What Became Of Adam’s and Eve’s Early Children?
Posted: Friday, August 19, 2011
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
To try and trace the early descendants of Adam and Eve, is a rather daunting task, but a number of things can be learned by thoughtful and determined study. We learn with no difficulty that the first couple initially had two sons, Cain and Abel, but Cain’s murdering of Abel sort of put the descendants on hold slightly. We also remember that God placed a mark on Cain so that people dare not kill him, then put him on his own.
And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. (Genesis 5:4-5 KJV)
It is conspicuous that following the above, there is virtually nothing written concerning Cain’s other descendants, so it is assumed that nothing of note transpired except within the lineage of Seth. Many scholars also assume that, for the most part, the other descendants may have continued to follow after God.
When one considers the longevity here of eight hundred more years, it is entirely possible that Adam’s children numbered in the hundreds. We can almost rest assured that one of the daughters became the wife of Cain, if not, assuredly a granddaughter or niece.
The descendants of Seth, however, are of particular note since it is shown that Lamech was the fifth in the descent from Adam via Seth. It is worthy of some notice that by the time Lamech came on the scene, the vast majority of the population had already left living according to God’s directives. Lamech, although the first to be recorded as marrying two wives, which was not as God had intended, very likely was not the first to do so.
Also some scholars contend that his speech was the first recorded as being poetic in nature. I’m not sure that it was so intended. Here is what he said so the reader can decide for him or her self.
And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. (Genesis 4:23 KJV)
It seems that the descendants of Seth were the main ones who were leaving God out of their lives. Below are some quotations concerning this by Alfred Edersheim, historian:
Of God there is no further acknowledgment than in a reference to the avenging of Cain, from which Lamech augurs his own safety. Nor is it without special purpose that the names of Lamech's wives and of his daughter are mentioned in Scripture. For their names point to "the lust of the eye, and the lust of the flesh," just as the occupations of Lamech's sons point to "the pride of life." The names of his wives were "Adah," that is, "beauty," or "adornment;" and "Zillah," that is, "the shaded," perhaps from her tresses, or else "sounding," perhaps from her song; while "Naamah," as Lamech's daughter was called, means "pleasant, graceful, lovely." And here we come upon another and most important feature in the history of the "Cainites."
The pursuits and inventions of the sons of Lamech point to the culture of the arts, and to a settled and permanent state of society. His eldest son by Adah, "Jabal, was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle," that is, he made even the pastoral life a regular business. His second son, "Jubal, was the father of all such as handle the harp (or cithern), and the flute (or sackbut)," in other words, the inventor alike of stringed and of wind instruments; while Tubal-Cain,*** Lamech's son by Zillah, was "an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron."
Taken in connection with Lamech's sword-song, which immediately follows the scriptural account of his sons' pursuits, we are warranted in designating the culture and civilization introduced by the family of Lamech as essentially godless. And that, not only because it was that of ungodly men, but because it was pursued independent of God, and in opposition to the great purposes which He had with man.
Moreover, it is very remarkable that we perceive in the Cainite race those very things which afterwards formed the characteristics of heathenism, as we find it among the most advanced nations of antiquity, such as Greece and Rome. Over their family-life might be written, as it were, the names Adah, Zillah, Naamah; over their civil life the "sword-song of Lamech," which indeed strikes the key-note of ancient heathen society; and over their culture and pursuits, the abstract of the biographies which Scripture furnishes us of the descendants of Cain. And as their lives have been buried in the flood, so has a great flood also swept away heathenism - its life, culture, and civilization from the earth, and only left on the mountaintop that ark into which God had shut up them who believed His warnings and His promises. (Bible History Old Testament by Alfred Edersheim* Chapter 3)
[*Note: Alfred Edersheim 1825-1889, renowned scholar and historian, Jewish convert to Christianity.]
It is worthy of note also, that this period of Lamech’s life was around 874 A.M. to 1651 A.M. It is probable that many of the Cainites were drifting away from God at this time because we know that the entire world’s population was astray and evil very shortly after 1600 A.M.
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