The Sons of Noah

Of the sons of Noah who entered into the ark with him and his wife, we know almost nothing directly. Of Shem we know the most, because it was through his line that Abraham came and therefore we have more details of his genealogy. We do know that Shem was 100 when his son Arphaxad was born, just two years after the flood. Arphaxad is believed to be the first born after the flood but some scholars believe that ham’s son Canaan may have actually been the first born. We have no empirical evidence one way or the other. All we know is what Genesis tells us, which is precious little.

Genesis 11:10 This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. (NKJ)

 

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If you would like to read more of my essays on Genesis or want to learn more about my fiction series, The Witness Chronicles, based on the stories in Genesis, visit my website at http://thewitnesschronicles.com.

Enoch was Taken to Be With God But He did Not Die

Genesis 5:21-24 ²¹When Enoch was 65 years old, his son Methu’selah was born. ²²After the birth of Methu’selah, Enoch lived another 300 years in close fellowship with God, and he had other sons and daughters. ²³Enoch lived 365 years in all. ²⁴He enjoyed a close relationship with God throughout his life. Then suddenly, he disappeared because God took him. (NLT)

Aside from the passages regarding the sons of God, this small, almost foot note, in the genealogy of Noah, is arguably the most referenced verse in all Biblical mythology. Outside of the book of Genesis, Enoch is mentioned in only four other places in the Bible, but in only two of those places is it other than in a genealogy; 1 Chronicles 1:1-4, Luke 3:37, Hebrews 11:5, Jude: 1:14-15. Here are the two passages aside from the genealogies.

Hebrews 11:5 It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying — “suddenly he disappeared because God took him.” But before he was taken up, he was approved as pleasing to God. (NLT)

Jude: 1:14-15 ¹⁴Now Enoch , the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, ¹⁵to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” (NKJV).

These passages, once again tell us that the early Christians: those who were Jews before they called themselves Christian, had a basis of belief that included the stories and mythologies of Enoch and the events leading to him being taken by God in his 365^th year without first having died. The question still remains however, what was so special about Enoch? Well once again, to try to understand this, we must look to some non-Biblical sources and into the mythology surrounding the story of Enoch to get a sense of what the Jews believed about this man and his transfiguration. In fact the passage above, taken from Jude, is in itself a quote from the book of Enoch:

Book of Enoch, Chapter 2:1 Behold, he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him. (Translated from Ethiopic by Richard Laurence, London, 1883.)

It seems that Enoch was more than just a man of great faith however. Enoch was a writer.

The Book of Enoch Chapter 12  ¹Before all these things Enoch was concealed; nor did any one of the sons of men know where he was concealed, where he had been, and what had happened. ²He was wholly engaged with the holy ones, and with the Watchers in his days. ³I, Enoch, was blessing the great Lord and King of peace. ⁴And behold the Watchers called me Enoch the scribe. ⁵Then the Lord said to me: Enoch, scribe of righteousness, go tell the Watchers of heaven, who have deserted the lofty sky, and their holy everlasting station, who have been polluted with women. ⁶And have done as the sons of men do, by taking to themselves wives, and who have been greatly corrupted on the Earth; ⁷That on the Earth they shall never obtain peace and remission of sin. For they shall not rejoice in their offspring; they shall behold the slaughter of their beloved; shall lament for the destruction of their sons; and shall petition forever; but shall not obtain mercy and peace.

The Book of Enoch Chapter 13 ¹Then Enoch, passing on, said to Azazyel: You shalt not obtain peace. A great sentence is gone forth against you. He shall bind you; ²Neither shall relief, mercy, and supplication be yours, on account of the oppression which you have taught; ³And on account of every act of blasphemy, tyranny, and sin, which you have discovered to the children of men. ⁴Then departing from him I spoke to them all together; ⁵And they all became terrified, and trembled; ⁶Beseeching me to write for them a memorial of supplication, that they might obtain forgiveness; and that I might make the memorial of their prayer ascend up before the God of heaven; because they could not themselves thenceforwards address him, nor raise up their eyes to heaven on account of the disgraceful offence for which they were judged. ⁷Then I wrote a memorial of their prayer and supplications, for their spirits, for everything which they had done, and for the subject of their entreaty, that they might obtain remission and rest.”

Enoch, according to legend, was the Watcher of the Watchers. He was given great visions of the hidden happenings between Heaven and Earth, and he wrote great accusations before the Lord of the sinful deeds of the heavenly Watchers. Upon learning that God was listening to Enoch’s accusations, the Watchers themselves asked Enoch to go before the Lord and ask forgiveness on their behalf. It appears that he was not taken to heaven just for his faith alone, but to accomplish a specific task. Without quoting the entire book of Enoch, let me just paraphrase the story for you. According to the mythology, Enoch was taken to heaven as the “Scribe of the Lord” to record all the deeds and men and angels. The books of the deeds that Enoch scribes even today, will be opened and read by the Lord on the great Day of Judgment.

Enoch is reported to be the inventor of writing. He saw the blasphemous deeds of the Watchers who had taken these daughters of men as wives. He saw how they taught sorceries to their wives and he saw the corrupted and evil Nephilim that were their descendants and he wrote accusations to the Lord about their evil deeds. God saw this as a just and right thing that he was doing and took him to heaven to become the Watcher of the Watchers and of the deeds of men as well. Enoch, it seems, has a very special place in God’s plan. According to the mythology, we will all see him on the final Day of Judgment as he opens and reads our deeds before God, unless of course you have been redeemed and had the slate wiped clean by the Blood of Christ, according to our Christian faith.

