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Genesis Explained
A brief survey of Genesis chapters 1 - 11 (PART 2)
The Garden of Eden is then briefly described, and its two Trees noted, then the four rivers are named with their lands and minerals described. Many have tried to locate these rivers since modern times, and most have looked to the Middle East and identified the Biblical rivers with present day rivers, despite many discrepancies. My opinion is that this search is a waste of time, and the reason for some similarities today which match names from Genesis 2 comes from the fact that the people who survived the Flood in the Ark would have brought with them a memory of the world that perished, and used familiar names again to begin their new lives. In a similar way, colonists from England have brought names with them – such as Christchurch, and the river Avon. It is futile to go looking for the Garden of Eden today because it was totally wiped out by a global flood, and anything which came from it could be anywhere in the world, buried under sedimentary rock. This is not to say that the general shape and area of the present land masses is not the same, if they have, as many believe, simply broken and moved from a single land mass to the positions they occupy at present.
Historical of Mythical?
Some scholars believe that the story of Adam, Eve and Eden are just myths or 'fairy stories'. They say the stories were designed by people, that is, made up by story-tellers to explain concepts about the origin of God, animals, marriage, sex and so on. The stories are not to be taken literally, they say, but figuratively. However, whenever we come across parables in the Bible we are always told they are 'parables' (i.e. Luke 8:14, 15:3, 181 and 9), or the story is so strange we know it must be a non-historical narrative (i.e. Judges 9:8-20). In the genesis account there is nothing to indicate that the account is a myth. Further, the N.T. Mentions Adam nine times, and Eve four times, and in every case they are treated as real people. For example, Paul tells us that Adam was first formed, and then Eve, and that “the woman was created for the man” (1Tim.2:13, 1Cor.11:9)
The Genesis account gives us 15 geographical facts in connection with Eden and 11 of these are in the present tense (i.e. “the gold of that land IS good”) Nobody knows where Pishon, Havilah, Gihon or Cush are, but obviously they were real to the writer. And finally, the style of writing is not poetic.
The garden of Eden was “planted” by God, which implies some sort of orderliness. Perhaps Man's desire to make beautiful gardens, with symmetry and design, is a reflection of this original garden? We tend to think of Nature as disorderly, but an intelligent God could easily lay out a garden design which was both practical and beautiful.
The Two Trees
The fruit trees which God marked out as special were not in any way poisonous or harmful. They bore good fruit, free of blemishes, and any creature except Man was free to enjoy them, in fact, as I see it, Man was allowed to pick and hold the fruit from both Trees. The only provision God made was that Man was allowed to eat of the Tree of Life, but not from the other Tree, that of the knowledge of good and evil. In the same way, a parent may give some money to a child, but tell them not to spend it, or some sweets, and tell them not to eat them. It was a test of obedience, with a very clear threat, or warning, of the consequences of disobedience. If Adam had been an animal God could have simply put an instinct into him, or a machine, and programmed him, but Adam had a free will. There is no point in having free will if it cannot be exercised.
“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.” Gen. 2:8
Apart from the beautiful world, God wanted to make a home for the first humans, so he “planted” a garden. The word “planted” means 'to strike in', i.e. fix; specifically, to plant. And having prepared this special area, God conveyed the man to it. The fact that the garden was “eastward in Eden” shows that the world was already surveyed by God, with a north, south, west and east direction. The garden was therefore in the easterly area of the single land mass of Earth.
gan = a garden (as fenced): garden. This Hebrew word comes from another word,ganan - a primitive root, meaning 'to hedge about'. These words suggest that the garden of Eden was a specially prepared place, quite distinct from the surrounding landscape.
There are in fact Three Trees in the Bible. The first Knowledge, which led to Man's ruin (Rom.5:15-19), the second Tree the Cross, which led to Man's redemption (acts 10:39, 5:30, 1Pet.2:24, and the third Tree Life, which leads to man's Regeneration (Rev.2:7 and 22:2)
There are also Three Gardens. Here, Eden, which was the place where sin entered the world and with it death, Gethsemane, the place where sin's atonement entered the world and took all the sin, and the garden sepulcher, where Jesus died for sin.
The Tree of Life was just a fruit tree, but it symbolized God's great bounty and blessing to his creation. In John 6:48 Jesus took the place of that Tree when he said “He that believes on me has everlasting life.”
The Tree of the knowledge of good and evil was also just a fruit tree, but to Adam it symbolized a sense or perception of evil. God warned him if he ate of that tree he would die, so Adam was able to test this threat and find out for himself. The innocence of Adam reminds me of how very young children can watch a movie without understanding anything bad in it, while adults watch the same movie and understand dirty jokes and innuendos.
“knowledge” = awareness.
“good and evil” The word “evil” means more than moral evil. This word includes pain, hurt, sorrow and so on. All these things came into the world when Adam sinned.
Why is there such a detailed description given of the river which went out of Eden and divided into four heads? The first reason is that Genesis is an accurate history, not an allegory. It would be highly UN-allegorical to include the names of rives and the mineralogical qualities of various lands they rivers flowed into. The second reason is to show us a little glimpse of the landscape. A freshwater spring, very large, and continuous, bubbled up within the Garden, rushing and surging down a slope and breaking into four separate rivers, which also flowed downhill for many hundreds of kilometers, until they reached the Sea. This suggests that Eden may have been on higher land than many other places, perhaps the highest point on the land mass at that time. There is a spiritual significance too – the blessings of God through Man would come from Eden and flow outwards to the four corners of Earth – just as the blessings will flow to all the world when Jesus (the perfect an) is enthroned as King of kings.
There have been many attempts to identify the rivers and lands connected with the descriptions given, all of them deficient in some way, because the effects of the Flood were devastating. One thing stands out for me, and that is the presence of “gold, bdellium, and the onyx stone.”
The four rivers were first, the Pison, then the Gihon, then Hiddekel and then the Euphrates.
Pison = to spread, or disperse This river went around the land of Havilah, which name means 'to twist, or whirl, in a spiral'.
Bdellium = a fragrant gum, perhaps amber. (Perhaps pearls)
onyx = a gem, probably a beryl, from its pale green colour.
This last thing, the onyx, is interesting because most people have been told that gems take millions of years to form. However an Australian has found that, by mixing certain dry chemicals together he can grow real opals in a matter of weeks. They do not need millions of years with heat and pressure to gradually form.
The fact that the river sprang up in Eden and flowed away from it tells us that Eden must have been elevated above the surrounding country. Water always flows down hill.
“God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”
Adam was placed in the specially prepared area of Earth to do two things: to dress and keep his alloted block of land. Eden means “delicate, pleasure and delight.” “Dress” comes from the Hebrew æabad, which is a primitive root, meaning 'to work (in any sense); by implication, to serve, etc In other words, Adam was not created to lie about in the sun in endless idleness. He was gainfully employed, and by this means God made him responsible for the Garden, and probably gave Adam plenty to look at and learn as he did his gardening.
But Adam also had to “keep” the Garden. This word, in Hebrew, is shamar comes from a primitive root. meaning 'to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard; generally, to protect, attend to, be ward to, keep, preserve. This naturally begs the question, what did Adam have to guard the Garden (or orchard) from? Wasn't the world a beautiful place at that time? One thing I can think of is Satan. If the creation of the angels and the rebellion in heaven took place within the six creation days, then Satan was already planning to attack Mankind. There is no logical reason why the rebellion in heaven could not have taken place this rapidly. Many rebellions take place in the affairs of the human race which are just as rapid.
The theory of evolution tells us that early Man was a cave-dweller, yet the Bible tells us he was a gardener.
The creation of Eve.
