How Long were Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden? (Part 3) - When Men Began to Call on the Name of the Lord
As I posted in How Long were Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden?, I put forth the following theory of Adam’s life:
- Mankind was created 200,000 years ago, and blessed to subdue the earthÂ
- Adam was born 6,000 years ago
- God put Adam in the Garden at 18 years of Age
- Adam tended to the young garden for 7 years
- He needed a helper, but none of the animals were suitable, so God made Eve
- Adam and Eve sinned 7 years later
- Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old, 98 years after Adam left the Garden
- There were about 20,000 people descended from Adam and Eve by this time
Unlike other theories on this blog, I do not have scientific evidence backing up every step. I have scientific evidence for step 1 and step 2, combined with anecdotal evidence suggesting it makes sense, compared to a Young Earth perspective. Evidence for step 7: the Bible says Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born. The other durations above came from a numerical excercise, to figure out what kinds of assumptions would result in enough people for Cain to find a wife and build a city, but few enough people to still be living in relatively close proximity. I chose the numbers 18, 7, and 7 in part from their significance in Judaism and the Bible, combined with the fact that a grove of trees can take a while before it’s overwhelming to care for. Other evidence for Adam and Eve’s long time in the Garden is that after Eve sinned, her sorrow was increased, not created. This would make sense if she was sorrowful from caring for the Garden (her “conception” so to speak)… her willingness to test God is evidence for that sorrow as well; the perfect time for Satan to strike. This would then explain the odd wording of her punishment… that 1)the sorrow of her conception would increase, and 2)she would suffer pain in childbearing. Being the mother of all living, and sorrowful in the garden she was conceiving all these years, that sorrow would now increase. In large part, it would increase through the physical pain of childbearing. In fact, her desire would no longer be for eating the perfect fruit, or for whatever it was, but would now be for her husband, which would in fact oddly guarantee the punishment of childbearing. (If you think about, that is quite a responsibility for the husband… knowing that his gratification will naturally lead to her pain in childbirth. That is why a healthy marriage is so important… after the wife puts her husband first, submitting to his needs, the husband must then reciprocate.)
I would now like to put forth a completely different theory…
For most my life, I believed that Cain and Abel were in fact Adam and Eve’s first two children. What if they were? Well, it would work out for Cain because there were already people living on the earth. Finding a wife wouldn’t be hard, and building a city for people wouldn’t be a hard, because Cain was more aware of things than they. It ties things up in a neat bow from that perspective. However, there are two other aspects of scripture that I want to test this out with.
After Cain killed Abel, Eve another son named Seth who replaced him. Then, Genesis 1:26 says…
26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh.
      At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.
It means that for all of the time since Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, men were not calling on God’s name. We’ve learned elsewhere that zealousness for God’s name is accounted to them as righteousness, but men weren’t even calling on God’s name, let alone be zealous for it. So, how does this play out in the two scenarios?
If Adam and Eve had 20,000 offspring when Seth was born, then if means that Adam lived for about 100 years without calling on God’s name (98 years if my numbers are miraculously correct… 98 does equal 14 * 7; just noticed that. Hmmmm), and none of his offspring did either. Abel was headed in the right direction when he gave God a pleasing offering, but then Cain killed him. Eve would have been aware of the depraved state of her offspring, given that the scripture records Abel and Seth as essentially gifts from God.
It also works with Cain being a wanderer who decided to build a city. Perhaps he used the mark on his head to instill fear in those around them? Is that why scripture has them building a city for Cain, and not calling on the name of the LORD? I think it all makes sense.
On the other hand, what if Adam and Eve had only those three sons, Cain, Abel, and Seth? It would mean Cain married an outsider who didn’t know God, and that his awareness of God played to his advantage, especially considering the mark on his forehead. There is archaeological evidence pre-historic altars, suggesting pre-historic man did not know God per se, but did realize that something was out there. This would make them fearful of someone like Cain, arriving from a strange land with a mark on his forehead, and the claim that it was the mark of God, foreswearing the 7-fold suffering of anyone who should kill him. It would seem a fantastical claim to them… and they just might buy it! After all, he took a wife, and started to build a city. They would certainly not be calling on God’s name, but on Cain’s, and most likely out of fear. This would explain this odd passage in Genesis 4:
 17 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. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.
 19 Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. 22 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.
 23 Lamech said to his wives,
      “Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
      wives of Lamech, hear my words.
      I have killed a man for wounding me,
      a young man for injuring me. 24 If Cain is avenged seven times,
      then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
Look at this cavalier attitude. Why mock Cain’s mark like this? Because he didn’t take it seriously? No! Because he did! If Cain was able to rule hanging his Mark over people’s heads, well, perhaps he was getting old, and Lamech wanted to take over. I think it might have been a power play.
It was only after Seth’s birth when men started to call on the name of the LORD.
As I think about it though, this anecdote might play just as well with descendents of Adam and Eve, as with offsring of Adam’s ancestors.
This brings me to the Flood. Without going into a great amount of detail on this, there is no scientific evidence of a global flood around 10,000 years ago. Must of the evidence pointed at by Young Earthers is for the KT impact 65 million years ago. It is much more likely in my opinion that the flood was local. In that case, it makes more sense to me that the flood killed the local descendents of Adam than descendents of Adam’s relatives. I will have to think this through more, but for the time being, I think I will go with the theory that Cain married a relative, ruled people in sin, and that Seth began the line that would lead to Noah.