I am not claiming that the Book of Enoch is Holy Gospel Truth, but it is a good story, and it seems to fit quite well with other Biblical text about the existence and relationships between men and angles. In fact Jude correlates one more thing taught in Enoch, and that is that these Watchers who sinned were bound and placed in a holding place to await their judgment.

Jude 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; (NKJ)

To read more of my essays on Genesis or to learn more about my fiction series, The Witness Chronicles, based on the books in Genesis, visit my website at http://thewitnesschronicles.com.

The “Sons of God” and the “Daughters of Men”

There is one very obscure passage in the book of Genesis that has probably generated more mythology than any other passage outside the book of Revelation.

Genesis 6:1-4 ¹And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born unto them, ²that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose. ³And Jehovah said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for that he also is flesh: yet shall his days be a hundred and twenty years. ⁴The Nephilim were in the Earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they bear children to them: the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. (ASV)

Whoa, what in the world is this all about! Right in the middle of the genealogies of Adam and the story of civilization before the flood, we have this sparse and arcane reference to the “Sons of God” marrying the “Daughters of Men” and some creatures called “Nephilim.”  What does this mean? Who are these “Sons of God” and what is a Nephilim? From a Biblical sense, we have only one real clue as to the identity of these “Sons of God”.

Job 1:6 Now it came to pass on the day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah, that Satan also came among them. (ASV)

Here in the book of Job, we have the only other reference in the Bible to “The Sons of God.” It appears that the sons of God are Angels, or as some mythology calls them “Watchers.” There has been much debate over this passage down through the centuries. Some have argued that the sons of God were simply the sons of Seth and the daughters of Men were the daughters of Cain or other offspring of Adam who were sinners and that it was forbidden for them to intermarry; that the sons of Seth should keep themselves separate from the daughters of the non-believing children of Adam and Eve. For instance Mathew Henry writes in his commentary on Genesis 6:1-2:

“The sons of God (that is, the professors of religion, who were called by the name of the Lord, and called upon that name), married the daughters of men, that is, those that were profane, and strangers to God and godliness. The posterity of Seth did not keep by themselves, as they ought to have done, both for the preservation of their own purity and in detestation of the apostasy. They intermingled themselves with the excommunicated race of Cain: They took them wives of all that they chose. But what was amiss in these marriages? They chose only by the eye: They saw that they were fair, which was all they looked at.” (from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

 The passage from Job however, seems to dispute Henry’s theory and makes it quite clear that the Sons of God were one in the same as the Angels who came to present themselves unto the Lord. Even Strong’s Concordance does not do much to clear up this confusion as the same Hebrew word, 1121 Ben (bane) is used in both instances in Genesis and Job, and in fact used in every instance the word Son(s) shows up in Hebrew text. It is a term that is used in the broadest sense of the word son. It would be easier to know which of these theories is correct, if only there were two separate Hebrew words used, unfortunately that is not the case.

I tend to believe the “Angels” version for four reasons; one-I think the passage in Job is powerful evidence; two-I’m a story teller at heart, and the version of the Watcher’s (Angels) taking human wives makes for a better story; three-it fits better with the explanation for the flowing verse about the men of renown and the Nephilim, and four-much of Jewish mythology, e.g., the Book of Jubilees, and the Book of Enoch, supports the “Watcher” notion who were angels who walked the earth and begat the race of half men, half angel, known as Nephilim.

As stated above, one of the ancient texts that we can turn to for a detailed understanding of these “Sons of God” is the Book of Enoch. I am not suggesting here, that the Book of Enoch be added to the books of the Bible or even taken as fact, but it is a very old story which has been around since at least two hundred years before Christ, and since it is actually quoted by Jude, who’s letter is included in the New Testament, we can surmise it was accepted as scripture by some of the first Christians. Parts of this text have even been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, which tells us that it was, at least to some degree, viewed as an authoritative text by Jewish groups such as the Essenes of the second and first centuries B.C. This alone gives the Book of Enoch no credibility, but the stories they tell do run very much in harmony with this passage from Genesis 6.

According to the Book of Enoch, these sons of God were Watcher angels whose job it was to watch the deeds of men and report on them to God, as is also correlated in the passage from Job. In the Job passage, Satan, meaning the accuser or tempter, was also with them or was one of them. Let us not forget that even Paul tells us:

Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. NKJV

It is no secrete that Angles walk among us even today. Paul believed it and so should we. But could it be, that in the days before the flood, that these angels walked among men freely and men knew them for whom and what they were. The Book of Enoch tells us that they did, and in fact, that two hundred of them became lustful and conspired to commit a sin, knowing full well that it was forbidden by God, and took wives for themselves from among the daughters of men. This fits perfectly well with our passage from Genesis 6.

