Genesis 3&4

[mandapanda]

Is there a reason that Eve got her name immediately following the fall & curse? Is there significance in this or in the meaning of the name?
Why did God look with favor upon Abel's sacrifice but not on Cain's? And where did Cain get his wife?

[mpethe]

Ooooo, good questions.

I know others here will give a better answer than I can, but I'll get things started.

There may be some significance to Eve being named post-curse. Whether this is a second naming is probably also up for debate.

When they first met, Adam called her "woman". It would seem more likely to me that he was being more generic at that time, (as with the animals) and not that he necessarily called her "woman" by name, as they lived together - pre-fall. He identified her with a designation like his own - but also distinctively different from his.

For an answer to your question on Cain's sacfrifice vs. Abel's - take a look at Hebrews 11 (esp. vs. 4 and 6). I think it has everything to do with faith.

I think the traditional view of where Cain's wife came from is that she was another daughter of Adam and Eve. I'm sure there are numerous other theories as well.

[melinky]

Mandapanda,

Before I give my answers to your questions, I want to welcome you to the board! It's always good to see new people posting and digging deeper into the Word of God.

I'm sure there will be some better, more complete answers than mine, but here's my thoughts on the subjec.

I can't say why Eve was named when she was, but I can tell you the significance of her name. If you go back to the original Hebrew the word used for Eve was "Chavvah," pronounced: khav-vaw´Which means: life-giver.

Gen. 3:20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. (NIV)

or

And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. (KJV)

As for the offering of Cain and Abel:

“Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.” (Gen. 4:2-4, NIV)

Cain's offering was nothing special, just "some" of the fruits of his work; while Abel's offering was made up of the best he had to offer. To put it into a more modern situation, pretend that you and I are sitting at a table and all there is on the table is a big, juicy steak. Now, let's say that I cut the steak into two pieces, one piece that is meaty and a second piece that is full of gristle and fat. If I offer you the one that is full of gristle and fat will you be pleased? What if I offer you the best part, the meaty part?

Where did Cain get his wife? This is my opinion, but I can't say that I "know" for sure. The Bible never says that Adam and Eve are the only man and woman created, however, it does seem to indicate that they are the keepers of Eden. However, we are told that God made more than one man in the beginning:

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:26-27, NIV)

I'm assuming that Cain met his wife in the land of Nod:

“So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.”
(Gen. 4:16-17, NIV)

So that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Melinda

[mandapanda]

Thanks for the welcome and replies!

[rgrove]

Indeed. Welcome to the board! The only thing I would add to the discussion is that "man" in 1:26 is probably best understood as a more general term of "mankind" at this stage. I looked and the text note in the ESV (English Standard Version) says:

1:26 The Hebrew word for man (adam) is the generic term for mankind and becomes the proper name Adam

I would classify this as one of the dominion mandate passages for all mankind that they are to "rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth". This dominion mandate becomes important in the tower of Babel because man (in the mankind sense the text note above indicates) was not fulfilling his mandate and sinning against God's command as a result. Since the word "Adam" has more than one meaning I would hesitate to take it to mean that there were more created, but I see where that's understood. Perhaps our seminary grads can step in and give us lowly lay people hints on the Hebrew involved. ;D

I've read a little on this topic because it's such a common question. Answers in Genesis has a gospel tract based upon this question and it's question number one in their "Top 10 Questions" list here:

www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/tools/cains_wife.asp

They address the genetic aspects I've been interested in in this section:

Biological deformities

Today, brothers and sisters (and half-brothers and half-sisters, etc.) are not permitted by law to marry because their children have an unacceptably high risk of being deformed. The more closely the parents are related, the more likely it is that any offspring will be deformed.

There is a very sound genetic reason for such laws that is easy to understand. Every person has two sets of genes, there being some 130,000 pairs that specify how a person is put together and functions [Ed. note: This was an estimate from the number of different proteins. But after the Answers Book was published, the Human Genome Project discovered that there are only about 35,000 genes. This is an additional layer of complexity, since these genes must still somehow produce all the proteins. See Genome Mania—deciphering the human genome: what does it mean?] Each person inherits one gene of each pair from each parent. Unfortunately, genes today contain many mistakes (because of sin and the Curse), and these mistakes show up in a variety of ways. For instance, some people let their hair grow over their ears to hide the fact that one ear is lower than the other—or perhaps someone’s nose is not quite in the middle of his or her face, or someone’s jaw is a little out of shape—and so on. Let’s face it, the main reason we call each other normal is because of our common agreement to do so!

The more distantly related parents are, the more likely it is that they will have different mistakes in their genes. Children, inheriting one set of genes from each parent, are likely to end up with pairs of genes containing a maximum of one bad gene in each pair. The good gene tends to override the bad so that a deformity (a serious one, anyway) does not occur. Instead of having totally deformed ears, for instance, a person may only have crooked ones! (Overall, though, the human race is slowly degenerating as mistakes accumulate, generation after generation.)

However, the more closely related two people are, the more likely it is that they will have similar mistakes in their genes, since these have been inherited from the same parents. Therefore, a brother and a sister are more likely to have similar mistakes in their genes. A child of a union between such siblings could inherit the same bad gene on the same gene pair from both, resulting in two bad copies of the gene and serious defects.

However, Adam and Eve did not have accumulated genetic mistakes. When the first two people were created, they were physically perfect. Everything God made was ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31), so their genes were perfect—no mistakes! But, when sin entered the world (because of Adam—Genesis 3:6ff, Romans 5:12), God cursed the world so that the perfect creation then began to degenerate, that is, suffer death and decay (Romans 8:22). Over thousands of years, this degeneration has produced all sorts of genetic mistakes in living things.

Cain was in the first generation of children ever born. He (as well as his brothers and sisters) would have received virtually no imperfect genes from Adam or Eve, since the effects of sin and the Curse would have been minimal to start with (it takes time for these copying errors to accumulate). In that situation, brother and sister could have married with God’s approval, without any potential to produce deformed offspring.

By the time of Moses (a few thousand years later), degenerative mistakes would have built up in the human race to such an extent that it was necessary for God to forbid brother-sister (and close relative) marriage (Leviticus 18–20).12 (Also, there were plenty of people on the Earth by now, and there was no reason for close relations to marry.)

I recommend going there and reading the whole article, however. It addresses a lot of other objections that have been brought up as well.

In Christ,
Ron

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