The Posterity of Cain.
This Is Appendix
20 From The Companion Bible.
It
is important to note that the posterity of Cain comes in the First Toledoth,
videlicet, that of "the generations of the heavens and the earth";
and not in "the book of the generations of Adam."
The posterity of Seth commences with "the generations
of Adam": showing that the two accounts are distinct, and deal
with two different subjects. See the Structures on pages 3 and 5 of
the Companion Bible (Genesis 2:4 - 4:26; 5:1 - 6:8).
- The
generations of the heavens and the earth (2:4 - 4:26).
-
-
J 1 | 2:4 - 25. Before the Fall.
-
J 2 | 3:1 - 34. The Fall.
-
J 3 | 4:1 - 26. After the Fall.
- The
expansion of J 3. "After the Fall" (4:1 - 26), page 8 of the Companion Bible in Genesis.
-
-
J 3 | L | 1 - 16. Adam's sons: Cain and Abel.
-
| M | 17 - 24. Cain's son: Enoch.
-
| L | 25. Adam's son: Seth.
-
| M | 26. Seth's son:
Enos.
There
were 130 years before Seth was born and substituted for Abel in the
line of the promised seed.
In those 130 years after Cain, Adam must have begotten "sons and daughters", as in the 800 years after Seth.
If Abel died in A.M. 125, and Abel and Cain had children
before that year, even supposing they had no descendants till they reached
the age of sixty-five, Adam could have had 130 children. And if each
of these could have a child at sixty-five years of age, one in each
successive year, there would have been 1,219 in A.M. 130. If we suppose
Adam's earlier sons and daughters to have had children at the age of
twenty-one instead of at sixty-five, there would have been over half
a million in the 130 years, without reckoning the old or young, and
this at a very moderate rate of increase.
It is generally assumed that Adam and Eve had no children beyond those named. But, as in the line of Seth, it is
clear from Genesis 5:4 that they had, we may well conclude that the
same was the case in the line of Cain. It is a gratuitous assumption
that Abel had no posterity.
It is manifest that the history assumes a considerable
population; and the fact that there is no attempt to explain it, proves
its genuineness, and shows that we are left to explain it for ourselves
in the only natural way by which it can be explained.
Appendix List
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