Buckle up boys and girls. We’re about to go on a wild ride today.
When we consider the early chapters of Genesis, there are basically two camps; those who believe God created other people after He created Adam and Eve. And there are those of us who believe the early years were a purer version of Kentucky. You know what I mean, where kissing cousins is encouraged.
Don’t come at me Kentucky. I know it’s not everyone down there, but you know where they are.
We're going to do some math today. But wait, before you tune me out, we're also going to talk about sex.
That's right. You'll be glad you stayed.
So what are we talking about?
How much coupling could the first couple couple?
Math Time!
How many kids are we talking about here?
So, why all the baby math?
I was conversing with friends about whether or not God created other people after He created Adam and Eve. As is normally the case when this conversation comes up, the question bothering people is whether or not Cain would have married his sister or not. While this seems like a no-brainer for anyone from Kentucky, others tend to struggle with that idea.
It's at this point that we have to admit we don't know. The Bible remains silent on this issue in either direction. It doesn't tell us that God made other people. But it also doesn't tell us how many kids the first couple made.
And filling the Earth is what we're really talking about today.
Because God commanded Adam and Eve to fill the earth and subdue it (Gen. 1:28), I'm going to assume He created them very capable of reproducing. And because there was no Netflix, I'm also going to assume they had lots of time to...um...chill.
Here are some other assumptions I'm going to make:
via GIPHY
Ok, now for some math. It takes 10 months to cook a baby, so Eve could be having a baby every year. But let's give her a little break and assume she's having 1 child every 2 years. Over the course of 40 years, she could have 20 kids. That's not outside the realm of our imagination, because we've all seen reality television.
Now let's assume Eve lived mostly the same amount of years as her husband, Adam, who lived to be 950. Because she's the model woman, let's give her 400 years of reproductive power. That means it's possible she could have had 200 kids all by herself! Imagine being a middle child in this scenario.
Ah, but she's not alone in this baby-making venture. What about the kids she's had in those 400 years?
Let's assume she's making these babies on a pretty regular schedule, and that she's having an even ratio of guys to girls. Oh, we're also going to assume that her children are having children at the same frequency. I know, it's a lot of assumptions, but for a society as obsessed with sex as we are, I don't think these are wild assumptions. Do you?
Once you allow for some years to pass and Adam and Eve's children to begin pairing off and making babies, the math becomes exponential. By the time Eve has had 100 kids using our 1 kid every 2 years equation, 80 of them are of baby-making age. That means 40 couples making babies!
There's a lot more math that could be done, but I'm going to guess those first 100 couples that Eve produced also did their share of producing. If 100 couples are having kids at even close to the rate Adam and Eve did, the numbers start to get very large very fast. Again, where there's no streaming, it leaves more time for steaming.
I don't know if you've ever been at a family reunion where you're trying to figure out if someone is your first cousin or your second cousin, once removed, but it would not take more than a generation for the fear of incest to be a distant memory.
A few reasons;
First, we too often think some of the earliest stories from the Bible are unexplainable. They're not. We just need to consider a few things.
Second, I think it's a whole lot more fun to imagine how God made some things possible than to assume alternate theories which cause as many problems as they solve. Sure, we avoid thinking about Cain with his sister if we assume God made other people. But then we have to deal with Romans 5:12, where we're told sin entered the world through one man. While it's possible sin entered through Adam and impacted every other God-made family, it at least creates some complications that don't need to be there.
But mostly, I wanted to make the Netflix joke. See, I told you it would be worth it.
When we consider the early chapters of Genesis, there are basically two camps; those who believe God created other people after He created Adam and Eve. And there are those of us who believe the early years were a purer version of Kentucky. You know what I mean, where kissing cousins is encouraged.
Don’t come at me Kentucky. I know it’s not everyone down there, but you know where they are.
We're going to do some math today. But wait, before you tune me out, we're also going to talk about sex.
That's right. You'll be glad you stayed.
So what are we talking about?
How much coupling could the first couple couple?
Math Time!
How many kids are we talking about here?
So, why all the baby math?
I was conversing with friends about whether or not God created other people after He created Adam and Eve. As is normally the case when this conversation comes up, the question bothering people is whether or not Cain would have married his sister or not. While this seems like a no-brainer for anyone from Kentucky, others tend to struggle with that idea.
It's at this point that we have to admit we don't know. The Bible remains silent on this issue in either direction. It doesn't tell us that God made other people. But it also doesn't tell us how many kids the first couple made.
And filling the Earth is what we're really talking about today.
Because God commanded Adam and Eve to fill the earth and subdue it (Gen. 1:28), I'm going to assume He created them very capable of reproducing. And because there was no Netflix, I'm also going to assume they had lots of time to...um...chill.
Here are some other assumptions I'm going to make:
- Adam and Eve could have had kids before the Fall. After all, God told her He was going to greatly increase her pains in childbearing. (Gen. 3:16) Eve had to understand this was a curse somehow, right?
- Eve was the perfect woman, likely equipped with super-ovaries that made her pregnant any time Adam even looked at her. After all, where God guides, He provides.
- These family lines were pure, meaning we're not going to need to worry bout babies with 2 heads.
- Cain and Abel were men when the skirmish happened (Gen. 4) and there were people Cain was concerned about being killed by other people. Who better to take revenge on the death of Able than a sibling? If Cain and Abel were in their 30's or 40's, Adam and Eve could have made 20-30 other kids now, some of whom were now adults.
Ok, now for some math. It takes 10 months to cook a baby, so Eve could be having a baby every year. But let's give her a little break and assume she's having 1 child every 2 years. Over the course of 40 years, she could have 20 kids. That's not outside the realm of our imagination, because we've all seen reality television.
Now let's assume Eve lived mostly the same amount of years as her husband, Adam, who lived to be 950. Because she's the model woman, let's give her 400 years of reproductive power. That means it's possible she could have had 200 kids all by herself! Imagine being a middle child in this scenario.
Ah, but she's not alone in this baby-making venture. What about the kids she's had in those 400 years?
Let's assume she's making these babies on a pretty regular schedule, and that she's having an even ratio of guys to girls. Oh, we're also going to assume that her children are having children at the same frequency. I know, it's a lot of assumptions, but for a society as obsessed with sex as we are, I don't think these are wild assumptions. Do you?
Once you allow for some years to pass and Adam and Eve's children to begin pairing off and making babies, the math becomes exponential. By the time Eve has had 100 kids using our 1 kid every 2 years equation, 80 of them are of baby-making age. That means 40 couples making babies!
There's a lot more math that could be done, but I'm going to guess those first 100 couples that Eve produced also did their share of producing. If 100 couples are having kids at even close to the rate Adam and Eve did, the numbers start to get very large very fast. Again, where there's no streaming, it leaves more time for steaming.
I don't know if you've ever been at a family reunion where you're trying to figure out if someone is your first cousin or your second cousin, once removed, but it would not take more than a generation for the fear of incest to be a distant memory.
A few reasons;
First, we too often think some of the earliest stories from the Bible are unexplainable. They're not. We just need to consider a few things.
Second, I think it's a whole lot more fun to imagine how God made some things possible than to assume alternate theories which cause as many problems as they solve. Sure, we avoid thinking about Cain with his sister if we assume God made other people. But then we have to deal with Romans 5:12, where we're told sin entered the world through one man. While it's possible sin entered through Adam and impacted every other God-made family, it at least creates some complications that don't need to be there.
But mostly, I wanted to make the Netflix joke. See, I told you it would be worth it.
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