I find these chapters very fascinating in the sense they describe a world very different than our own. Giants walk the earth, humans (at least Adam's descendants) live for 100s of years, and inhabitants of heaven copulate with human women. In the main story line, Cain is afraid of vigilantes hunting him down after Able's murder, he finds a wife and moves to Nod, yet only Adam and Eve are recorded to have 3 children, all sons. I'm not convinced that Adam and Eve had unrecorded daughters, whom Cain and Seth married, as we find out later that sister-brother marriages are abominations.
Likewise, it is through the lineage of Seth that we get to the next main character - Noah. Cain becomes irrelevant and forgotten.
I don't think archeology has helped much to clarify what all is going on here. One theory I heard was that Cain founded what became Jericho. For me, I think these chapters are evidence of other races of humans walking the earth, which is precisely what is archeology tells us.
I was always fascinated by the Nephilims, the human giants, mentioned in the beginning of Genesis. I'll comment on something deeper next time!
ReplyDeleteIt really is interesting. Do you have any theories on who they were?
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