Genesis - Chapters 3-5
Lesson 3: The First civilizations: Genesis 3-5 What if… neither faith nor science knows for sure how the numbers add up? Cain and Abel (Genesis 3): What if… Cain and Abel could be Adam’s great-great-grandsons? Since Adam also means “man” (and earth, and clay, from which Adam was formed), and Eve means “mother of the living,” Cain and Abel’s story could be interpreted as the tale of Adam and Eve’s first children, or else of man’s and woman’s, of their great-great-… great-grandchildren. Different cultures have interpreted it differently in different times. The details of the Cain and Abel story do seem to suggest a more settled world than the immediate escape from Eden; a world of farming, villages and religion; maybe even of meat and cooking grain. Since Cain leaves and marries someone else, at the very least the details suggest a world where Adam and Eve are not the only human beings. What if… father doesn’t always mean Dad? Of course, the Bible does (sort of) say Adam is the father...