The First People on Earth by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 27, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 38.

The First People on Earth

By Editor

3251.—Peopling of the Earth. Gen. 1:25-31

Were Adam and Eve and their children the first people upon the earth? It seems to me there were other people before this, as Cain went to a barren place and got his wife. And was man created before the beast? C. J. A.

It seems to us that the accounts in Genesis 1 and 2 are very clear. Genesis 1 gives the general statement of the creation of man; Genesis 2, the particular statement. Genesis 1 shows that the beast was created before man, the creation of man following.

Genesis 2 tells us how these beasts were brought before man, evidently on the sixth day; were named by man; but among them all man found no companion. Hence woman was created. Note what name was given her in Gen. 3:20, "And the man called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living." All then sprang from her.

There are other intimations in the writings of Paul which show the same with Adam. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Cor. 15:22. See also his argument in verses 44-49, showing that the children of earth sprang from Adam. Read Rom. 5:12, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." The wife of Cain was one of the children of Adam and Eve, or of Seth. A long period of time probably passed away before Cain took his wife. This the Bible gives us no account of.