“It is not good that the man should be alone” Gen.2:18. God did not intend people to be totally self-sufficient. Most people are naturally drawn to other people, for love, comfort, sympathy, friendship and so on. People are designed to interact with each other, either by skin to skin, or with language, and there is overwhelming evidence today, with the rise of the InterNet and cell phones that humans have a deep-seated desire to communicate with each other regularly and frequently. As soon as Adam was created God brought to him every 'basic' creature (before the hybrids and varieties proliferated) and Adam named them all. This reveals what an enormous intellect Adam had – that he could not only think up a name for hundreds of different creatures, but also remember these names. However, after seeing all the birds and land animals, Adam was aware that none of them, no matter how awesome and wonderful, was the same as himself. It is interesting to note that today, with the evolutionary mindset, there are people who actually see chimps and monkeys as 'just like humans', and some have even proposed giving primates the same legal rights as humans. Adam would have laughed at the idea.
Eve was created from a piece of Adam. She came from his side, which symbolized her equality. She came from him, which placed a bond between them – if she had been created separately she might have considered herself more, or less, important than Adam. Medically it is interesting to know that if a piece of bone is removed from a rib, the rib is able to restore the missing bone, provided the covering skin around the bone is left intact. As far as I know, no other bone is able to do this. Not that I am suggesting that God deliberately designed ribs so He could use a bit of bone from one to manufacture a woman. Another interesting but not necessarily related point: if one analyzes any piece of a living thing, one finds DNA in every cell which encodes for another creature exactly the same as the living thing it came from. In humans the only main difference would be the X and Y chromosomes, and God, who designed genes and DNA is more than capable of altering anything to suit. A man has both X and Y chromosomes, whereas a woman has only the X, so part of a woman's body could never be built up (without a miracle) into a man's body. However, part of a man's body could be built into a woman, because he has everything she needs – simple science supports the genesis account. The creation of Eve constituted the first operation, and seemed to involve an anesthetic. Eve was created to be a “help meet” to man ( 1Tim.2:13). She was dust-refined. She was called “Ishah” which means 'she-man', and God brought her to him, and gave her to him as a gift.
“help meet” = æezer : aid, help. This word comes from 'æazar': a primitive root; to surround, i.e. protect or aid:—help, succour.
Adam said “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” Gen.2:23 He did not say “This is my flesh and blood”. The Bible uses this expression several times in the N.T. to signify human life. Jesus spoke of people needing to eat his flesh and drink his blood. In the N.T. We are told God is not flesh and blood, but He reveals things to us as if he were. The O.T. alone uses the expression 'bone and flesh' without including blood. In both cases, it is just an expression, meaning something else.
As soon as Eve is joined to Adam as an help meet for his needs, God pronounces the formula for marriage. The context is important. We have just seen how Eve was specially prepared for Adam, and her role is given, so marriage must be a special expression of unity. Two people, bound together as one flesh (in this case literally), for the purpose of procreation, companionship and service. One man for one woman for life. Monogamy is the rule, no matter what people think, and no matter how many wives various kings of Israel and Judah thought they should have. God's rules never change, no matter what passing cultures may think. God knows what works best because He designed us. The world of Nature constantly breaks the rule established for humans, so perhaps God gave us this account so we would see how different the union between humans ought to be
“And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Gen. 2:25
Notice that God calls these two humans married. It was not much of a ceremony, but as far as God was concerned, Eve was now a wife, and soon she would be a mother. The Lord pronounces Adam and Eve as being “one flesh”. The word “one” in Hebrew is 'Aechad' and it means the numeral or the quality of being “one” but the same word is used in other contexts, such as: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” Deuteronomy 6:4, and Jesus quoted this in: Mark 12:29 “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandment is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord.” This emphasizes how important the marriage bond is. If God is 'echad' and husband and wife are 'echad' then the commitment ought to be very strong
Nakedness, as most art students who have done life drawing will admit, is not anything remarkable, and neither will very young children see anything dirty or strange about the human body in itself. Doctors and surgeons see the body in medical terms, artists see it terms of light and shade – a shape to be transferred in different media. At face value the body is a biochemical machine, and the idea that one might feel ashamed if one looks at a machine is quite absurd. It is only when one fantasizes, or imagines sinful thoughts – thoughts which go against God's inbuilt moral rules - regarding the body that it becomes more than an object. It is this aspect which fuels the pornography industry. A two-year old, looking at a Playboy would be completely mystified as to what the attraction was! When Adam and Eve were created they were completely innocent in their hearts. They had never been 'educated' on the misuse of the body, and for them all aspects of its design were part of the wonder and beauty of creation. No wonder they were “not ashamed” ( These words can also mean “not confounded”, or “not confused”.
Genesis Chapter Three.
The serpent
In many illustrated Bibles the “serpent” which entered the Garden of Eden to tempt Eve is pictured as a reptile, a snake, but this is a mistake, because it misinterprets a Bible expression and takes it literally when it ought to be understood in the figurative sense. My point of view is that Satan appeared as an angel. The first point I make to defend this view is that Genesis is a literal, historical narrative. This means we are not reading some oral tradition, which has been altered as it has passed down from generation to generation. What Genesis says is a real account, and if we had been there we would have heard him say “This is none of my bones . . .” etc) The Bible is well supplied with many different idioms and figures of speech, but why would God use a figure of speech when referring to Satan in Genesis?
1. To call attention to what He has to say,
2. To emphasize what He has to say,
3. To intensify what He has to say,
4. And to underline the reality of the literal sense of what He has to say.
God wants to force upon us the truth of the historical setting in which His description takes place. He uses highly imaginative language to convey something true, while the picture He uses is not literally true. There are many examples of this through the Bible (For example Deut.32:22, Is. 43:2, Mat.3:12 and Rev.6:16) It is common in our own normal everyday language to use metaphors, such as 'the rain was biting though my jersey', or we 'battled a storm of protest', or we made a 'last ditch' effort. In fact, it is very difficult to relay any information without assuming some imaginative underlying picture. (You see how I used the word 'underlying' as in sub-soil, and 'relay' as in passing something on?)
God uses figures of speech and idioms and metaphors to tell us something about Himself. His words convey His thoughts. His Book is written the way He wanted it written. It is up to us to accept it as such and obey His rules of interpretation.
The following is quoted from Bullinger's 'Companion Bible':
"Figures are never used but for the sake of emphasis. They can never, therefore, be ignored. Ignorance of Figures of speech has led to the grossest errors, which have been caused either from taking literally what is figurative, or from taking figuratively what is literal.
The Greeks and Romans named some hundreds of such figures. They may be divided into three classes:
Figures which involve (1) omission; (2) the addition;
or (3) the alteration or change, of a word, or words, or their sense.
In Gen.3:14, 16 we have some of the earliest examples. By interpreting these figures literally as meaning "belly "," dust"," heel", or "head ". we lose the volumes of precious and mysterious truth which they convey and intensify. It is the truth which is literal, while the words employed are figurative".
(He goes on to name 181 types of Figure of Speech with examples from the Bible)
When we look through Genesis chapter three we find many figures of speech. For example "eyes were opened", "they knew that they were naked", "upon your belly you shall go", "dust shall you eat", "bruise your head", "bruise his heel", "thorns and thistles", "sweat of your face", "you are dust", "to dust you shall return". In every case, God is trying to convey more than just the bare facts. By "eyes were opened" He is conveying the sudden shock and intense reaction which Adam and Eve experienced as they realized the implications of what they had done. By "thorns and thistles" we understand that God was condemning the world to many "problems and difficulties", as well as literal changes in creation of course. By "dust you shall eat" we understand that God was placing Satan under a humiliating punishment.
In Revelation 20:2 we have two references to Satan which link him to his first appearance in Genesis: "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him". Revelation 12:9
"And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan . . ." Revelation 20:2
In both references the word "old" is used, which, taken literally means that Satan must be at least 6000 years old (minimum) but it also links his 'oldness' with the fact that he is also the "serpent".
