Genesis 9:1-3 - When did man start eating animals? (Part 1)
 1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
The verses complement the following excerpts in the Creation account:
Genesis 1:
  28 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.” 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Genesis 2:
 18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
      But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
And so, it would seem that people ate only fruits and vegetables from the creation of Adam through the advent of The Great Flood. Could this be the case? Did mankind not eat meat until after The Flood?
As I wrote in “Genesis 2 - A recall of Genesis 1? No. It is Not.“, it would seem that God created mankind to conquer the earth around 200,000 years ago. He made Adam and put him in a garden around 10,000 years ago. The narrative of Genesis then continues, focused on Adam and his descendants, while the rest of mankind are populating the remainder of the earth. This is both consistent with the flow of scripture, and the discoveries of science. Adam was the first man to know God, but scientifically we know mankind was already ruling the animals and eating fruits and vegetables. The minimal requirements of Genesis 1:28-29 were met before Adam!
The detail about eating plants and not animals is a real sticking point between Old and Young Earthers. Young Earthers have an easy time of the concept, because eating meat requires death, and there was no death before the fall.  In addition, God gives them plants to eat in Genesis 1:29, and then meat in Genesis 9:1-3. Old Earthers however require death in the world to explain the fossil record. The simple response however is that death is not in itself a sin, lest all sacrifice be inherently sinful, rendering even Christ’s sacrifice ineffective. In other words, the Old Earther must assert that there was death before the fall, but it was not a sin. I develop the argument more fully elsewhere.
But even making the case for death without sin fails to deal with Genesis 1:30, where God says, “I give every green plant for food.” Did He did not yet give over animals for food? It would seem that didn’t happen until Genesis 9:2-3.
It also fails to deal with Genesis 1:28, where God tells mankind to rule over the animals, which is hard to do if they are afraid of you. In fact, Genesis 2:18-20 reinforces this as God looks among the animals for a helper for Adam. Finally, it would seem that this state of affairs was to continue until God made the animals afraid of people, also in Genesis 9:2-3.
This paints a nice neat picture that Young Earthers can point to, which Old Earthers simply dismiss out of hand. An Old Earth simply does not appear to explain this narrative, and Old Earthers are would rather dismiss it, than answer it.
I will now answer it.
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