The Book of Enoch Chapter 7^:3-12  ³Then their leader Samyaza said to them; I fear that you may perhaps be indisposed to the performance of this enterprise; ⁴And that I alone shall suffer for so grievous a crime. ⁵But they answered him and said; We all swear; ⁶And bind ourselves by mutual execrations, that we will not change our intention, but execute our projected undertaking. ⁷Then they swore all together, and all bound themselves by mutual execrations. Their whole number was two hundred, who descended upon Ardis, which is the top of mount Armon. ⁸That mountain therefore was called Armon, because they had sworn upon it, and bound themselves by mutual execrations. ⁹These are the names of their chiefs: Samyaza, who was their leader, Urakabarameel, Akibeel, Tamiel, Ramuel, Danel, Azkeel, Saraknyal, Asael, Armers, Batraal, Anane, Zavebe, Samsaveel, Ertael, Turel, Yomyael, Arazyal. These were the prefects of the two hundred angels, and the remainder were all with them. ¹⁰Then they took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees. ¹¹And the women conceiving brought forth giants,  ¹²Whose stature was each three hundred cubits. These devoured all which the labor of men produced; until it became impossible to feed them; ¹³When they turned themselves against men, in order to devour them; ¹⁴And began to injure birds, beasts, reptiles, and fishes, to eat their flesh one after another, and to drink their blood. ¹⁵Then the Earth reproved the unrighteous. (Translated from Ethiopic by Richard Laurence, London, 1883.)

I am not inclined to believe that these Giants were actually 300 cubits tall. That after all would be nearly 450 to 600 feet tall, but rather I take the Biblical view that instead calls them “giants among men” or “men of renown” I think the correct understanding here is that they were in fact the leaders and men of great importance in the society of the day. But whatever the case, it is obvious from this passage that this was the turning point in human society before the flood. It is from this point on that men become evil and began to make war on one another. I deal with this topic in great detail in my third and fourth books in my The Witness Chronicles (http://thewitnesschronicles.com)  series, but for now, we must simply understand, that this very obscure passage, tells us a great deal more about what went wrong in the pre-flood world, aside from Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden of God, than any other passage in the Bible.

To read more of my essays on Genesis or to learn more of my fiction series, The Witness Chronicles, visit my website at http://thewitnesschronicles.com.

The Sons of Seth

The next genealogy in the Bible is the line from Seth to Noah. The major difference between this genealogy and Cain’s genealogy is the ages provided for both the age at the birth of the next son in the family line and the age at death for each patriarch.

Genesis 5:3-32 ³And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat (a son) in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: ⁴and the days of Adam after he begat Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters. ⁵And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. ⁶And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begat Enosh: ⁷and Seth lived after he begat Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: ⁸and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. ⁹And Enosh lived ninety years, and begat Kenan. ¹⁰and Enosh lived after he begat Kenan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: ¹¹and all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years: and he died. ¹²And Kenan lived seventy years, and begat Ma-hal’alel: ¹³and Kenan lived after he begat Ma-hal’alel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters: ¹⁴and all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. ¹⁵And Ma-hal’alel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: ¹⁶And Ma-hal’alel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: ¹⁷and all the days of Ma-hal’alel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. ¹⁸And Jared lived a hundred sixty and two years, and begat Enoch: ¹⁹and Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: ²⁰And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. ²¹And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methu’selah: ²²and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: ²³and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: ²⁴and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. ²⁵And Methu’selah lived a hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: ²⁶and Methu’selah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters. ²⁷And all the days of Methu’selah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. ²⁸And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: ²⁹and he called his name Noah, saying, ‘This same shall comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, (which cometh) because of the ground which Jehovah hath cursed.’ ³⁰And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: ³¹And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. ³²And Noah was five hundred years old: And Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (ASV)

The obvious major difference between these two genealogies is the amount of space given to each of them. Cain’s genealogy consists of 6 verses and 131 words, while Seth’s genealogy consists of 30 verses and 464 words. The ages given are the next major difference. There is also the conspicuous lack mention in Seth’s line of any women by name other than Eve, but even her name is only mentioned in an earlier chapter. As far as Seth is concerned, she is not mentioned by name but I believe it is implied that Eve was his mother and that is also what every Jewish text on the subject I have read believes or implies as well.

In Seth’s genealogy also, the writer took special care to tell us, that even though only one son was mentioned, that in each case, including Adam, the individual had many other sons and daughters. How many is never given, but with the long lives they lived, well over one hundred would not be impossible for any one of the patriarchs. After all Noah was still having sons at age 500. We also know that when sons are listed in the Biblical genealogies, it is never in birth order, but rather in order of their importance to the genealogical line.

This fact brings up a curious point about Noah’s three sons. The text says:  ³²And Noah was five hundred years old: And Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. I once read a commentary that suggested that this passage says that Shem, Ham, and Japheth were triplets, because the literal translation here says that Noah had all three sons when he was 500. There is no Biblical evidence to support this; in fact there is a passage that actually disputes this.