The Hebrew for "serpent" is 'nachash' which means 'to hiss, mutter, whisper' as enchanters and those involved with the black arts do. The secondary meaning of 'nachash' is 'to divine, to enchant'. In other words, Satan's name means something like 'to entice by enchantments', which is consistent with his first act of enticement when he deceived Eve into sin. All through the Bible Satan's methods have been much the same. He entices through false doctrine, false Christians, false Bibles, false witnesses, false evangelists, false everything. In every area of life we find the trail of the serpent - not just in the pulpit, but also in the Arts, in Science, in Philosophy and so on. His goal is to draw people away from God's Word and into alternatives, any alternatives will do, provided they contradict what God has said.
"And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light". 2 Corinthians 11:14 Satan is, of course, already an angel of light. What this verse means is that he appears to those he wants to deceive as a member of the church, or as a good pastor, or as a wonderful Bible teacher, or as a Christian musician, or whatever. He comes as a wolf dressed as a sheep. See 2Cor. 11:1-15.
If you took the time to read the above reference you will have noticed verse three, which says that "as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety . . ." This verse is explained by verse 14, quoted above, which refers to Satan as "an angel of light". By this we see that it was not a snake which beguiled Eve, but a glorious being, an angel, to whom Eve paid great attention. She assumed that because of his appearance, he must have possessed superior knowledge. It is hardly likely that she would have paid as much attention to a snake - a mere created animal over which she and Adam were to have dominion.
In defense of the 'Satan was a snake' point of view, some people quote Genesis 3:1 which says "the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." However, the word "subtle" means 'wise' ( The Hebrew word is 'aw-room' which means 'cunning (usually in a bad sense) - 'crafty, prudent'.) and the word "beast" means "living creature", so what the verse is saying is: "Satan was wiser than any other living creature created by God". This makes harmony of what we have already concluded.
Moving away from the purely Scriptural view, let us suppose that Eve, in all her perfection and great wisdom, actually held a conversation with a literal snake. On the face of it this is most unlikely. The snake was just one of many beautiful creatures created by God, but it was, after all, just a creature. Eve was a brilliant creation, glorious and wonderfully made, far superior to the snake. She may have been attracted to it aesthetically, but hardly intellectually. If there was anything resembling an angel of light in the garden, perhaps a large bird would have been more likely, but not a mere snake. However, if Satan behaved like a snake, then the comparison is quite understandable. (We have many similar comparisons in the Bible, such as Herod, whom Jesus called a fox, and Egypt, which is called a great-scaled creature. Nero is called a lion, Judah is called a lions' whelp, doctrine is called 'leaven', and, in our own language we refer to people as 'dogs' or 'pigs' and we say that someone 'ate like a horse'.)
When we read in Genesis 3 that Satan would "bruise his heel" we understand this "head" to be more than just skin and bone. It has something to do with character, and it will be only temporary. When we read that "he shall crush your head" we understand this to mean more than literal hair and skin and skull. It means that Satan's plans and plots, activities and purposes, will one day be crushed and finished. Referring to this very passage Paul says "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly". Romans 16:20 Again, in Malachi: "And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the LORD of hosts". Malachi 4:3 And Jesus warned Christians about throwing wisdom at the ignorant:
"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you". Matthew 7:6
The prediction that Satan would one day 'bruise the heel' of the seed of the woman was a wonderfully compact description of what followed. In just those few words God foretold the temptations and injuries done to the Son of God, plus the associated sufferings shared by His followers. The crucifixion set the seal on Satan's doom, because by orchestrating the death of Jesus, Satan made the way for the resurrection. The moment Jesus rose from the dead, Satan's entire object (world domination among other things) was utterly defeated - his head was about to be crushed. Through the death of Christ, he who had the power of death would be destroyed, and all Satan's power brought to an end, including all his works - Heb.2:14, John 3:8, Rev.20. Thanks to figures of speech, much more than a mere technical description of the facts is conveyed to us.
Gen.3:14. "upon your belly shall you go". If this were literal, then Satan, the angel must be sliding about on his stomach, but of course this is quite absurd. He is also called the "prince of the power of the air" Eph.2:2. What this figure of speech means is that Satan has been humiliated. He has been brought down, demoted, disgraced. God has reduced his rank and standing and authority from a high place to a very low place. In a similar setting we read in Psalm 44:25 "For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaves to the earth". This expression tells us a lot more than mere facts could. We understand the feeling of prostration and submission of the writer. We enter into his sense of prolonged subjection to oppression or sorrow.
Gen. 3:14 "and dust shall you eat all the days of your life". If this were literal, then we know what Satan eats - the dirt which we grow plants and vegetables in. Soil. Minerals. If we take a figure of speech literally we come to many absurd conclusions. But if we take the expression as pointing to some underlying fact, some more important truth, we understand that Satan's judgment was to be always disappointed, always a failure, always a loser. Proverbs 20:17 picks up on this 'eating dirt' idea: "Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel". Again, in the New Testament, Christians are rebuked for "biting and devouring one another:" (Gal.5:14,15) something more heart-breaking and terrible is meant.
Another problem which arises if we think that Satan was a literal snake is the simple biological impossibility of a snake talking. It has no larynx, or 'voice box'. Even if it wanted to, it couldn't speak. It has no organs of speech, no lips, no mobile tongue, no speech organs in its brain. On the other hand, where was the wisdom in Satan taking a mere creature, and certainly not one of the most beautiful in creation, and using it like a glove-puppet to beguile Eve? She was intelligent enough to see through something as stupid as this. Whatever would she have thought if a real snake had started talking to her? She would have been instantly suspicious. Why would God create a mere animal which had such wisdom? If snakes could talk, what else in the Garden had the same ability? Monkeys? Elephants? Moths?
If we dig into the figures of speech and look for the underlying truth we find a picture which conveys many wonderful things. We see two beings, the first humans, both glorious and perfect. They already have language and science built into them. They already understand many things. They live and rejoice in a perfect world. Suddenly an immensely glorious being appears to Eve. He challenges her to go beyond what God has said and she does. It is this great disobedience - adding to and taking from the words of God - which caused the Fall. Not some silly story about a woman eating an apple. The traditional story, with equally absurd illustrations, have smothered the real meaning of what happened and it is the Church (the only organization on earth entrusted with the preaching and teaching of God's Word) which has failed to consistently proclaim this truth, in this way Satan's deception has been successful for thousands of years.
“Has God said?” Gen. 3:1
When Satan said "Has God said . . .?" Eve should have been immediately alerted to the danger. Her reply should have been to quote exactly what God had said. Or Adam, who was "with her" should have done this. Just as Jesus responded to Satan's "If you are the Son of God . . .?" with quotes from the Word, Eve should have remembered precisely what God had said and Satan would have been defeated.
But Eve committed several errors. She omitted the word "freely" and added the words "neither shall you touch it" and then she altered the words "you shall surely die" into "lest you die". In this way Eve misrepresented the Word of God, but when Jesus was tempted He presented the Word of God faithfully.
From this temptation of Eve we understand that Satan's main sphere of influence is in any area where he can influence people to doubt the word of God. We see his activity in the pulpit - perhaps his main area of deception (by this I mean through false teachings, traditions, cults religions, New Age mystical ideas, and sectarianism). (For more on this subject, see my essay “Satan the Serpent”)
As soon as Adam and Eve sinned they knew they had sinned. They realized they would now die (the Hebrew expression is means “dying you shall die” so it was a progressive sentence. They hid themselves – this shows that we wear clothes for a moral reason. Even in hot countries, where clothes are not necessary, people still wear clothes, because God made them a moral necessity. Nudists are not correct in their philosophy about nudity.
Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. W.L. Wilson's Dictionary of Types says: “The fig leaves used by Adam and Eve were called “aprons”, which covered only a part of the body, and were not sufficient for a complete covering. The fig leaf is soft, like velvet, and under the heat of the sun shrinks to about a quarter its size. The leaves are a type of self-righteousness. After Adam and Eve made the aprons they still hid from God, knowing that they were still naked in His sight. This shows that no amount of self-righteousness, religion, church attendance, donations, pilgrimages, etc, etc is sufficient to hide the sins of the heart from God.”
“They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day . . .” Gen.3”8.
“heard” = heard intelligently. They knew who was coming because they recognized His voice, I suppose, as compared to all the other 'voices', animal and bird, in the Garden. This reminds us of Jesus' words: “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice.” John 10:16
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27
“voice” comes from an unused Hebrew word meaning 'to call aloud'. Elohim, or the preincarnate Jesus, came calling for his friends – not that He didn't know where they were. The account emphasizes the enormity of what Adam and Eve had done.
“cool” comes from the Hebrew word meaning “wind”. This suggests that the Garden and perhaps all the land at that time was stirred by a breeze in the evenings? This may be another tiny glimpse into the preFlood climate.
Language.
God communicated with his humans by speaking to them. This suggests that human intelligence was originally superb, since it takes a lot of brain power to use a language - it is a very complex operation. It takes brain, mouth, tongue and usually eye co-ordination, plus the use of abstract reasoning and rapid decoding of air sensations on the ear. Another aspect of Adam and Eve's intelligence is seen in the way Adam was able to name all the animals. If there were (an estimated) 3,500 mammals and 8,600 birds his memory must have been prodigious. But language is not something people can have unless they learn it from someone who already has it. This logically points us to some beginning point when two humans already had language – otherwise we would not have language as it is today. No language is simple, and even the 'simplest' are vastly complicated. Take, for example, one South Sea Island language, with its 14 different words to describe a coconut palm at different stages of its growth.
“So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Genesis 3:24
The human race had failed, and was driven out of the specially planted area reserved for it. It had failed for the first time. The Bible is a record of many successive failures, and also of God's attempts to restore and compensate for these failures. (Jesus drove out the money-makers in the Temple too. John 2:15)
Why did God place the cherubim and sword at the east? The reason may be because that is the side which faces the rising sun, the sun therefore always approaches from the west, and comes towards the Garden as it rises. The sun is compared to Jesus, the great King of kings: 2Sam.23:4, Psalm 72:17, Mal.4:2, Mat.13:43, Rev.1:16, 10:1. Perhaps God wanted to symbolically represent the return of Christ, the only one who could approach the cherubim and the flaming sword of death, a symbol of the Law, and die at the gate of Eden, in order to pass through to the tree of Life, which Life He can now give to all who have faith in his finished work?
Genesis chapter 4.
The history of the world continues with the birth of the first child, Cain. Then comes Abel, his brother. Cain took up agriculture, or cropping. E worked the ground which God has cursed. He fought weed and thistle infestations in order to grow food. Abel chose animal husbandry – sheep and goats.
How utterly different this account is to the evolution theory, which says that some 50,000 years ago some ape-like humans started wandering about in social groups, living in caves, and discovering such things as fire, and tool-making. If this was so, why did these humans wait 45,000 years before they started to make buildings, mechanical tools, writing, plant-breeding, musical instruments and astronomy? Why is it that almost all civilizations trace their beginnings back to only 3-4 thousand years, rather than 20 or 30 thousand? Once again the Bible is true to the anthropological facts.
Some branches of the human race have always been cleverer at inventing things than others, while others have been content to remain at the more primitive level – for example, until recently, Australian aborigines used more than fifty kinds of stone tools – for carpentry, fighting, fishing, cooking and so on. For them the so-called 'stone age' has only just ended. The technological level a civilization rises to has nothing to do with its duration.
David C. Watson says, “Most old civilizations had some kind of dating system, and not one of them put the Creation of the World earlier than 7000 BC. Typical dates include: Indian 6204 BC, Arabian 6174 BC, Babylonian 6158 BC, Chinese 6157 BC, Persian 5507 BC, Abyssinian 5500 BC and Central American Mayan 3113 BC.”
Modern archaeological dating changes regularly as new discoveries are fitted in, for example, in 1929 Encyclopedia Britannica dated the Great Pyramid at 4800 BC. Ten years later it dropped a thousand years(!) to 3800 BC. Since then it has dropped another thousand years (!!) to 2850 or 2600 BC, and in each case it was a respected expert who made the estimate. Obviously, it is better to rely on the accurate dating in the Bible, if it is given, than the fickle dating by Man.
Gen. 4:3 “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.” The expression “process of time” in Hebrew means “at the end of days”. From this we can deduce that God had already specified a time and a place for offerings, and also what kind of offering he would accept. Cain however was following the path of religion. He brought something which was produced from the cursed ground.
“By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks.” Hebrews 11:4 (In other words Abel simply believed God and obeyed)
“Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.”1 John 3:12
“Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain” Jude 1:11
Abel brought his offering “and of the fat thereof.” He brought of the “fat” of his flock. cheleb: from an unused root meaning to be fat; fat, whether literally or figuratively; hence, the richest or choicest part, best, finest, grease, marrow. This word reveals that Abel had a heart full of zeal for God – he brought not just what was required, but found the biggest and best for his offering.
“And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.” Bullinger says notes that God showed His acknowledgment of Abel's offering by sending fire to burn it up.
Other examples of this are:
“And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.” Leviticus 9:24
“Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.” Judges 6:21
“Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” 1 Kings 18:38
“And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.” 1 Chronicles 21:26
“Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house.” 2 Chronicles 7:1
Cain killed Abel – a typically religious act. Today the militant Islamics regularly persecute and kill Christians, and 'Westerners' in general because they equate 'Christian' with 'Westerner'. In the Dark Ages religious Roman Catholics killed Protestant Christians. Religious Romans and religious Jews killed Christians from the inception of the Church. It has been one of the threads of history – this war between the true believers and the false. Satan hates God, and since he cannot get at God he turns his attention on God's children.
God, knowing what Cain had done, came in great love and mercy and reasoned with him. “Why are you angry? Why is you so unhappy?” God than explains to Cain that sin is like a wild creature, crouching at his door, ready to spring, but if Cain resists, he can be its master. (Rom. 6 covers the same theme) Interesting that God should use the analogy of a wild creature. This indirectly shows, since Cain would know what something dangerous crouching at the door meant, that the harmony of Nature was altered.
But Cain is not persuaded. He goes away and “talks with his brother Abel” - what he says to Abel is not recorded, but Bullinger notes that old eight manuscript versions of Genesis record the words “Let us go into the field”, after which Cain slew Abel – religion has always been the greatest cause of bloodshed.
God punished Cain by banishing him from “the presence of the Lord” which is an expression meaning first of all a place of communion close to God Himself, and secondly “the place where sacrifices are offered”. We know from Psalm 139 that it is impossible to be out of God's sight or knowledge, but here, near the garden of Eden the altar was set up for the sacrifices. By sending Cain away from this location God was showing Cain that he had to either offer the correct sacrifice or none at all. This principle is reflected in the many statements by Jesus to the effect that “There is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
Cain was banished to “the land of Nod” The name means “vagrancy”. Cain became a wanderer, a man with no country. Just as all who turn their backs of God become temporary citizens of Earth, transitory tenants, Cain went away from his parents and started a new life in a different part of the world, where he and his wife began to have children and populate the world.
Where did Cain get his wife?
Many people have wondered where Cain got his wife, considering the fact that Adam and Eve had only one other child, Abel, who was now dead. Skeptics often use Cain's wife as a point of debate, to prove the Bible faulty. There must have been other people on Earth, they say, who were not descendants of Adam and Eve. The question is a stumbling block, but it is easily answered.
