MadHatter

I am a new user here. I was raised as a catholic, but I am now atheistic. I do, however, wish to understand better what the christians are talking about. For this reason, I have started re-reading that 2000 page sleeping pill known as the bible.

Let's start in genesis. Right after Cain kills Abel. At this point, we have Adam, Eve, and Cain. The next thing we know Cain has a wife. Where did this wife come from? Did god just randomly create more people? I am interested to hear some theories on this.

Skeptic Pete

There are two apologetic responses to this question, neither of which of course makes much sense to me.

1/ Some people believe that there were other people existing outside the land of nod for Adam and Eve's sons to marry.

2/ Some believe that incest wasn't a "sin" back then so the explanation is that Cain married one of his many sisters.


One of the best ways to really understand the mindset of the creationist type christian is to mosey on over to Answers in Genesis-After Eden cartoon and read through the cartoons of "After Eden". There are some truly classic ones about Adam and Eve!

At first I used to get a laugh out of them but now they just make me wanna puke.

Mosor

I'm surprised that as a catholic, you took the genesis stories literally. Most catholics I know don't.

Amaleq13

Welcome to BC&H,MadHatter!

You might want to check this recent thread to see what ground has already been covered.

MadHatter

I was raised as a catholic. I never really parcticed it. Actually, I was as about as anti-religious as a child could have been....

offa

In the bible they fib about their ages. When they are begat they are celebrating their bar mizveh. Abel was old enough to have a wife and Cain took her from him. You should read Jubilees, it goes into more detail than does Genesis.

offa

MadHatter

And which "version" of the bible contains Jubilees? I can't seem to find it. I realize I have a lot to learn, but the more I learn about christianity, the less sense it makes.

offa

I had an on-line version. I think I found it using Yahoo and looking for Jubilees. I have several personal books about Jubilees and my favorite is by Charlesworth. You can find Jubilees through the encyclopedia britainica or www.eb.com.
Or www.yahoo.com.

Most of Jubilees was rediscovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls blowing the Catholic argument that it was by a spirious writer from the eigth century out of the water.

Another name for Jubilees is "the book of division".

Shameless Hussy

Here is an online version, with introduction:
http://www.ccel.org/c/charles/otpseudepig/jubilee/

As it is referred to as apocryphal, would it not be in the Catholic bibles? I thought they included the apocrypha... Or is Jubilees extra-super-apocryphal?

Joshua Adams

The Catholic canon only contains those apocrypha that are in the Septuagint (a Greek translation started around 300 BC). Their canon contains Tobit, Judith, 1-2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, and additions to Esther and Daniel.

There are hundreds of ancient documents that are similar to the books of the Bible, yet Christians generally consider them spurious and heretical.