Genesis 10:21 ²¹And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder. (NKJV)

Genesis 10:21 clearly states that one brother was older than the other, although which was the eldest is also debatable as some versions, such as the one above says that Japheth was the eldest, but other versions such as American Standard Version shown below, says that Shem was the eldest:

Genesis 10:21 ²¹And unto Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth. (ASV)

Of course the argument here is that one was older only by birth order, not by years, but I think that is a long stretch of the facts and intent of the writer. If they were triplets, I think there birth would have been recorded in much the same way that Esau’s and Jacob’s birth was recorded. Even though the three brothers are almost always listed as Shem, Ham, and Japheth, I believe this passage suggests that Ham was the youngest of the three, but anytime you say the three names in sequence, Shem, Ham, and Japheth just seems to roll off the tongue easier. Whether Shem or Japheth was the oldest cannot be known with certainty; however, the majority of translations suggest Shem was the elder, so in my fiction books (http://thewitnesschronicles.com/WC_Books.htm) I always put Shem as the eldest, then Japheth, then Ham. One more point regarding Noah and his sons, is that there is no mention of Noah having other sons or daughters as with the others before him. But given the fact that he was 500 before the other three were born, I can’t imagine he lived 500 years and did not have other sons and daughters before this time. So that leaves us with two possibilities; one, Noah had no children before his 500th year, or two, none of his other children were worthy of following in his footsteps, i.e., they did not follow the ways of Seth, and so only those born after Noah began to build the Ark were allowed to go in.

One last point of interest before we leave this topic. In the Line of Seth, there are two names that are often confusing. The first is the name of Kenan or Cainan. Different Bible translations spell this name differently and as hard as I have tried to find out why, I have not come up with a good answer to this. Therefore we simply must conclude that it is just a matter of preference, but either way, Kenan and Cainan are one in the same person. Cainan; however, cannot in anyway be confused with Cain as he was obviously born several generations. Since Kenan’s death is recorded in at the age of 910 in verse 5:14, he also cannot be confused with Canaan as some have tried to suggest. The other confusing name is of course the name of Lemech. There is a Lemech mentioned in both the line of Cain and the line of Seth, but once again we have two different spellings in various translations that are often used to distinguish between the two. The descendant of Cain is almost always spelled Lemech, but the descendant of Seth is spelt as either Lemech or Lamech. I always use the Lamech version for Noah’s father to ensure they are kept straight, however the below chart can help to clarify this by generation as well.

Similarities in Names between the Sons of Cain and the Sons of Seth

The one thing that often confuses people when reading this part of the Bible is the fact that so many of the names in Cain’s and Seth’s genealogies seem to be the same. Below is a chart by generation to help clarify the two genealogies. It is clear that the due to the difference in generations, the two lines are quite distinct from one another.

Generations of Cain and Seth

Generation	Line of Seth	Line of Cain
1st	Adam	Adam
2nd	Seth	Cain
3rd	Enosh	Enoch
4th	Kenan	Irad
5th	Ma-hal’alel	Mehujael
6th	Jared	Methushael
7th	Enoch	Lemech
8th	Methu’selah	Jabal, Jubal, Tubal-Cain, Naamah
9th	Lamech
10th	Noah
11th	Shem, Japheth, Ham

 

To read more of my essays on Genesis or to learn more about my fiction series, The Witness Chronicles, based on the stories in Genesis, visit my website at http://thewitnesschronicles.com.

 

 

 

The Wife of Cain

A typical question asked by readers of Genesis is, where did Cain’s wife come from? After all, doesn’t the Bible say

Genesis 4:17 Cain lay with his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. (NIV)

There is a plausible explanation as to where Cain’s wife came from, and believe it or not, it has nothing to do with other creatures such as Neanderthal or earlier forms of hominids as some have suggested. Verse 18 is one of our first clues to the answer. At the time Cain laid with his wife and conceived his son Enoch, he was building a city. Now why would he need to build a city if there were not other people living with him in Nod? The Bible tells us:

Genesis 5:4 After Seth was born, Adam live 800 years and he had other sons and daughters. (NIV)

One thing the scripture does not tell us is whether Adam and Eve had any other children between Able and Seth but given the fact that Adam was 130 years old, and Eve, according to the Book of Jubilees, was 123 years old at the time, it is highly probable that they had give birth to many other sons and daughters before Seth was born.

The only way we can even begin to answer this question is to make some assumptions, so let’s assume that the expulsion from Eden came at a relatively early age for Adam and Eve, say within the first 10 to 15 years or so after Eve was created. Again, the book of Jubilees, in the 3rd chapter, tells us that Adam was 7 years old when Eve was created and they lived outside the garden for 7 years and then inside the garden of God for 7 years, which would have made Adam 21 years old at the time he was sent out of the Garden in Eden. Now, I know the Book of Jubilees is not a canonical text, but it does tell us what many Jews believed regarding Adam and Eve in the Garden. So let’s assume that Adam was in his twenties when Cain was born (assume is all anyone can do here as the Bible is silent on this questions, Although, once again, Jubilees tells a more detailed version of the story.) This would have given them about one hundred and ten years to produce children before Seth was born. Without birth control, how many children could they have produced in 110 years and how many children could their children have produced during the same period?

We know that the average life span of the patriarchs before the flood was about 850 years, and we know that Noah was still having Children until he was well into his 500’s. We can probably rather safely assume that unnatural forms of birth control were not used and the instruction from God was to reproduce, then lets also assume that Adam and Eve produced one child every 2 years for say 600 years or so, and that each female became child barring at around 20 (probably older than actuality, but good enough for our assumption), then we can do some simple math to figure out what this would mean from a population stand point.