The Bible tells us that Adam was the first man (1Cor.15:45) and that Eve was “the mother of all living.” (Gen.3:20) When Adam looked at the animals, he could not find among them any suitable mate. Yet modern genetic studies show that the whole human race is derived from one genetic stock, so there is only one “kind” of human, and not two or more. The Bible also says that we are all sinners, and that we are all related (Acts 17:26 - “And He has made all nations of men of one blood to dwell on all the face of the earth.” This means that Cain's wife must have been a descendant of Adam. The fact that her name is not mentioned, or her origin specifically given, does not mean that she was from somewhere else.
Cain was the first child mentioned by name, but Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve had a number of other sons and daughters – Genesis 5:4. It does not saw when they were born, or how many other sons and daughters they had. Considering the long lifespans of those days, they could have had many children. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote: “The number of Adam's children, as says the old tradition, was 33 sons and 23 daughters.” Many could have been born in the 130 years before Seth was born.
The Bible does not tell us when Cain married, or any details of other marriages and children, but some brothers HAD to marry their sisters at the beginning of history, or there would have been no more humans. At that time there was no law against marriages between siblings – this law did not come until the time of Moses – Lev.18 to 20. Provided marriage was between one man and one woman for life it was not an act of disobedience, before Moses, for brother to marry sister. Abraham married his half-sister (Gen.20:12) and God blessed this union to produce the Hebrew people. The law against sibling intermarriage did not come until about 400 years later.
Today there are laws against intermarriage between close relatives because the children have a strong chance of being deformed. The reason for this is found in the genes. Each person inherits one set of genes from each parent, each parent having one set of genes. Unfortunately, genes today contain many mistakes – because of sin, and the accumulation of errors in the copying of DNA. If one gene is in good repair, it generally covers the errors in the other gene, but if two errors match a genetic disease results, or a deformity, or even death. The more closely related two people are, the more likely it is that they will have similar mistakes in their genes, since these have been inherited from both parents.
On the other hand, if parents are not related, the chances are good that the genes will have different mistakes in them, which will not match. What seems to have gone right by most people is the fact that the whole human race is disintegrating, as more and more mistakes accumulate within the DNA. The deterioration is slow but remorseless, and it has not yet dawned on the world that the number of mutations and deformities is gradually increasing. The future for the human race is bleak indeed. But when Adam and Eve were first created they were perfect – no mistakes. God pronounced them “very good”, but when they sinned, the law of deterioration started to operate – Romans 8:22 – over thousands of years this degeneration has resulted in all sorts of abnormalities and medical problems, and we can expect this trend to keep going. Cain and his sister were so close to the original 'breeding pair' they probably had almost perfect genes, but by the time of Moses God had to bring in a law to slow the degeneration down.
There are some 3000 genetic diseases in the human race at present, and the number is growing. These include hemachromatosis, sickle-cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, pyloric stenosis, phenylketonuria, hermaphrodite, Down's syndrome, sickle-cell anemia, achondroplasia, haemophilia and so on.
The 'mark' of Cain.
God punished Cain by saying “When you till the ground it shall not give its increase” (Gen. 4:12) which denotes consistent crop failure, but may have a wider implication. As well as this God also sent him away as a “vagabond and fugitive”. Cain could have repented in sorrow and tears and been forgiven, but he chose the path away from Eden and so God had to punish him. In this sense Cain was the one who chose his own destiny, unhappy though it was. God did not overrule Cain's free will, but made him responsible for his choices. God foresaw that Cain would be a hated man, and some might try to kill him, so God gave him the promise that anyone who tried to kill Cain would be punished - “vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold”.
“And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.” (Gen.4:15) There are some extreme interpretations on this verse, one of which suggests that Cain was given black skin! Another is that Cain was stamped with some kind of symbol on his face, and another that angels walked about with him as a sort of bodyguard. How quickly errors like this can come in when people fail to read what God says in context. “Set a mark”
“I have sinned; what shall I do to Thee, O thou preserver of men? why have You set me as a mark against You . . . ?” Job 7:20 (i.e. 'made me Your target', or, 'made me the object of Your anger')
“He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.” Lamentations 3:12
“And the LORD said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” Ezekiel 9:4
There are only four places in the Bible where the expression “set a mark” are used. In the three remaining places the expression is not meant as a literal mark. This ought to alert us to be careful how we interpret the first use of the expression. It means, more or less, that God made a covenant with Cain, or gave him a pledge, which is found in the words just before this.
Why did Cain build a city? Possibly because he did not want his own children to be wanderers like him. Whatever the reason for his building efforts, it is fairly certain Cain founded a civilization estranged from God. A basic motivation of all human societies is the attempt to overcome the curse, find pleasure without God, and regain 'paradise' without submission to Him. The present world systems are in revolt against God, yet they still endeavour to build a 'utopia' without Him – Science and Technology are two of the most widely used tools - not that there is anything inherently evil about science or technology, but the main aim with modern progress is to make the world safe, productive and pleasurable without allowing God's Word in – hence Public schools with atheist charters, the widespread teaching of evolution instead of creation, the secular media which claims to have no bias but which constantly excludes Christianity from the equation, abortion and euthanasia, embryonic stem cell production, and so on.
Cain's family tree shows that the first humans were not cave-people, or primitive. We have already seen that language, intelligence and great memory were already within the first two humans, now Cain develops his civilization using these and other skills. We have no idea what the first city looked like, but there is no need to believe it was just a cutter of houses with a wall. It could have been a grand affair, with many innovative facilities included – such as glass windows, metal and wood furniture, elaborate metalwork gates and decorations, murals, medical instruments, glasses, cog and belt machinery, mosaics, plumbing, toilets, advanced mathematics, pottery, glazing, smelting, writing, books, maps, star charts, time-measuring machines, and conveyances with wheels, suspension and even motors. Many inventions of today have been found, in more primitive forms, in the ruins of past civilizations. There is no good reason why Cain's children could not have been far more brilliant than people are, on average, today, with heightened abilities and amazing creativity. Adam and Eve were many times more intelligent than Einstein or Newton, so what might their children have been like?
Ancient Egypt is supposed to be one of the first civilizations – it was started soon after the Great Flood , but the sophistication of its achievements has long baffled scientists. The mathematical precision involved in constructing the pyramids is but one of the great mysteries of the past . . . but there have been many other equally surprising discoveries.
According to Dr. Colin Fink of the electro-chemistry department at Columbia University, the ancient Egyptians copper-coated many artifacts using a form of electro-chemical charge. A 'Scientific American' publication referred to this technique as “a secret later lost and not rediscovered until the last century by Faraday.” By Cleopatra's day the Parthians had even developed a primitive electric battery – the battery used a thin copper disc at the base of a small 10-centimeter (four inch) cylinder, and was used to gold-plate jewellery. 'Science Digest' called this “man's first industrial use of electricity.”
More recent was the discovery of what looks like an ancient Egyptian model glider found in a 2000 year old tomb. Former NASA contractee William Corliss called the scale model “a very advanced form of what is called a push-glider” Corliss says the glider would have glided on the air much like modern gliders and would have required aeronautical and mathematical precision.
In nearby Greece have been found the remains of what looks like a device which could have been used to compute planetary motion. The device looks like a clock, with several metal, cogged wheels, which interlock.
Cain's children.
Within a few years of Cain settling in the land or district named Nod (which means vagrancy, or wandering) a son was born, called Lamech, who took two wives. This is the first mention of polygamy in the Bible, and it shows how the human race was degenerating through inherited depravity. It sounds also as if Lamech was the second murderer in the world, for he says “I have slain a man to my wounding . . .” There is some dispute as to the exact meaning if his words. One commentator said the verse is in the 'continuous present' and should read, “If someone tries to wound me, I can kill them.”
Cain had three outstandingly inventive children. Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-cain. These three sons seem to represent founding ancestors in three main areas of technological achievement. In a similar way we talk of various people being 'the father of . . .” some particular branch of discovery.
