Bible People
The Bible says that once people lived to great ages. Why not us?
Methuselah lived 969 years, and Adam over 900 years. Something must have changed at about the time of the flood. Perhaps there was some change in the earth’s physical attributes, weather, humidity, etc. Perhaps adverse mutations led to new diseases - there are many today that are new. Note that Old Testament health regulations would allow people to live longer.
Other people think that sin has a physical consequence, and like a burden, it shortens our lives. Some kinds of sin consequences (AIDS) certainly do, and as sin spreads it affects others generally, whether or not they were party to it.
Depletion of the gene pool and adverse mutations are responsible for other changes also. For instance since Adam, we have developed more technology over time, but our brains have not developed. People of Adam’s time would have been more intelligent, but with less technology.
Interestingly, the records of the Sumerians, a civilization as ancient as the Egyptians and pre-dating the Babylonians, list kings with extremely long lifespans. After the flood, which is also recorded in this king list, the life-spans of the Sumerian kings begin to drop, but still remain incredibly long for some time. The parellels to the Biblical account are obvious.
Who was Cain's Wife?
One of his sisters. Adam and Eve had many children of both sexes. There were minimal genetic mutational problems at that time, so siblings could marry and produce children. The accumulation of harmful mutations now makes it highly inadvisable for near relatives to produce children, due to the risk of genetically defective offspring.
John the Baptist - was he a brother of Jesus?
No, Jesus was a cousin of John the Baptist.
Did Jesus have brothers and sisters?
Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters (Matt 12:48). This text cannot be interpreted to mean "wider extended family" rather than "brothers". The Greek uses different words for each of these and the text is very clear.
Jesus got no support from his siblings until after his death and resurrection. He was a prophet without honour in his own house.
What about Noah and the ark?
Noah was descended from Adam and Eve, and lived maybe around 2000 BC, long before Jesus. God sent the animals onto the ark, and all other air-breathing life drowned in the global flood.
Noah only took perhaps 1000 animals on the ark. He took only terrestrial vertebrates (walking and breathing), and only animal kinds. He definitely did not take millions of species as many people wrongly suppose. Average animal size was like a sheep or smaller. Marine animals, worms, insects, and plants had to fend for themselves during the flood.
Did you know that 'flood stories' are remarkably entrenched in non-biblical sources? There are some 270 flood stories around the world - Egypt, Greece, Persia, Syria, Italy, Wales, Scandinavia, Russia, India, China, Mexico, Indonesia, New Guinea, Melanesia, Polynesia, Micronesia, Australia. The Gilgamesh Epic of 7th century BC is most similar to the Biblical account. The ancient Greeks and the Aztecs also had flood stories. It is extraordinary how accounts of past catastrophes are so dominated by a catastrophic flood. This suggests the accounts are based on an actual event. Read More.
How could there be giants in the world?
The Bible mentions giants such as Goliath, his brothers etc. Some people suggest these were related to a time when angels cohabited the earth.
The giants were known by a number of different names. Hebrews called them Rephaim. The various peoples in Canaan called them Anakim, Enim, or Zamzummin. Og the ruler of Bashan was very tall and his bed was over 4 metres long and 1.2 metres wide. It is unknown for certain where giants came from, but they certainly did exist and were known to be killed in battle. One family of giants known as the sons of Anok were prominent. One of the giants was described as having six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.