There has been a very good question in a form of a picture being circulated in FB or other social media. While it tries to sound naughty and cheeky, it does however posed a very smart question that sounded like this,” according to Genesis, we all come from Adam and Eve who had THREE SONS... think about it, take all the time you need.”
Allow me to dissect the question into a simpler question: If Adam and Eve only had males children, how did the multiply or populate the world?
At the first glance it does look like a slap to the Bible while the person who posted it smirked in satisfaction thinking he/she is a genius who had successfully ripped apart the whole foundation of human creation and common doctrinal belief as well as the inerrancy of the Scripture (clap hands). Flash News: You’re wrong.
If only the person actually read an actual Bible, particularly from Genesis 5:4 where is says
”After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and DAUGHTERS”
then the person should know that they did multiply naturally (due to the existence of other females), in which of course, will lead to an even naughty topic: INCEST.
Yes, there was NO one else around at the very beginning of life on earth. WHERE DID CAIN GET HIS WIFE? This is a popular question used by those who try to proof that the Bible is unreliable in what it claims.
When we read Genesis 5:4, We know that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters in addition to Abel, Cain, and Seth and if there was only one original family, then the first marriages had to be between brothers and sisters a.k.a INCEST.
Was incest ever a ‘good thing’? Certainly no. It is important to distinguish between incestuous relationships prior to God commanding against them (Leviticus 18:6–18) and incest that occurred after God’s commands had been revealed. Until God commanded against it, it was not incest. It was just marrying a close relative. It is undeniable that God allowed “incest” in the early centuries of humanity.
Since Adam and Eve were the only two human beings on earth, their sons and daughters had no choice but to marry and reproduce with their siblings and close relatives. The second generation had to marry their cousins, just as after the flood the grandchildren of Noah had to intermarry amongst their cousins. One reason that incest is so strongly discouraged in the world today is the understanding that reproduction between closely related individuals has a much higher risk of causing genetic abnormalities. In the early days of humanity, though, this was not a risk due to the fact that the human genetic code was relatively free of defects (excerpted from www.gotquestions.org) This brought us closely into the question of Ethics.
Are we able to accept the fact that the first human beings had no choice but to marry their own siblings, and later cousins? If we look at the reason for God to create humans from its very beginning (to worship, to live), apparently that’s what the Lord did when He created only Adam and Eve but after THE FALL, human beings are subjected to the world’s natural order. It is later, under Mosaic Law that incest is strongly forbidden and no longer a reason to populate the world.
In this issue, again another issue surfaces to consider: Though Ethically challenged, the need for intermarriage of the children of the same pair is critically needed at the beginning of human population and that is before the Law came about.
Conclusion: Adam and Eve do have daughters. Marriage in this sense (only in this sense) is considered as between a close relative and later on prohibited. Incest will always be a sin, sexual immorality and ethical issue. Afterall, they were in the world because they had SINNED.
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