Jabal – father of tent-dwellers. In other words, his line invented and lived mainly in tents, and shunned permanent buildings. This would have suited their lifestyle, which was keeping herds and flocks, as they would be able to move about, with their animals, and find grazing for the animals. This suggests that the world was not as lush as before, and perhaps that people were already skillful at raising stock, selective breeding, cooking and preparing meat, spinning, weaving, and tanning.
Jubal – The Hebrew for his name isYuwbal which means 'a stream'. The root for this word is yabal, which means 'to flow', or 'to bring forth' (especially with pomp). It seems that Jubal, who worked mainly with musical instruments had something to do with processions, ceremonies and so forth.
“he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.” The “harp” is a stringed instrument, which needs to be tuned, so some knowledge of harmonics is required. Harps may be accompanied, which brings in the idea of songs, notation, written lyrics, voice training and so on. The word “handle” means “manipulate” and the word “harp” comes from a word meaning “to twang” which tells us that the strings were plucked.
“organ” comes from a word meaning “to breathe”, which suggests something like a 'pan pipe' or some kind of flute. This again leads us into the areas of making such an instrument, understanding where to put the holes to create a scale, and so on.
Tubal-cain – his name means 'an offspring of Cain'. He was an instructor, or teacher, as well as a skilled craftsman. He trained people in mechanics and fabrication of metalwork, for this is what the Hebrew word means. “brass” in Hebrew is more likely copper. What can be made from copper? Because it is so malleable, it can be beaten into very thin sheets, or cut into wires. It can be polished into a good mirror, and in its thicker state fashioned into very solid hooks, chains, bars, sheets and so on. It can also be turned into spearheads, and other weapons. “Iron” on the other hand is harder and better used for tools, such as axes and adzes.
Why are we told the name of Tubal-cain's sister? This is one of many very curious little details which are embedded in God's Word. The name was picked up by an Ammonitess many years later, and used to name a place in Palestine. Perhaps the name itself, which means 'pleasantness' and 'pleasure' is significant? The world before the flood, despite being cursed, was an incredibly beautiful and wonderful place – remember the sky was probably cloudless, the climate mild and warm, and all the land was gathered into one place and bounded by the Sea. No icy cold winters came and went, no hurricanes or tornados. Humans were basically free of abnormalities, and all living things were near the top of the slide into degeneration.
“All the days of Lamech were 777 years; and he died.” (Gen.5:31) This expression “and he died” keeps appearing in Genesis, as if God wants to emphasize the fact that death comes to all, no matter how long they may live. Lamech died five years before the Flood.
The last verse of Genesis chapter four tells us that “then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” This may sound like a good thing, but what the Hebrew means is that “men began to call on their gods by the name of Jehovah”, or, “men began to profanely call upon the name of the Lord.” This is demonstrated in Exodus, where Israel, under Aaron's guidance “made a feast to Jehovah” and began to worship the golden calf. (Ex.32) This was mixed worship, a combination of God and Satan. The antidiluvians had corrupted the true knowledge of God and combined it with their religious views – is their any parallel with people today?
Genesis chapter Five. “The Book of the generations of Adam”
This chapter gives a list of the leading descendants of Adam from Creation to the Flood. These names reflect the godly line that stood for God, not that any of them were actually 'good' in the perfect sense. God pronounces “righteous” those who obey Him.
Adam lived 130 years before he had a son called Seth. He lived another 800 years after that, a total of 930 years. But he “begat sons and daughters” as well as Seth. None of these other children are mentioned or named, although it is highly probable that they were all recorded somewhere by someone, and stored as part of a library or collection for others to read. Unfortunately almost everything of the preFlood world was lost, and only a few things came through. Moses probably referred to copies of these histories when he compiled the account.
The Bible has its own built-in record of time, so it is quite easy to work out most of the dates, from today, back to Jesus, and then back through the time of exile, the passing of the kings of Judah then of Israel, back to the time of the Exodus, to Moses, to Joseph, and back to Abraham, and thence to Noah, and back through Adam's descendants to Adam himself. The ages of each leading male in the line, (which connects Adam to Jesus, through the kings of Judah) has the ages each male lived to. These are preFlood lifetimes, and the reason people lived longer then are possibly these: far better climate, far better food, no harmful rays from the sun, safer world, and near-perfect genetic supply – fewer mutations or defects.
It is an interesting exercise to draw a graph, with a line representing each name in the list (in Gen.5). By this it is easy to see who was alive at the same time as whom else. In many cases, some of the named men were contemporaries, and probably spoke to each other and shared memories. Adam, for example, had 930 years to pass on his wisdom to his many grandchildren.
Adam – 930 years
Seth – 912
Enos – 905
Cainan – 910
Mahalaleel - 895
Jared – 962
Enoch – 365 before God took him
Methuselah – 969
Lamech – 777
Noah – 600 when he entered the Ark. He died at 950 years.
Total years: 8575 including Enoch. Average life span: 857 years. By the time of Abraham the life expectancy had dropped to about 200 years. Today the average Westerner lives about 75-80 years.
Since the Flood age maximums have dropped and stayed low. Here are a few ages for comparison:
Salah 433
Peleg 239
Reu 239
Terah 205
Nahor 148
Abraham 175
Joseph 110
Samuel 111
David 71
Solomon 58
In more modern times: Henry I 67, Henry II 56, Henry III 65, Henry IV 47, Henry VI 50, Henry VII 53, Henry VIII 56, George I 67, George III 82, George V 71. One of the oldest people of modern times was Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 with all her faculties intact, at the age of 122 years, 164 days.
Enoch. There are two schools of thought about Enoch, the man whom God “took”. One view, the more traditional, says that Enoch was such a fine, godly fellow, God took him out of the world and brought him into heaven, as an example of what will one day happen to all believers. The other view, which I hold, is that Enoch died, and will sleep in the grave until Jesus returns, at which point “all that are in the graves” will rise and meet the returning King – John 5:28. (For more on this, see my essay “A Matter of Life and Death”)
But in life Enoch set an excellent example. We are told he “walked with God”. I think it quite likely that Enoch literally walked with God, just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden. At that time Jesus would have been what's known as 'preincarnate', that is, he had a glorious body, which was the basis for the shape He used when He made Adam and Eve.
“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Hebrews 11:5
We are not told that Enoch went to heaven, only that he was removed, or transported away from Earth, but we are told that he did not “see death”, which is a curious expression, and possibly means he did not have to go through the unpleasant experience of aging and feebleness.
“translated” in Greek ismetatithemi: meaning 'to transfer, i.e. (literally) transport, or remove.'
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints . . . etc” Jude 1:14
Enoch stood up against an ungodly world and had a good testimony in that he pleased God. He also had a revelation of the future and predicted the return of Christ. He was a preacher of righteousness in an evil world, and faithful to the last breath.
Genesis chapter 6.
This chapter begins with another controversial passage, concerning angels and humans interbreeding. One view is that the “sons of God” are the chosen line of Adam, and the “daughters of men” were the people who were not of the chosen blood line, but this does not explain why “giants” were born to them. If all humans are of the same stock, the offspring should be of any other kind. The other view is to take the Bible as it reads – angels interbred with humans and produced mutants, or very large offspring. The Bible uses a special word for these “giants” - nephilim.
Gen.6:4 “There were giants on the earth in those days . . .” “giants” = Heb.
“nephilim”. This word comes from another word meaning “to fall”. These giants were fallen ones, or mighty ones who had fallen. They were, apparently, of great size and also very wicked. They might be called superhuman. They were abnormal humans, and their destruction was essential in order to preserve the human race.
Gen. 6: 4 gives the origin of these giants. “The sons of God came in the daughters of men, and they bore children to them”. In other words, humans and angels interbred. The main objection to this is the biological one. How can human and angelic DNA combine? Surely the two are different species? The offspring, if offspring was at all possible, should have been sterile? But this objection is based on the assumption that DNA was involved from both sides. Other assumptions are also included as the human mind tries to assimilate a miraculous event and explain it in literal, earthly terms. (Without wanting to degrade the incarnation, was that not also a sort of combining of God with Man in a human woman’s womb?”)