If Adam and Eve produced two children every four years, one female and one male, and you add one new child producing couple every 4 years after say the first 20 years, you come up with the following chart. We also need to keep in mind that after about 100 years, the growth would become exponential, so I have figured the number of child producing couple would quadruple every 100 years until the year 800, when some would begin to die off and so thereafter, reproducing couples is the only doubled every 100 years and a 10% mortality rate was calculated in as well.

Pre-flood Population Growth
Year	Reproducing Couples	Children Born
20	1	0
24	1	2
28	1	4
32	1	6
36	1	8
40	1	10
44	2	14
48	3	20
52	4	28
56	5	38
60	6	50
64	7	64
68	8	80
72	9	98
76	10	118
80	11	140
84	12	164
88	13	190
92	14	218
96	15	248
100	16	280
200	64	3,480
300	256	16,280
400	1,024	67,480
500	4,096	272,280
600	16,384	1,091,480
700	65,536	4,368,280
800	131,072	9,829,692
900	262,144	20,643,203
1000	524,288	42,171,843
1100	1,048,576	85,140,578
1200	2,097,152	170,998,360
1300	4,194,304	342,642,204
1400	8,388,608	685,865,344
1500	16,777,216	1,372,253,530
1600	33,554,432	2,744,977,617

 

Others have produced similar charts that are more scientifically based and probably more accurate than mine with much more aggressive numbers. For instance Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe has produced a chart that shows that by the time Adam died at the age of 930, the population of the Earth could well have been close to 5 billion people, (to see his chart, visit www.reasons.org ) Remember, the period before the flood lasted only a little over 1600 years. My chart shows that the number of child producing couples increases by a factor of four every 100 years and assumes that each couple produced one child every two years. This chart shows that by time Cain left Eden, (129 years or so after creation) he could have had as many as 320 others living with him. I understand that I have made a great number of assumptions here, but as we have no hard data to go on, that’s the best anyone can do when trying to project population growth during this period.

As Cain became a young man, and assuming the birth rate of girls to boys was about 50/50, then Cain would have had at least several sisters old enough to marry and begin a family with. We have no way of knowing exactly what the population was, but it is mathematically probable that there were hundreds of millions or even billions of people living at the time of the flood. So the question of where did Cain’s wife come from, is answered quite simply by stating, “from among his sisters.”

Our modern moral code causes us to get a little squeamish when we start talking about Cain and others marrying and having children with their sisters. However, we have to remember that at that time there was no prohibition against such things and in fact had to have been quite common in the first few hundred years of population growth. Today, Geneticists know that inbreeding of this sort becomes dangerous after about 20 generations, and even earlier if there is a genetic abnormality that can be passed on by both parents, but in the early days of population growth, it was not as genetically dangerous, therefore, by the time Cain left Eden and was sent to wonder in Nod, there could have been a couple of hundred people dwelling in Nod. Many probably preceded Cain to Nod. The news of Cain’s murder of their brother Abel would probably have spread quickly between the peoples of Eden and Nod, as they were still relatively small in numbers at the time, which explains why Cain feared for his own life.

Genesis 4:13-14 ¹³Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is more than I can bear. ¹⁴Today 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.” (NIV)

The scripture is silent on how many years had passed before Cain began to build his city, but by continuing the formula in my chart, by year 200 hundred, there would have been well over 3,400 people alive and by year 300 over 16,000 descendants of Adam and Eve would have been alive. Building a city would have begun to make sense, especially for someone who could not produce food from the land. Cain obviously had to find other means to care for his family, so he would have figured out he could make or build other items to trade for what he needed, thus, the beginning of commerce.

The other thing we need to remember is that just because the scripture gives an age at the birth of a son or mentions a particular son by name as is the case with Noah’s line, does not mean that that was by any means the first son. Cain was the first child, there is little doubt of that, but if we assume that Abel was the second child in order of birth or that any other child mentioned by name was in fact the very next in birth order, we run the risk of making an erroneous assumption. For instance, the genealogy in Genesis 5 from Adam to Noah is intended to show the line from Adam to Noah, but does not mean that each male mentioned was the first born of the father mentioned. What evidence can we use to back up this contention? Look at the genealogy of Jesus listed in Mathew 1:1-16. Jesse, David and Solomon are always listed in succession, but we know that David was not the first-born son of Jesse nor was Solomon the first-born son of David. In fact, both David and Solomon were well down the picking order of sons. Women, especially before the flood, are rarely mentioned at all. As I said in a previous essay, Eve, Adah, Zillah and Naamah are the only four women mentioned by name in the first 7 Chapters of Genesis. None of the names of the wives of Noah, Shem, Japheth or Ham are mentioned, which is somewhat a mystery in itself, as they were instrumental in beginning the new world after the flood.  This is not to say that are not mentioned in Jewish folklore in books such as The Book of Enoch, The Book of Jubilees, The Biblical Antiquities of Philo, etc., but not in the Torah or the Christian version of Genesis. We knoow however, that David and Solomon were the ones used by God and therefore listed in the lineage of Christ but we know there were many other sons before each of them. Understanding this, it is entirely possible that there were one or more sisters born between Cain and Able and many more brothers and sisters born before Seth was born. However, it was through the line of Seth that God chose to work His plan of redemption through Noah and his sons, so it stands to reason that he was the next mentioned. All of this evidence together allows us to come to a reasonable conclusion that Cain would have had plenty of women from which to choose a wife. Especially if he waited until after he began to build his city. In my 3^rd installment of The Witness Chronicles, due out in the Spring of 2009, I spend a great deal of time building a plausible scenario for rapid development of civilization and the building of Cain’s city and his descendants.

