Questions about Genesis

Richard Anthony


  1. Did Adam and Eve sin by eating an apple?

    Answer: No, the scripture does not specify what kind of fruit it was (Genesis 3:6), just that it was fruit.


  2. Was childbirth the punishment given to women for the sin of Eve?

    Answer: No, God just multiplied the pain of childbirth. This is proven by Genesis 1:28, where God told man and woman to "multiply and replenish the earth" before they sinned. If God instructed them to have children before they sinned, then it could not have been a curse after they sinned.


  3. Why did God confound the language of the people at the tower of Babel?

    Answer: Because after the flood, God commanded men to "replenish the earth" (Genesis 9:1). But men were gathering in one place and refused to be "scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:4). So by confounding their language, it caused them to flee and replenish the earth (Genesis 11:8-9).


  4. Why was Cain's offering rejected by the Lord, and Abel's offering accepted? (Genesis 4:2-7).

    Answer: The Septuagint tells us the answer:

    Genesis 4:7, "Hast thou not sinned if thou hast brought it rightly, but not rightly divided it?"

    It is because Cain did not rightly divide his offering, according to God's Law.

    For example, when one offered animals to the Lord, one had to offer a tenth of the first born of the animals (Exodus 13:12-13; 34:19-20, Leviticus 27:26,32 Numbers 18:17, Deuteronomy 12:6; 14:23; 15:19, II Chronicles 31:6, Nehemiah 10:36), and this Abel did, so it was accepted by God. Likewise, when one offered the fruit of the ground to the Lord, one had to give a tenth (the word "tithe" means "tenth) of it (Leviticus 27:30, Deuteronomy 14:22-23, II Chronicles 31:5, Nehemiah 10:37; 13:5,12), and this Cain did not do (he did not divide it rightly, but gave God less than what was required, and kept more for himself), and so it was rejected by the Lord.

    The reason it was rejected was because to give less than a tenth to God was the same as robbing God, for one withheld something that belonged to God.

    Malachi 3:8, "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings."


  5. Where was the garden of Eden located?

    Answer: In Genesis 2:11-14, the general location of the garden of Eden is revealed. Four rivers are mentioned. The first river is Pison, from the land of Havilah. The location of this land is unknown, but it is located in Genesis 10:7, 25:18 as relating to localities and people within a Mesopotamian-Arabian framework. The second river, Gihon, compassed the whole land of Ethiopia. The third river is Hiddekel, and is toward the east of Assyria, which is a mountainous region lying to the north of Babylonia, extending along the Tigris as far as to the high mountain range of Armenia, the Gordiaean or Carduchian mountains. And the fourth river is Euphrates, which is in the land of Iraq today, and part of Syria and Turkey. So Eden was in the general location of these countries.

    In addition, the site of ancient Babylon ("Gate of the God") lies about 50 miles south of Baghdad, in one of the most fertile places on the earth. The land, called by the Babylonians Edin or Edinu (which means "the plain"), is the same as the Eden mentioned in Genesis 2!


  6. In Genesis 6, did spirtual or fallen "angels" marry women and have offspring?

    Answer: No. Many people believe that the phrase "the sons of God," in verses 2 and 4, refer to fallen angels. Firstly, Jesus specifically said that angels "neither marry, nor are given in marriage" (Matthew 22:30). To believe that angels actually did marry women would be to contradict Jesus' teaching. God did not give angels the capacity for it because they are spirit beings, they are made of spirit. They may manifest themselves in the form of a man only when God allows it.

    Secondly, angels cannot cross over to the realm of man or animals to engage in reproduction. When God creates man, he places a spirit in him (Ecclesiastes 3:21; 12:7, Zechariah 12:1). God is the one who is in charge, and in control, of His creation. So, supposedly, if an angel came to a woman, what kind of spirit would God place in that supposed half man and half demon? You see, it's a total impossibility, because there's no such thing. God, who is the creator, does not allow bestiality in the sense of crossing over. Now, some people engage in bestiality (having sex with animals), but the reality is they cannot reproduce! It's a total impossibility because God created a Law; everything He created was "after his kind" (Genesis 1:11-12, 21, 24-25; 6:20; 7:14). There is no way to cross that boundary. And science has never, ever discovered any example where there was a crossing of the species.

    Thirdly, from Genesis 6:1-9, you will see God constantly refers to "men." He puts all the responsibility on "men." And he's going to judge only "men." If angels were involved then angels would have been punished also, as the chief culprits who are responsible for it. But it's not them who paid the penalty, it was men.

    There is a distinction made here between men and those called the sons of God. It is generally supposed that the "sons of God" were the family of Seth, who were professedly religious; and the "daughters of men" were the descendants of apostate Cain. The sons of God (not angels, as some have dreamed), were, according to our Lord's doctrine, born again, born from above (John 3:3,5,6, &c.), and made children of God by the influence of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:6).


  7. Genesis 6 mentions "giants." What are these giants?

    Answer: By reading the Septuagint, we can understand who these giants were. "Giants" is translated from Hebrew word #5303. This word only appears in two passages of scripture. Here are the two passages as quoted from the Septuagint:

    Genesis 6:4, "Now the giants were upon the earth in those days; and after that when the sons of God were wont to go in to the daughters of men, they bore children to them, those were the giants of old, the men of renown."

    Numbers 13:32-33, "And they brought a horror of that land which they surveyed upon the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed by to survey it, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of extraordinary stature. And there we saw the giants; and we were before them as locusts, yea even so were we before them."

    As we can see, the word "giants" refer to "men of renown" and "extraordinary stature." It does not refer to men who were physically huge. As a matter of fact, scripture describes many men who were very large, but it never uses the Hebrew word #5303, to describe these tall people. For example, Goliath is described in 1 Samuel 17:4 as 9 feet, 9 inches tall, but he, nor his brothers, are never associated with Hebrew word #5303.

    However, Hebrew word #7497, which is also translated as "giants", does indeed mean someone who is physically tall. Hebrew word #7497 is noun and appears in the plural form, Rephaim (Hebrew Word #7498). They were a very ancient, primitive nation of pre-Semitic peoples of Canaan who lived to the east of the Jordan River. They seemed to have been famous for their gigantic stature (Genesis 14:5; 15:20; Is. 17:5, Deuteronomy 2:11,20; 3:11,13, Joshua 12:4; 13:12; 15:8; 17:15; 18:16, II Samuel 5:18,22; 21:16,18,22; 23:13; 23:13, I Chronicles 11:15; 14:9; 20:4,6,8, Isaiah 17:5). Some of them lasted until the time of David. This name appears to have been an inclusive term, referring to other tribal nations in Palestine—the Emim, the Zamzummim, and the Anakim (Deut. 2:11, 20). The Septuagint was the first to use the equivalent term for "giant."


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