Genesis 1:28

[TennisNE1]

Why did God tell Adam and Eve to multiply while they were still in the garden? Did they have children while in the garden?

Cindy

 

[Jedi Knight]

Why did God tell Adam and Eve to multiply while they were still in the garden? Did they have children while in the garden?

Cindy

Hi,well Eve wasn't created yet until Genesis chapter two. Genesis 1 is the over all plan and then gets into more details of creation and Adam and Eve. So to answer your question they didn't have children yet until after the fall and they were booted out of the garden. :type:

 

[Crabtownboy]

Why did God tell Adam and Eve to multiply while they were still in the garden? Did they have children while in the garden?

Cindy

Gen. 1:28 is part of the first creation story that is in Genesis.

We know that Eve was present in Genesis 1 for Gen. 1:27 reads, "So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. "

The words "created man" in this sentence is meant 'mankind' meaning both male and female.

Various versions read:

New International Version (©1984)
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
New American Standard Bible (©1995)
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
So God created humans in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female.

King James Bible
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

The first creation story goes from Gen. 1:1 to Gen. 2:3. I have no idea why the Catholic monk who gave scripture verses and chapters ended chapter 1 at verse 31 since the story goes on three more verses.

The second creation story begins at Gen. 2:3 and, to my mind, continues to Gen. 3:31 when Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden.

Thus, there is no conflict in God telling them to multiple in Gen. 1. The Garden does not figure into the first creation story. The two accounts approach God's creation of man from different angles, so to speak, and must be interpreted in that light.

Nope, I do not expect everyone to agree with me.

 

[preachinjesus]

The Creation epics in Genesis 1 and 2 are parrallel accounts. The first chapter is an apologetical polemic against the pagan gods surrounding Israel in Moses time. It is specifically created to show how YHWH is greater than all the minor gods of the pagan nations combined. (And actually the first chapter of Genesis is 1:1-2:3)

The account in Genesis 2 deals with the details of creation, specifically the creation of man and woman.

I'm going affirm the suggestion that Adam and Eve did not bear children in the Garden of Eden. While I believe and affirm the actual Creation event as described in both chapters, I'm also very partial to the "Eden Only" view.

 

[Marcia]

Why did God tell Adam and Eve to multiply while they were still in the garden? Did they have children while in the garden?

Cindy

God told them to multiply because He made them to reproduce. It seems that they did not have children until after they were expelled from the garden in Gen. 3 (Eve gives birth to Cain in Gen. 4), but this does not conflict in any way with God's command before they were expelled.

Also, relations between Adam and Eve have nothing to do with sin, in the sense that some cults try to link it with the Fall.

The fact that Eve did not give birth until after they were sent out of the Garden leads me to believe that they were not in the Garden a very long time before they disobeyed God.

 

[TennisNE1]

Thanks, but my query is really about a time issue. God told them to multiply, did he intend for them to have sinless children (who, if they had been born before the fall would have not received the sin nature) and the fall simply came before they got around to it? It seems to me that if our first parents were perfect physical specamins, that it wouldn't have taken long for Eve to have gotten pregnant. Were they in the garden for a long period of time before the fall, or did the fall happen pretty quickly. I guess I am wondering if they lived together as a a couple, alone for many years before they had kids or did THE FALL happen rather quickly, and then they had children?

Not real important stuff, but just popped into my head when I was reading Gen 1

 

[Crabtownboy]

Your question set me to thinking. So, let's look at some scripture and muse some thoughts:

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

This was in the garden. Why would God create a second gender? Why not simply create a second man? I think the answer is obvoius ... so Adam could have a physical relationship and that children could be and would be born.

This is shown to be true in the next verse:

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

This was while they were still in the garden, so it shows that God expected them to have children, even in the garden.

In chapter 2 God tells the consequences of their sin. In verse 2:16 he tells Eve:

To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."

This shows us that Eve would have experienced little or not pain in childbirth if they have not sinned and been removed from the garden. Now childbirth was to be painful.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Thinkingstuff]

Crabtownboy,

You don't believe in Lilith too do you? Just curious. Because you seem to have this view I'm familiar with where God created a perfect world and Satan fell and destroyed and God had to recreate it. In that legend there (according to certain midrash) there was a first woman named Lilith. Eve was the second.

