same set of these errors. In nature, the strongest wins, which means that in each pair of genes the “flawed” will be suppressed by the “strong”. And a person will live life calmly, being beautiful and healthy. So, if the father has a crooked nose in his family, and the mother has asymmetrical ears, then the child will most likely get a normal nose and neat ears. In extreme cases, flaws will not be very noticeable.
Parents who are closely related to each other are completely different. The set of their genetic errors is almost the same, and it is transmitted to offspring with a coefficient of "2". Papa’s crooked nose plus mom’s crooked nose will give the child a completely ugly face.
Prohibition of marriage of close relatives
In ancient times no one conducted thorough research. There were few scientists and enlightened people. But the usual "children of Adam and Eve" began to notice such features of offspring born from close relatives. Therefore, moral standards first arose that condemned intimate relationships between close relatives. There was even a statement that every genus needed "fresh blood." Therefore, it was customary for wives and husbands to choose not even from their own village, in order to avoid parental ties.
Over time, most countries have banned marriage within the same family. Even countries such as England, France and Spain began to turn a blind eye to the pedigree and traditions. After all, the purity of blood among the nobles of these states was above all. However, an incredible number of freaks and mentally retarded children forced to reconsider their canons and them. Now it does not surprise anyone that the prince will marry a model, and the princess will marry an entrepreneur. And a hundred years ago it was impossible!
Bible morality
Continuing the theme of prohibitions on closely related marriages, it should be noted that in the Bible for the first time condemnation of such unions arises 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." There were no errors in the genes of Adam and Eve, because God created them in his own image. Probably their children got the purest genes.
But for sin, God cursed people and sent them sickness, ugliness and old age. How many generations went on like this, and at what moment the very genetic errors appeared, is almost impossible to say. However, the condemnation of marriages between close relatives came to humanity through the law of God, which was announced by Moses. As already mentioned, he lived almost three thousand years later. Of course, during this time, a very extensive database of genetic errors has gathered. Given the growing population of the planet, it was possible to abandon closely related marriages in favor of the health of nations.
Conclusion
Despite the many studies that theologians, geneticists, historians, and other experts have been conducting for decades, we do not have an exact answer to the question: "How many children did Adam and Eve have?"
Genetics who have been researching hundreds of thousands of DNA over 20 years have come to the conclusion that it is likely 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 we so often not understand loved ones and are offended by each other? Let's live together, relatives!