Another explanation is often brought in here. The “sons of God” it is said, were actually a line of humans directly linked to Adam’s chosen lineage which would eventually come through to Mary the mother of Jesus. But this explanation misses the meaning of the expression “sons of God” which means “sons of El” – the angelic beings. It is not correct to call one line of humans “sons of God” and another line “children of men” because even Gentiles are able to be saved through faith, which would make nonsense of the expression if even a single Gentile was included in the “sons of God line” i.e. Ruth and Rahab.
“Sons of God” = angels. See Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7.
The flood, we are told, was brought in “upon the ungodly” (2Pet.2:5), something which Jude also predicted (Jude 14) and a good reason for that Flood would be the removal of these ‘nephilim’, who were a threat to the human race. Sadly, of course, the human race was also so corrupted it had to be destroyed too, but at least the ‘nephilim’ were gone.
But when we come to Numbers 13:33 we find that the ‘nephilim’ are in the story again. How did they get there? Gen. 6:4 tells us “There were giants in the earth in those days (before the flood) and also after that . . .( that is, after the flood). It seems clear that after the Flood there was a second irruption of angels interbreeding with humans, only this time they were fewer in number (perhaps because of the consequences of their first attempt) and their area of contamination was limited to the land of Palestine. Apparently these giants were already occupying the land before Israel arrived, and, as the spies said when they returned to Moses: “There we saw the giants, (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Num.13:33)
The giants had many large families, and soon the nations known as the Canaanites were a cross-section of humans and hybrids, all pagan and antagonistic to the Israelites. Satan’s plan, of course, was to destroy Israel because he knew that some how God was working out a plan through these people. Whether he knew all the details I could not say, but whatever God loved, Satan hated, so he organised a force of resistance and placed his armies in readiness in the Promised Land, to stop the Abrahamic Covenant promises from being fulfilled.
In Gen. 14:5 a number of nephilim families are mentioned. They are called “Rephaim” and “Zuzims” and “Emims”. They were well established in Ashteroth and Shaveh Kiriathaim. As Gen.12:6 says “the Canaanite was then (i.e. “already”) in the land”. By itself this verse only implies that there were nephilim in the land when Abraham arrived from Haran, but we can safely assume that Satan was organising things in his attempt to destroy the promised “seed” which God said would come through Abraham. This “seed” was meant to inherit the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:7)
In Gen.15:18-21 the Canaanite nations are named. At this time the nephilim were mixed in amongst them. For further information, see Gen.15:18-21, and Ex.3:8, 17, 23:23, and Deut. 20:17 and Josh.12:8.
God said the Canaanites were to be “cut off” which means “utterly destroyed’ – Deut.20:7, Josh 3:10. But Israel failed to obey this command fully – Josh.13:13, 15:63, 16:10, 17:18, Judg.1:19-36, 2:1-5, 3:1-7, and many nephilim were scattered into the countries around Palestine. It is highly likely that the stories about these giants filtered down through myths and legends, and soon became the Greek gods and other deities. There are several reasons why this is likely: 1. Most ancient pagan stories have a mixture of immoral and immoral heroes, 2. The supernatural is frequently involved, 3. Many of the stories are phantasmagorical. The many stories also pose the question as to where they came from – are they purely the result of unaided imagination, or is there some substance to them?
Another names for these giants was the Anakim. The Anakim – Num.13:23. They were descended from Anak, who was the son of Arba, one of the “sons of Heth” – Gen.23:3, who, seven years before the building of Zoar in Egypt (Gen.23:2, Num.13:22, Josh.15:13, 45), built Hebron, which was called Kirjath-arba, which means ‘the city of Arba’. Anak, his son, had three distinguished descendants in the days of Moses and Joshua (about 1490 BC) Num.13:22. Their names were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai. They lived in Hebron. The Israelites, we have already noted, said they were “like grasshoppers’ compared to these huge men, Num.13:28, 33, which greatly disheartened the rest of Israel – Deut.1:28.
So, rather than building a case out of almost nothing, we have a great deal of information about these nephilim – their names, their cities, and where they lived. From these facts were may conjecture that since these nephilim were larger than the average human, they might need larger buildings to live in, which might explain why many of the ruins of the ‘ancient world’ are made from such large blocks of stone. Perhaps, too, the technology which was used in those days was based on ‘giant’s’ intellects, and used larger workers who could haul and lift stones with greater strength?
The Anakim were great, and many, and tall, but they were not invulnerable. They were actually driven out of their land by the Moabites (Deut.2:10-12) but it was a common saying, or proverb “Who can stand before the sons of Anakim?” – Deut.9:2. Yet Joshua, powered by God, was able to cut them down, from the mountains and wherever he found them – Josh.11:21, 22. These giants had great and fenced cities, the chief of which was Hebron, which they called Kirjath-arba, but Joshua was able to destroy all he came against. He drove out the three leading descendants of Anak and the Kohathites inherited the city – Josh.21:11.
Just in passing it is interesting to notice how few if any Bible picture books illustrate these events with the inclusion of the giants. Once again the artists have done the Church and public a grave disservice by omitting the truth.
The Rephaim (Gen.14:5, 15:20) were also called the Zamzummims, the Zuzim, the Emim and the Anakim.
Zamzummim means “powerful” or “vigorous” (Deut.2:20).
Emim means “the terrible”. Being a race of gigantic stature, they originally lived on the east of the Dead Sea. In ancient times, the whole country was held and occupied by the race of giants: the Rephaim to the north, then a little further south the Zuzim, then the Emim, and right down in the south the Horim. In time the kingdom of Bashan embraced the territories of the Rephaim. The Ammonites took over the territory of the Zuzim, and the Moabites took over the territory where the Emim lived, while Edom embraced the mountains of the Horim. The Emim were related to the Anakim and were generally called by the same name, but their conquerors the Moabites were the ones who called them the Emim – see Gen.14:5, Deaut.2:10, 2:11.
Horim means “troglodyte”, or “cave-dweller”. These were the original, or first inhabitants of Mt. Seir, probably related to the Emim and Rephaim. Their excavated dwellings are still found in their hundreds in the sandstone cliffs and mountains of Edom, but especially at Petra – Gen.14:6, 36:20, 21, 29, Deut.2:12,22.
All the above nephilim, here listed, were well known during the times when they lived, and the name Rephaim is often mentioned in Scripture. Unfortunately, because the translators had a problem with “giants” they variously translated the word as “dead”, “deceased” or, correctly as “giants”. One needs to examine the text carefully to find the original Hebrew, in order to gain the correct reading, sometimes.
The Rephaim have no resurrection – Is.26:5, Ps.88:10, Prov.2:18, 9:18, 21:16, Is.14:8, 26:19. The name is rendered “deceased” in Is.26:14. In other places it is rendered “Rephaim” – gen.14:5, 15:20, Josh.12:15 (sometimes mentioned in the margin), 2Sam.5:18,22, 1Chron.11:15, 14:9, 20:4 (sometimes in margin), and Is.17:5.
The same word is rendered “giants” in Gen.6:4, Num.23:33 and Job 16:14, where the Hebrew word is ‘gibor’, or ‘geber’, which denotes a specific type of man. See also Ex.10:11, 12:37 and 1Sam.16:18
Goliath
Goliath (1Sam.17:4) was undoubtedly a giant, and not simply a larger-than-average man. His size and height have often been played down because of a disbelief in what the Bible says. He was called a Philistine, but was probably descended from one of the scattered nephilim who were dispersed by the Ammonites. (Deut.2:20,21 and 2Sam21:22). By all estimates he was over nine feet tall. There have been skeletons found in Palestine, in about the same area, which have been at least nine feet long, and also elsewhere, of so-called ‘mystery’ skulls, which indicate bodies of immense size, if the skull is anything to go by.