To read more of my essays on Genesis or to learn more about my fiction series, The Witness Chronicles, based on the stories in Genesis, visit my website at http://thewitnesschronicles.com. For comments or questions about my fiction books or essays, please feel free to write to me directly at ken@thewitnesschronicles.com.

The Mark of Cain

Genesis 4: 15-16 But the LORD said to him, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (NIV)

One of the most mysterious questions in the Bible is, “What was the Mark of Cain?” Anyone who says they know is simply creating a work of fiction. We haven’t a clue. There are hundreds of fictitious myths and lots of bad theology about this particular question. Some of the worst is the idea that the mark was dark skin. Many white supremacy groups and some just plain crackpots, spout this idea as if it is somehow Biblical truth. There is absolutely no way for anyone to know what the mark was, but we can use good common sense to say what it was not. Let’s look at the idea of dark skin to see how well it holds up.

First, if the Mark of Cain was dark skin, how did this genealogic trait make its way to the modern world? After all, if God wiped out all of mankind except Noah and his sons, and according to the genealogies, (Genesis 5:1-32) Noah and his sons who came with him on the ark were of the pure line of Seth with no bloodliine from Cain; all traces of the dark skin would have vanished with the flood. Some of the most whacky theories explain the reemergence of dark skin by claiming that the wife that Noah brought onboard the Ark was Naamah, who was descendant of Cain.

For the full text of this article, vistit http://thewitnesschronicles.com/Mark_of_Cain.htm

Also read all my essays on Genesis at http://thewitnesschronicles.com or write to me directly at ken@thewitnesscchronicles.com.  

Civilization Before the Flood of Noah

Genesis gives us very few clues regarding the civilization that existed prior to the Noahcian flood. What little it does give us however, is just enough to spur the imagination to concoct all kinds of elaborate scenarios, schemes, and mythologies regarding these times and places. My fiction series The Witness Chronicles is no exception to this. In this context however, I am determined to not let my imagination carry me off into a far away fantasy land, but rather to discuss the actual text and what the Bible tells us that we can count as Biblical fact. I will also discuss some of the mythology that has been taught for generations, often presenting the information as fact, but is merely fiction in disguise.

The first fact that we know about civilization before the flood is that there was a city in the land of Nod called Enoch. This city was built by Cain and named after his son. In order to thoroughly separate fact from fiction let’s look at exactly what the Bible has to say about this place and time.

Genesis 4:16-17 ¹⁶So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. ¹⁷Cain 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. (NIV)

“Wait just a second,” you say, “is that it. Surely there must be more. I mean, I’ve been told all kinds of things about Cain and his sons this can’t possibly be all the Bible has to say about them.”

Well you’re right, there is more about Cain’s sons as in the verses that follow, but as far as Cain and his city, it ends here. This is absolutely all we know about Cain after he left Eden. There is not another word in the Bible about any accomplishment or deed done by Cain directly after verse 17. These forty-eight words is all we have. Now this is not to say there have not been volumes of mythology that have come down through the ages regarding Cain, but actual Biblical text is virtually nonexistent. But what does this text tell us about Cain.

For one, it tells us that Cain was a city builder. And since this is the first mention anywhere in the Bible about cities, we can probably assume it was the first city built. There is no mention whatsoever about Adam or Seth or anyone in Eden ever building a city. That is not to say they didn’t, but there is no Biblical evidence to suggest that they did.

Second, we can assume from this passage, that at the time Cain built this city, there must have been a large number of people living in the land of Nod. How many, we have no way of knowing, but if you’ll look at my chart on my web site http://thewitnesschronicles.com, under the topic of The Wife of Cain, you can see how quickly the population would have grown in the lands of Eden and Nod. What we do not know is how long after Cain left Eden he built his city. We do not know how old he was at the time, nor do we know to what age Cain died. Now the book of Jubilees tells us that Cain was quite old when he dies and that he dies the same day that Adam died when his house built from stones collapsed onto him. But that is just another non-biblical mythological tale. In fact we have no idea how long any of Cain’s sons lived as their ages are never given; either their age at the birth of the next son; as in the genealogy for Noah, or their age at death. This is a very distinct difference between what we know of Seth’s line verses Cain’s. We may be able to make some safe assumptions however, based on what know from the line of Seth, that Cain and his children had lives that were comparable to those of the children of Seth. However, let’s not forget, that making this assumption does not make it a fact. We simply have no facts to go on here.

 

To read more of my essays on Genesis or to learn about my fiction series, The Witness Chronicles, based on the stories in Genesis, visit http://thewitnesschronicles.com.

The City of Enoch was the Archetype for Atlantis

One of the first clues we have about the level of sophistication of the society before the flood comes very early in the book Genesis.

Genesis 4:16-17 ¹⁶So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.  ¹⁷Cain 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.

Now remember, Cain had been sent to the land of Nod which was east of Eden to become a vagabond on the earth, but all of the sudden, Cain is producing children and building a city. We don’t know how many years had passed since he had been expelled from the land of Eden or any other details, only that he began to build a city and he named it after his son Enoch.