For young earth and a literal 6,000 year old earth people, they would say there wasn't enought time for them in the Garden to procreate and that God foreknew the events and allowed things to progress as they did.
Though its interesting to note that in the book of Jubilees Adam and Eve lived for 7 years in the Garden. (its ancient midrashic view - around 250 BC - 150 BC)
Jewish view is that the thought of procreation did not occure to them because inocense was not lost until sin.

Old earth people who view the Genesis account as outline form for creation would view Adam and Eve as representative of mankind and that the loss of inocense again plays a role into actually having children.

 

[Crabtownboy]

You don't believe in Lilith too do you? Just curious. Because you seem to have this view I'm familiar with where God created a perfect world and Satan fell and destroyed and God had to recreate it. In that legend there (according to certain midrash) there was a first woman named Lilith. Eve was the second.

Interesting comment and question. To tell the truth I've never heard of Lilith. No, today I was simply reading Gen. 1 and 2 and came to the conclusions I posted while reading and thinking over these scriptures.

For young earth and a literal 6,000 year old earth people, they would say there wasn't enought time for them in the Garden to procreate and that God foreknew the events and allowed things to progress as they did.
Though its interesting to note that in the book of Jubilees Adam and Eve lived for 7 years in the Garden. (its ancient midrashic view - around 250 BC - 150 BC)

I do not believe in the young earth theory ... as I understand it and as you described it here. I did think about God and forknowledge. But then I thought why would he create a second gender if he did not expect a physical relationship and off spring.

I have no idea how long Adam and Eve lived in the garden. It is an interesting question, but I do not see how we can have more than theory on this length of time.

Jewish view is that the thought of procreation did not occure to them because inocense was not lost until sin.

Personally I do not accept the idea of joining sex and sin together. I decided many years ago that sex was not Adam and Eve's sin, though I have heard some suggest this. I believe their sin was they wanted to be their own god ... note the little g. They, like all of us, want to be the boss so to speak. So I do not accept the Jewish view.

Old earth people who view the Genesis account as outline form for creation would view Adam and Eve as representative of mankind and that the loss of inocense again plays a role into actually having children.

Using your definition I am an Old Earth Person. However, I do not consider the loss of innocence as being connection with having children. To me the loss of innocence is when we know right from wrong and willfully and knowingly do that which is wrong. This brings guilt into our life.

 

[Winman]

Thanks, but my query is really about a time issue. God told them to multiply, did he intend for them to have sinless children (who, if they had been born before the fall would have not received the sin nature) and the fall simply came before they got around to it? It seems to me that if our first parents were perfect physical specamins, that it wouldn't have taken long for Eve to have gotten pregnant. Were they in the garden for a long period of time before the fall, or did the fall happen pretty quickly. I guess I am wondering if they lived together as a a couple, alone for many years before they had kids or did THE FALL happen rather quickly, and then they had children?

It is an interesting question. I do not believe Adam and Eve had any children before the fall simply because scripture does not mention it. Now, I can't be dogmatic about this, but I believe if Adam and Eve would have had children before the fall, that death would have passed on them when Adam sinned. For with our own eyes we can see that death has passed on all creation, things living, and things not alive.

Animals die, plants die, sealife dies, but not only that, even non-life falls into corruption. Metal rusts, the mountains erode, stars burn out, everything.

Romans 8: 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

So death passed upon the entire creation. Everything grows old and wears out.

How long were they in the garden before they sinned? No one knows for certain. It had to be after the sixth day, because God declared everything very good on that day. And I don't believe it happened on the seventh day when God rested either.

Now, after the seventh day there is a possibility that they could have been in the garden nearly 100 years before they sinned. We know that after Adam and Eve sinned, that Cain and Abel were born. We know they probably reached young adulthood, because they had occupations. So, they were probably at least 20 years or more old each.

Then after Abel was murdered Eve bore Seth when Adam and Eve were 130 years old (Gen 5:3). So, this is a rough approximation, but Cain was probably at least 30 years old when this happened.

So, there is no way to know for certain, but Adam and Eve could have been in the garden as long as 100 years before they sinned. That said, they may have sinned on the 8th day, there is no way to know for certain.

 

[Aaron]

Thanks, but my query is really about a time issue. God told them to multiply, did he intend for them to have sinless children (who, if they had been born before the fall would have not received the sin nature) and the fall simply came before they got around to it? It seems to me that if our first parents were perfect physical specamins, that it wouldn't have taken long for Eve to have gotten pregnant. Were they in the garden for a long period of time before the fall, or did the fall happen pretty quickly. I guess I am wondering if they lived together as a a couple, alone for many years before they had kids or did THE FALL happen rather quickly, and then they had children?