Other individual giants are mentioned too – 2Sam. 21:16-22.
“The persistence of a giant race” writes Unger, “persisted in the ancient Near East, and goes back in the Genesis account to intercourse between fallen angels and fallen women. Although this so-called ‘angel hypothesis’ is disclaimed by many Bible students, it is a clear implication of the original.”
W.F. Albright wrote “Yahweh (Jehovah) was believed to have created astral as well as terrestrial beings, and the former were popularly called “the host of heaven”, or “the sons of God” . . . the (astral) gods had intercourse with mortal women who gave birth to heroes (literally meteors, or in Hebrew ‘nephilim’), an idea that may often be illustrated by Babylonian and Greek mythology. But the Israelite who had this section recited, unquestionably thought of intercourse between angels and women”. (‘From Stone Age to Christianity’ published 1940, page 226)
The two irruptions.
The Bible makes it clear that there were two irruptions of angels. The first occurred before the Great Flood and the second came after it. In both cases it seems to have been an attempt by Satan to either destroy Mankind, or to interbreed and thus usurp his place on Earth. If, for example, Satan had managed to pollute the chosen line, God would have had a big problem choosing it for the Messiah, and what a mess it would have made of the whole principle of redemption! Satan’s ‘spanner in the works’ would have ruined everything.
The strength of the nephilim is seen today in the ruins of the cities they built. For example the “giant cities of Bashan” which tourists still visit and wonder at. Everywhere these giants went they left their mark, but because people fail to accept the Bible account as it is written, they come up with many curious explanations to account for the things they find.
Deut. 3:11 “For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah, of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length, and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit”.
How large was it? A cubit is about 18”, taken from the elbow to the end of the longest finger. Nine times 18” equals 162 inches, or more than 13 feet.
There are several theories as to why angels no longer try to co-habit with humans. One theory is that the angels who attempted it first were wiped out by water, and the last few who tried were destroyed by Israel and other nations. This may have served as a deterrent to any other angels who might consider it. Or, perhaps Satan has moved on to other tactics? Perhaps the human race is now so large he knows he could not succeed with this method – especially with modern weapons available to Man.
A second theory suggests that instead of interbreeding, the angels sometimes try something similar – possession. Instead of producing hybrid offspring, they simply occupy a human body and manipulate it as they will. (These are notes from my essay “Giants”)
No prehistoric giant skeletons have been found, as far as I know, but the Encyclopedia (article on Dwarfism and Gigantism) says that humans, like other mammals can grow to outsize as well as miniature size: “Large skeletal fragments have been found in Java, and molars of tremendous dimensions were located in China and ascribed by some investigators to a human stock . . . it may not be too far from the truth to suggest the Java giant was much bigger than any living gorilla, and that the Chinese giant was twice as large as a male gorilla.”
The ancient Greeks had a strong tradition that Giants lived in the early days of the human race. Fantastic MYTHS were woven around them, such as Atlas being compelled to hold up the sky as a punishment for rebellion against Zeus. The Bible is not a collection of myths, but simply records the truth, regardless of whether we believe it or not.
“Genesis 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5
These are powerful verses, because they tell us why God sent the Great Flood, and also what offended Him: violence, and thoughts. It was because of the thought-life that wrath came, and not just actions. This should make us wonder at God's love and mercy, because we know our thought life is not always pure in His sight. We should tremble in fear before a holy God, who has forgiven us all the years of unholy thoughts which we have hidden in our heads and never spoken.
“violence” chamac khaw-mawce’; from a primitive root meaning 'to be violent; by implication, to maltreat' and 'to make bare, shake off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong, imagine wrongfully; by implication, wrong, unjust gain, damage, falseness, injustice, oppression, unrighteousness.
“corrupt” carries the meaning of 'decaying' and 'ruined'.
It is as astonishing to think that, from the “very good” beginning of the world, in only ten generations from Adam the human race had become so wicked, evil, violent and corrupt it was not fit to go on living. And of all mankind, only four men and four women were spared, because they did not go with the tide of sin.
But were the reasons given for the Great Flood serious enough to warrant the wholesale destruction of the human race plus the surface of the inhabitable world? The Bible tells us Mankind was created as a special being, a sort of small version of God Himself, and as such he was expected to live as God lived. But Mankind broke the rules, and God's Holiness was offended. However, the final judgement is yet to come, at the Day of resurrection, when all who have lived will stand before God for sentencing. As John Calvin wrote: “ . . .that wickedness was too deeply seated in their hearts, to leave any hope of repentance.”
Why were the Earth and the animals destroyed too? Again, Calvin wrote: “The earth was like a wealthy house, well supplied with every kind of provision in abundance and variety. Now since Man has defiled the earth itself with his crimes, and has vilely corrupted all the riches with which it was replenished, the Lord also designed that the monument of His punishment should be there placed: just as if a judge, about to punish a most wicked and nefarious criminal, should, for the sake of greater infamy, command his house to be razed to the foundation. And this all tends to inspire us with a dread of sin; for we may easily infer how great is its atrocity, when the punishment of it is extended even to the brute creation.”
But mixed with judgement was mercy, for God so loved the world that He gave it Noah and an open Ark, that whosoever should choose to enter that Ark should not perish, but have life.
God gave the world a mighty example of godliness. Noah was “a just man”, who was “perfect in his generations” (i.e. Family history), who “walked with God” and who “found grace in the eyes of God”. He was also a “preacher of righteousness” (2Pet.2:5) Perhaps he preached from the gradually forming platform of the Ark?
Genesis six, seven and eight are about Noah, the Ark, and the worldwide Flood. Such a huge event deserves three chapters because it was the cause of many huge changes in the course of the Earth's development and Man's history. God gave the world 120 years before judgement struck (Gen.6:3) (This verse cannot refer to a limit on Man's age because Abram lived to 175 (Gen.25:7))
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” Hebrews 11:7
Faith and obedience go together. It was not Noah's faith which saved him, it was his faith in action. He could have believed there was a flood coming, but if he had not done something about it, he would have perished. In a similar way Christian is as Christian does.
There are three arks in the Bible. The first two were black inside and out, the third was covered in beaten gold.
“Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.” Genesis 6:14
“And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.” Exodus 2:3
“gopher” wood. Strong's suggests cypress. One study I read suggested that 'gopher' comes from a root meaning 'laminated'. When I see the dimensions of the ark I cannot think of anywhere a laminated surface might be needed, if the planks were tight-fitting and covered in a thick layer of tar. Perhaps a bend in the wood might be useful if the ark had a curved prow, but it was rectangular, like a barge, and all its planes were horizontal or vertical, not linear.
“pitch' means bitumen, or tar. There are skeptics who say there could not have been any pitch in the world because it is a 'fossil fuel' but Man was very intelligent in those days, and he probably knew how to stack vegetation into a large pile and extract the resulting thick tar which forms. Anyone who has let a decent sized compost heap rot will know about pitch forming. (Bullinger says “pitch” is not bitumen, but “resin” but Strong's says “bitumen”)
World-wide Flood Traditions.
Stories of a gigantic flood that destroyed nearly all mankind are found all over the world. The most detailed accounts come, as we would expect, from countries nearest to 'Ararat', the mountain where many believe the Ark came to rest – though there is some dispute over the actual name of the mountain, because the Hebrew was translated thousands of years after the event.
Versions of the Flood story turn up in Persia, India, Burma, Indonesia, Sarawak, New Guinea, Tahiti, Hawaii, China, Japan, Congo, South Africa, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Finland, Lapland, Wales and Ireland. This supports the Bible which says from the three sons of Noah the whole earth was populated (Gen.9:19) Of course today the Bible has come to these countries, but the stories were there before the Bible arrived.