This brings up many questions, such as, why was there a need for a city? How large was his city? What is the significance of even mentioning this city in the book of Genesis?

I discuss the population questions in a later essay but here I just want to address the city of Enoch itself. I believe the significance here of mentioning Enoch was because Enoch was the archetype for the city of Atlantis legends that have come down to us through the millennia. The first recorded story of Atlantis comes from Plato sometime between 425-347 B.C. The story of Atlantis begins quite literally with two of Plato’s dialogues, Timaeus and Critias. These accounts are the only known written records which refer specifically to a lost civilization called Atlantis. Many people believe the tale to be complete fiction; the creation of a philosopher’s imagination used to illustrate an argument. Others believe that the story was inspired by catastrophic events which may have destroyed the Minoan civilization on Crete and Thera. Still others maintain that the story is an accurate representation of a long lost and almost completely forgotten land.

I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle with a bit of all these elements being part of the Atlantian legend. Remember, by the time Plato wrote his stories, rumors of this once great civilization were thousands of years old and had been told in many forms and languages through oral traditions for as long as anyone could remember. In order to put some perspective to this legend, we need to understand how sophisticated the civilizations before the flood actually were. Adam was created with an extraordinary intelligence. Even after being expelled from God’s Garden in Eden, he and Eve and their children would have all remained extremely intelligent. Couple that with the fact, that they had direct contact with Angles called Watchers.

Genesis: 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

This is somewhat of a mystery to us in the Christian church and there is much debate over who the “Sons of God” were, but according to Hebrew tradition, they were called Watchers and were angelic beings that had free reign to walk the earth. The book of Jubilees and the Book of Enoch tells us that it was these Watchers that taught men how to build with stone and forge metal and dye cloth different colors, make weapons, make colorful paint to adorn their eyes and faces and polish stones. They also taught them the use of plants and herbs for medicinal and hallucinogenic uses referred to as sorceries. These Watchers saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and some of them took daughters as wives and produced a breed of offspring called Nephilim, who were giants among men and became men of great renown and also committed despicable acts of blood thirsty violence that equal even the most heinous acts of cruelty we can imagine today.

But these two little known and obscure pieces from Genesis and the Book of Jubilees together tell us a great deal about the world before the flood. First they tell us the population grew very quickly as Cain saw the need to build a city almost as soon as he was once again functioning with a group of humans, and two, the level of technological sophistication of the people of this time was far greater than we can even begin to give them credit for. We assume that because we only trace our own technological advances from our beginnings after the flood that the people before the flood were somehow less advanced than those who came after them. But as you will see in later essays and in the book of Genesis itself, civilization grew rapidly after the flood and almost immediately people began extremely advanced building projects that still baffle archeologist and engineers today. It has even recently been discovered that the earliest Egyptian pyramids built around 2550 B.C. used some hard granite finish casing stones that were cut smooth and highly polished to a degree that was believed to be impossible for the age until just recently.

I  believe with this new perspective given by a combination of information from the books of Genesis, Enoch, and Jubilees, it is safe to assume that the level of building and technology of the pre-flood world was at least as sophisticated as the Greeks and Romans had achieved by the time Christ was teaching in Galilee. If the City of Enoch is indeed the Archetype of the Atlantis of legend, then we can only imagine how incredibly beautiful, sophisticated and technologically advanced the civilization before the flood of Noah had become

To read more of my essays on Genesis or to learn more about my fiction series based on the stories in the book of Genesis, visit http://thewitnesschronicles.com.

 

 

 

The Serpent in the Tree

 Who was the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve? Was he an Earthly creature or a heavenly angel or somehow both? Was he one in the same as Satan? What other Biblical evidence do we have to support or refute this idea that Satan and the serpent are one in the same?

There are so many questions regarding the serpent and I’m not sure I can answer them all. But I will try to explain exactly what the Bible does say about Serpent to see if we can draw from the scripture a true understanding of who and what he is.

Let’s begin with Genesis where we are first introduced to the Serpent in the tree.

Genesis 3:1-15 ¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” ²The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ “ ⁴“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. ⁸Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” ¹⁰He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” ¹¹And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” ¹²The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” ¹³Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” ¹⁴So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the live stock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. ¹⁵And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (NIV)

There are many strange things about this encounter. To begin with, there is almost no lead up this event taking place. The scripture directly before this passage says:

Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (NKJ)

The very next thing we see in the story is the Serpent in the tree. We do not have any indication whatsoever of the time gap between 2:25 and 3:1. It could have been days, weeks, months or years. There is no way of knowing for certain.

The next thing we have is the statement:

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. (NKJ)

This tends to make us believe that the Serpent was in fact an animal of some kind that God had created. Otherwise, why compare it to the other beasts of the field. But was it an animal that was possessed by an angelic being of some sort, or an animal who was just more intelligent than all the others God had created. Strong’s Concordance tells us this about the word Serpent that we us in our English translations of the Bible.

The Hebrew word is 5175 Nâchâsh (na-khawsh’) which means a snake from the sound of a hiss. The prime root of this word is 5172 Nâchâsh (na-khash’) to whisper or to prognosticate.

