What’s the Real Story behind Genesis?
Or, what’s the significance of Cain’s wife?
Ask any Christian, and they’ll tell you in no uncertain terms that Genesis is all about the story of Creation. The first two humans, Adam and Eve, and their two sons, Cain and Able.
Wait a minute. Two sons?
I don’t know about you, but when I went to school way back in the Stone Age (well, in Texas that far back, it was…) we learned even then that when biological entities like humans mated, it takes a male and a female to result in a baby.
So, how in the hell could the story of Adam and Eve be the story of the creation of the human species? Oh, hang on, didn’t Cain find a wife?
Genesis 4:16
So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Genesis 4:17
Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.
Ok. Hang in there with me.
First, where did the woman Cain married come from? Adam and Eve didn’t have any girls. Even after Cain killed his brother and God gave Adam and Eve another child to replace Able, that child was still a boy.
Second, why was Cain building a city? For just him and his wife? Isn’t that just a little presumptive, given the most they may have had in kids was what, a couple dozen? Village, maybe. I guess the original language could have used the word “town” or “village”, right? But then, it didn’t say how long it might take, did it? So, why a “city”? That usually requires a much larger population.
Maybe it’s just me, but something doesn't add up, here. (Yup, always sucked at math, but I’m definitely better at biology, ask my wife.)
Look, again, I’m not a biblical scholar. But I do read, and I like history. A part of my conversion to atheism was reading biblical history. Christian history, and not the crap the church puts out, either.
At some point after the first century, and before 324 AD, when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the empire, the leaders of the larger groups vying for primacy and converts in Rome realized one important problem. The Roman public was wise to the ways of religious con men. The Christians weren't the first “new” religion to pop up, given the openness to others’ religions as the Romans were. So, the public had become a bit…jaded, shall we say? Reluctant to accept “new” religions, anyway.
So, at some point, some bright fellow realized that since Christianity was an offshoot of Judaism, maybe they could use the Torah and the Talmud as a kind of “booster” to add to their growing scriptures to convince the Romans they weren’t that new after all. Apparently, it worked.
Great! Problem solved! Recruits came in, and eventually one of those recruits was the Roman emperor, and the rest, as we say, is history, right?
Not so fast. As we said in Texas when I was a kid, hold yer hosses, bud. The fat lady (sorry) hasn’t had her turn yet. What? Well, she does sing good. Damn good, in fact.
If you remember, in the later years, after 324 AD, as the brand new RCC was creating their combined scripture, probably doing what they all probably agreed to in joining up, there wasn’t that much time, I guess, because in their hurry to get ‘er done, they kinda missed a step. I mean, it may have been deliberate, I wasn't there, you know. (No, I’m not that old.). But they kinda forgot, on purpose or not, to actually sit down and read any of it and compare the various books and letters to see if there was any, you know, oopsies. Like, for instance, contradictions. Or confusions, or doctrinal differences. I mean, come on, a lot of the congregations these were being brought in from were widely scattered across the Mediterranean shores around the empire, and it was kinda inevitable that some kind of differences of opinion might just pop up. Heck, even people living in the same towns often disagree! (Hey, those guys across that river are nuts doncha know…)
Not to mention that the Jewish scriptures, while they’d made the rounds verbally for who knows how long, were fairly new as far as the written word was concerned. So, who knew how much weird stuff was even in it? As I noted, nobody really sat down to see that everything jived nicely.
And let’s not even get into the fact that in the ensuing couple of millennia, the RCC itself made a ton of changes, and we’ll just kind slide off to one side and ignore the changes the Protestants made after they got busy!
All of that explains, I think, pretty well why in these modern times, Christians think the Genesis story is about the creation of the Universe and mankind, when if you examine it with even half an eye, it becomes obvious that the real purpose of it was to explain how the Hebrews came to be, and what their place in this universe was supposed to be as God’s Chosen People. How they got off on the wrong foot and had all that bad shit happen, because they wouldn’t listen, like a bunch of rowdy kids.
Oh, and speaking about rowdy kids, all of this explains why us atheists just can’t go along with the rest of the class. I get it, you wrote all this down. You expect us to just…believe it, right?
What part? The part that says getting saved is belief? Or, maybe the part that says it takes good works? I guess it might be the part where you’ve gotta be one of the 144,000, couldn’t it? I dunno. Out of 45,000+ Christian denominations, you’d think at least one of them would get it right, right?
Right, Thor? Thor? Are ya there, buddy? Geez, quit playing with the damn hammer and come over here…
