Do you believe that Adam and Eve produced children before they were sent out of the Garden of Eden???

Question

This question has been on my mind all day.

After Adam and Eve both ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil God cursed the serpent to crawl on its belly, penalized Eve by making child birth painful, and penalized Adam by making it where he would forever more till the Earth.

He penalized Eve by making child birth painful.

In some way does that mean that Eve had given birth before???

For example:

Maybe Eve had given birth before and it was painless, but now God penalized her by making it painful.

Please give your thoughts on this.

Did Adam and Eve have children before they were sent out of the Garden of Eden???

Answer 1

NO.

Answer 2

Do you believe that Adam and Eve produced children before they were sent out of the Garden of Eden???

The bible does not say.

It could have been either way.

Answer 3

wow you still believe in that story?  

Answer 4

Jeez, he makes us have cramps and childbirth pains. He was pissed as h**l, wasn't he?  

Answer 5

Congratulations - what an awesome question.  I like people who question - don't just follow in blind faith.

The idea of it is a good one.  After god said - go multiply - why wouldn't have they.  

(PS Tabbie - wouldn't have the animals in the garden have been reproducing)

Answer 6

No, I do not think they had children before they were expelled from the Garden.

I think the verses that discuss their being ashamed of their nakedness is addressing that they were like little children prior to the eating of the forbidden fruit in all ways, including sexuality.  Little children do not mind being naked, because they have no concept of s*x (which is where the idea of modesty came from - hiding your wares from all but the highest bidder).

This is why the fall is a necessary part of the plan of salvation.  Without the fall, there would have never been children.

Answer 7

Roman 5:12 says, "That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned"

If sin and death spread to ALL men then they had to sin and be expelled from Eden before Eve conceived any children, otherwise some of their children would have been born without sin.

Also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did NOT give them some magical revelation of what was good and bad. It merely represented the right to decide right and wrong, good and evil. When they disobediently ate of it they in effect said we want to decide what is good and bad for ourselves. We don't need you [God] to decide for us. There was nothing evil in their being naked. God said to them, "Who told you you were naked?"  They felt naked because they felt shame not because it was evil to be naked. This was already a result of their own twisted sense of what was good and bad.

Also the Bible only tells us that Adam was 130 years of age when Seth was born. Adam could have been as old as 100 years before Cain and Abel were born. The Bible does not say but it was definitely AFTER they sinned and were expelled from the garden.  The fact that Eve's birth pains would be increased shows that IF they had remained obedient that a perfect sinless woman would not experience severe birth pains even as some woman now do not.  He also said that her husband would dominate her but this was not God's purpose, it was simply another result of their disobedience.

While we don't know when Adam and Eve started having sexual relations we do know that they were told to multiply and fill the earth. It is possible that God did not allow their procreative powers to be active until he felt they were ready to be parents. We don't know.

btw according to Gen. 5:32 Noah did not become a father until after he was 500 years old. The scripture says, "And Noah got to be five hundred years old. After that Noah became father to Shem, Ham and Ja´pheth."

Answer 8

maybe...maybe not...im going 2 be safe and say probably not, but then again, there are alot of time gaps in the bible

Answer 9

No, for a number of reasons:

1.  Adam named Eve "Eve" after the fall, since she was the mother of all living.

2.  God would have no justification for punishing their children if any were born before the fall - Adam and Eve ate of the tree and gained the forbidden knowledge, and therefore all children born AFTER that were born into sin but those born prior would have been born into righteousness and would not know sin.  They would either remain in the garden, or they were simply not born yet.

3.  Cain was named as such because Eve had produced "a man" (in Hebrew, literally a human).  If this was done before, why was Cain named this way?

4.  Though not a proof, the absence of any prior children is of note - Why no mention of them?

Also, Adam and Eve had to gain knowledge of procreation from soewhere - either from God Himself, or from watching animals.  However they knew, God had to tell Eve her childbirth would be painful rather than painless as it was with the animals.

You can speculate all you wish and believe that somehow, for some reason, there may have been other children born before Adam and Eve sinned, but of such an important event, the scriptures make no indication but rather instruct that Adam and Eve were the first two humans, Cain was the next, and Abel followed.

Answer 10

Which hominid species were Adam & Eve? Homo Sapiens? Australopithecus afarensis? Sahelanthropus tchadensis?

What time period was this? Where was Eden? Was Eden in Africa?

What about this Tree of Knowledge and  the talking snake? Why did god want to keep Adam & Eve ignorant about reality? Why would god want to keep folks from asking questions?  Do you believe the Earth is only 6000 years old? Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?

Answer 11

You're thinking way too much... Just believe already  

Answer 12

What else did they have to do all day?

Childbirth is painful because we are bipedal.  So if childbirth was painless for Eve before they ate the apple, she must have been a quadruped...

Wait...that would mean evolution.  Uh oh!

Answer 13

No, because the Bible shows that they didn't start having children until Genesis 4, AFTER they got kicked out of the Garden.

The difference in the pain of childbirth is probably because if they HADN'T fallen, childbirth would not have been painful, but now it would be. She never got a chance to experience the "painless" childbirth.  

Answer 14

I doubt they did, without the knowledge of good and evil, how would they have know to reproduce?

Answer 15

You can interpret it that way but I think the stories go on to say they had Cain and Abel AFTER they left...but then Cain found a wife after he was banned. Where did she come from?

It does point out how the book can be interpreted in different ways. Not a very reliable piece of work for claiming to be 'inspired' by an all-knowing deity.

Answer 16

I can't make heads or tails of this question.  I've stumped by brain trying to come up with an answer, and I don't have one.  However, I will say this.  The theory that they could not have produced offspring because they were not yet mortal is flawed, because if that be the case, how did God have a son?  Also, could Adam and Eve had s*x before, yet failed to realize what they were doing?  Furthermore, when Adam has his soliloquy after the creation of Eve, he speaks of how a man leaves his mother and father, even though these should be foreign concepts to him.  I think it is highly possible that Adam and Eve could have reproduced.  Honestly, there's a talking snake in this chapter.  Two people making babies is not that far fetched.

Answer 17

It doesn't mean that she gave birth before.  there is nothing in the bible to support that.

Adam hadn't tilled the earth before either.  god took care of the garden.

Answer 18

No.

why?

cause the story of adam and eve is fictitious. it never happened.  So pondering this will get you no where. the story contradicts the powers of god. god is supposed to know everything, before it happens, all powerful. yet his abilities are tossed aside so that this story works.

the bible is a jumble of stories that were re told and put together from older religions/beliefs. Today only the absolutely ignorant persist that the bible is true. we are all capable of being brain washed and religion is just that. but at the same time we are all capable of seeing the reality of our lives. there is no god, if there is then I 'pray' that it's not the god from the bible.

there will be those who will disagree with me and give you an answer that perhaps you want, but that doesn't hold any water, because even I could defend a fairy tale...  

Answer 19

No, I do not think they had children before they left the Garden.

When Adam and Eve were in the Garden, they were not yet mortal, and therefore would not have been able to produce offspring.

They had physical life because their spirits were housed in bodies made from the earth.

They had spiritual life because they were in the presence of God.

Because Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the Lord sent them out of the Garden of Eden into the world as we now know it. Their physical condition changed as a result of their eating the forbidden fruit. As God had promised, they became mortal. They were able to have children. They and their children would experience sickness, pain, and physical death.

Because of their transgression, Adam and Eve also suffered spiritual death. This meant they and their children could not walk and talk face to face with God. Because Satan had introduced evil into the world, Adam and Eve and their children were separated from God both physically and spiritually.