This alone does not tell us much about the Serpent other than the term used to describe it is borne out of the idea that he whispered something to Eve. In other words, he put an idea into her head. But we know the Serpent was more than a mere spirit that entered into Eve’s thought process because God actually curses this creature in verse 14. God tells this creature that he will be lower than all the animals of the Earth and will live his life on his belly and that he will eat dust all his days on the Earth.

None of this alone tells us much about the Serpent that we did not already know, so now let’s look at some other passages in other parts of the Bible that may shed some light on who this creature was. We have a passage in Ezekiel 28 that may give us some rather revealing insight into the Serpent.

Ezekiel 28:13-15 ¹³ “You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. ¹⁴You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. ¹⁵You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.’ (NIV)

Here we have a description of a Guardian Cherub, who was put in charge of Eden to protect it. It is unclear if this is the guardian that God placed in Eden to keep men out after Adam and his wife were expelled or if this is the Serpent who deceived Eve. But the last line in this passage may suggest that it was the latter:

¹⁵ “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.”

Remarkably, this is the same cherub who is being chastised here in Ezekiel 28 for corrupting the king of Tyre. Put these two passages together and they give us something very mysterious to ponder.

Now let’s look at one more passage to see where once again Satan is linked back to the Garden event and this creature.

Revelation 12:7-9 ⁷And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. ⁸But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. ⁹The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the Earth, and his angels with him. (NIV)

Here, finally, in the last book of the New Testament, we have one passage that seems to connect all the terms Serpent, Devil and Satan together. It is difficult to know how Satan and the Serpent relate to the creature in the tree or the king of Tyre, but we do have John’s revelation that finally brings all these references together into one entity. We still have a tendency however, in our modern day theologies, to misunderstand the term Satan. Obviously Satan is used here as a term referring to this entity, but in the Jewish tradition, Satan was term meaning Accuser, or Tempter, and not necessarily a proper noun referring to an actual name of one particular Angel. Satan, in the Jewish tradition was often used in the plural sense. Richard Laurence tells us that, Satan means Impious angels. Literally, “the Satans” Ha-Satan in Hebrew (“the adversary”) was originally the title of an office, not the name of an angel or to Prefer accusations against or, “to accuse”.

The best example we have of this in scripture is in the book of Job.

Job 1:6-7 ⁶Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. ⁷And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the Earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” (NKJ)

This passage has always been a puzzle to me until I began to study this topic in detail. I could never understand how Satan, who I was taught to believe had already been cast out of heaven, would come before the Lord with the other “Sons of God”. The name Satan used here, would clearly seem to be consistent with the use of an office or as an accuser as Laurence suggests. It is also consistent with the story told in the Book of Enoch.

Now I understand that in mainstream protestant theology, we do not accept the Book of Enoch as divinely inspired text, and therefore it is not part of the protestant Bible, but many Eastern churches and some Roman Catholic Bibles, do include this book as part of their belief. For those of you unfamiliar with this book, it is a series of visions given to Enoch before he was taken to Heaven. His visions are much like that of John’s in Revelation as they reveal many hidden things that go on behind the scenes between Heaven and Earth. In the Book of Enoch, he speaks of the Watchers, who are a class of angles who’s job it is to watch man and report to God on Man’s deeds. Some of these Watchers fell prey to lust and left their heavenly domain and married the daughters of men, as mentioned in Genesis 6:2. Without going into great detail, let me just say that this passage in Revelation 12 seems to fit very nicely with the mythology of the Watchers spoken about in the Book of Enoch.

The relationships between God and Satan and Satan and Man are the most puzzling aspects of the Bible. Was the Serpent one and the same as the same Satan we in the Christian faith teach or was it just another creature in God’s creation? Was he a Cherub appointed as the Guardian over the Garden of Eden or perhaps over the whole earth, as the suggested in Ezekiel with the words “…every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. ¹⁴You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.” This seems to suggest that this entity was present during the very formation of the earth. I believe the phrase “You walked upon the fiery stones.” suggests the time when the earth was still nothing more than a mass of molten rock. Whatever the case, this is truly a mystery that may not be completely revealed to us until all is said and done. What is the relationship between God and the Deceiver and why is he allowed to continue influence the affairs of man even though he has clearly sinned and been cast out of his place in heaven, it is difficult to say. I do address these things in some detail in my fiction books, but even that is based on speculation, mythology, and my imagination.

In conclusion, I believe it is safe to say that the Serpent in the tree was in fact the Devil or a Satan. Is there some link between this creature and the snakes of today as we often like to believe, or was this just a metaphor of some kind? I don’t know the answer to that but, we can say, both from John’s Revelation and the books of Genesis, Job and Isaiah, and Ezekiel,  that there are many strange things going on between Heaven and Earth that we are not able to see from our vantage point. Scientists have recently theorized that our universe my be made up of at least ten dimensions, but six of which were “rolled up” just milliseconds after the Big Bang so that we do not have access to then. Could this be evidence that Heaven and Earth coexist together, but humans cannot see a significant part of God’s creation, because we have been shielded away from six tenths of it, but the angels have access to Heaven, Earth and us?  The Bible certainly seems to indicate as much.

To read more of my essays on Genesis or to learn more about my fiction books based on the stories in Genesis, visit my website at http://thewitnesschronicles.com.