Not real important stuff, but just popped into my head when I was reading Gen 1

They were obviously less Freudian in their thinking than folks today. C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidson were married and no one really knows if it were ever consumated even though they were deeply in love with one another.

 

[Pastor Larry]

Gen 2 is an expansion of the sixth day of creation and the creation of humanity. It is not, as some have suggested, a second account or a parallel account. There is no textual basis for that view.

God told them procreate in teh garden because that is where they were. They did not have time however since sin came quickly. Babies born prior to the fall would not have been born sinners, and thus the mechanism for salvation would have been thwarted. Had they been int eh garden for more than a few days, Eve would almost certainly have conceived and born a child.

 

[Crabtownboy]

Gen 2 is an expansion of the sixth day of creation and the creation of humanity. It is not, as some have suggested, a second account or a parallel account. There is no textual basis for that view.

I believe it is a second story, else why is the order of creation given again and the order is reversed, i.e. in Gen. 2 Adam is created first, not last. The narrative in Gen. 2 is not restricted to the 6th day.

 

[Johnv]

Why did God tell Adam and Eve to multiply while they were still in the garden?

I presume your'e referring to the Gen 1 call to "be fruitful and multipy". This isn't necessarily referring to the specific of doing to while in the Garden, or in any particular place. It was simply a calling to increase one's population for the purpose of spreading over the whole earth. The calling is given not only to humankind, but to all living things. I could be viewd as a blessing of sorts, stemming from God deeming his creation to be "good".

 

[Me4Him]

Why did God tell Adam and Eve to multiply while they were still in the garden? Did they have children while in the garden?

Cindy

Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning,

http://i32.tinypic.com/30a6dd1.jpg

There much to be learned from "Genesis".

Obviously, it was possible for Adam/Eve to have children who never "knew sin", so what does the "Beginning" say about the "End".

Here's what I believe,

Isa 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end,

Where is this "increase" going to come from on the "New Earth"??

John, In Rev, said he saw a number of people no man could number,

They say, half of all people who ever lived are alive today, 6 billion, so 12 billion is an easy number for man to number.

Jesus returns at the end of the trib to prevent "all flesh" from being killed, those resurrected with him don't marry, so only the physical trib survivors marry and repopulate the earth during the MK, those resurrected "Reign" as "priest" with Jesus.

When Satan is loosed and attack Jerusalem, fire devours them then the GWT Judgement takes place, then the "new Earth" is created.

Are those "physically alive" at the time the new earth is created, "Changed" in the "twinkling of an eye" to enter the New Earth and "INCREASE" the population of that new earth, without end, a number no man can number???

This would bring us back around to the original garden, original plan where God told Adam/Eve to multiply before sin entered.

 

[Carico]

Why did God tell Adam and Eve to multiply while they were still in the garden? Did they have children while in the garden?

Cindy

Well, they have to be somewhere when God is talking to them. The garden is as good a place as any.

 

[JohnDB]

One of the themes in that particular section (and it is carried on throughout the rest of the Old Testament) is that everything reproduces after it's own kind and seed. Seed being the key word here.

It was a fancy dancy way of commanding the creation and order which God set up to continue and work. And when man introduced sin man was going to reproduce more sin...

Sin begets more sin.

Later this Seed of the woman which was promised to bring them access back into the "Garden" was very much sought after. So...everyone was pretty hot after this Seed. Ham thought that he actually had the Seed while on the ark. (when Canaan was born) The Ark was covered in pitch and the particular way that it was written in hebrew suggests that the Ark was covered inside and out with atonement.

But it didn't work out for him either...Noah said so.

Japeth was awarded the prize blessing and firstborn status. But Canaan eventually did move into the region and land area stylized as the Garden in Eden. Japeth didn't even go that direction with his descendants. He really didn't seem to me at least to settle much of the Fertile Crescent (Eden). Shem did though. (The resultant Semites)


Then the Seed was promised to Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, then David.
So...when the Blind Man was shouting after Jesus calling him "Son of David"...it wasn't really "Son of David" that he was saying...the Aramaic was very similar to the Greek we read in this case...it was a double meaning word that can mean Seed as well as Son. It is "Zera" and it is singular and not plural always when used about the Messiah. And for that recognition Jesus decided that no one who could see that much should be physically blind...so He fixed that situation. Anyone and everyone that believed Jesus was the Messiah was well rewarded with gifts only God could give.