Who was Cain worried about?

[undone]

He was afraid of the peopl eliving there. The text does not specifically tell us how they got there. We can only infer that from the information given. My take is that Cain was worried about someone form the family finding him and exacting vengance. Notice what Cain says:

"Whoever finds me will kill me". Geneses 4:14. This has the nuance of someone looking for Cain to "find him"

I agree. Anything else is just shear speculation. The way I read the story of Adam and Eve, it seems to imply that Cain and Abel were the first sons. How many other Adam and Eve children that would have been born after Cain and Abel could there have possibly been at this time in the story to be a threat to Cain?

I think the obscurity of this passage opens up the possibility for less literal translations of Genesis.

[None]

Genesis 4:13-17

13) Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear.

14) Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence;

I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."

The only ones who would kill him would be the ones seeking revenge. The only reason to seek revenge is if the one you're seeking revenge on has personally offended you or a family member. Cain was only worried about someone in his family killing him. His family were the only humans on earth at the time he said that. This coming from the greater context of the Bible, as well as right there in Genesis.

of course they had other children...just like some will say oh well they married others who were already on the earth...no they married their brothers and sisters and this continued until the population got big enough to start marrying further away from the family. No person, alien, creature anything was living that was not born from adam and eve. (obviously I am not talking about animals) I think cain was worried about his "family" that had already grown up and moved off to live somewhere else but within that area...

A woman can have a baby beginning at around 12. And then one every two years for however many years she can keep up with childbearing and childrearing.

Genesis 5:5

5) Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.

Most of Adam and Eve's children lived around 800 years. The further down the lineage, the less years they lived on the earth because after they sinned, God set an age limit of 120 years. This gives plenty of years of multiplied people living on the earth by the time Cain took his wife and moved away.

[EricH]

I think the obscurity of this passage opens up the possibility for less literal translations of Genesis.

I don't see how taking the passage less "literally" is a necessary outcome of us not knowing all the details behind it.

[undone]

I think the obscurity of this passage opens up the possibility for less literal translations of Genesis.

I don't see how taking the passage less "literally" is a necessary outcome of us not knowing all the details behind it.

I'm not saying it's necessary, simply understandable in light of the many we talk to who are puzzled by our allegiance as literalists.

[Johni]

It is necessary to take the Bible literally in the aspect of Adam and Eve being the parents of all humanity since the scripture tells us that by one man's sin we all became sinners (because we were all 'in Adam' when he sinned). It is no problem for me to imagine how the family basically "exploded" in number. I only have to look at my mothers family. Nine children (which I'm sure Adam and Eve had many more than that) and now the family tree is huge

[EricH]

In the Genesis story of Cain and Abel, Cain is worried that all who see him will try to kill him. At this point, the only other people we've been made aware of is his parents and of course we under the impression that Adam and Eve are the first and only people. I don't think he was worried about his parents killing him. Who else could he be worried about?

Hello,

I have always taken it that Adam and Eve had other children as you will notice what goes on in the following verses

Genesis 4:16-17--"And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch."

It seems at the time when Cain went from the presence of the Lord he goes down to a place on the east side of Eden called "Nod" and when Cain left the presence of God having been punished for killing Abel it seems that Cain was still single at that time. But if you will pay attention you will see in this verse that there were other people living in Nod located on the east side of Eden so these other people here had to be other of Adam's children as that would have broken away and went out to start other families.

But Cain goes down there to Nod and takes him a wife from the people living there. So I take it if there was people living in Nod then there had to be other of Adam's children living in other places as well having children and all them things it stands to reason in light of this verse. So basically Cain's fear was about the other people who was literally on the earth at that time running across him and killing him so that is why God put a mark on him so others would know somehow not to kill him for the murder in which he had committed.

Anyways these are my thoughts based around these two scriptures.

blessings

OC

I tend to agree with what you are saying. I believe in the literal account of creation as found in Genesis, but it never states that Adam and Eve had no children other than Cain, Abel and Seth. Those are the only 3 mentioned, but considering Adam lived to be 930 years old, I would imagine that him and his wife had many children. Adam and Eve are certainly the parents of everyone on the face of the earth, but over time, they likely had many children, who in turn, had their own children. By the time this story takes place, they potentially could have had other sons and daughters not specifically mentioned. That would mean the Genesis account can still be held as literal, and at the same time, it would explain why Cain was afraid someone might try to kill him, as he had other brothers and sisters, and possibly some of them were old enough to have had their own children.

I agree. In fact it was very common not to even mention daughters in geneaologies

[None]

Genesis 5:1-5

1) This is the written account of Adam's line.

When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

2) He created them male and female and blessed them.

And when they were created, he called them "man. "

3)When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness,

in his own image; and he named him Seth.

4)After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.

5)Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.

If we were to assume Adam only had children half of those remaining 800 years, that's still 400 generations worth of people multiplying on the earth. Many towns can be born in 400 years. There were no other humans on earth besides Adam and Eve until Adam and Eve bagan having children. Literally.

[undone]

If Cain married a sister and everyone else married close relatives as well, wouldn't there be a high rate of birth defects?

[None]

The water of life was in their blood from when Adam and Eve drank it in the garden of Eden. That's why they lived to be 900+ years old. It wasn't until Moses time, when people were dying around 80 yrs old, that the blood had impurities in it and they had to take measures to maintain health and healthy children. Moses set the laws that God told him to to keep their people healthy, including spacing marriages.

[undone]

The water of life was in their blood from when Adam and Eve drank it in the garden of Eden. That's why they lived to be 900+ years old. It wasn't until Moses time, when people were dying around 80 yrs old, that the blood had impurities in it and they had to take measures to maintain health and healthy children. Moses set the laws that God told him to to keep their people healthy, including spacing marriages.

Interesting...That's the first time I've heard the water of life used for explaining anything with regards to the fall/life/health of man at that time. I have heard that because sin was introduced into the world, it continued to grow as time went on. Thus, you see the ages of the men in the bible decrease as time goes on.