The Time Before The Flood

Q

I just started reading my Bible again. I decided to start at the beginning and I’ve now read to the end. I have many questions! I wonder how Adam and Eve who had all sons. How did their sons have children and with what women?

And then If Noah took himself and his sons and of course all those animals how did his sons have kids as I didn’t read about any women coming with them on the ark?

And how did those folks live hundreds of years like that? I hope these aren’t stupid questions but the end times makes much more sense to me than the beginning times so far.

Thanks in advance for your time and God bless. I like this site and have saved it to my favorites so I can read more here. Thank you for this site.

A

Genesis 5:4 says that Adam lived for 800 years and had other sons and daughters besides Cain, Abel, and Seth. Throughout Genesis 5, the other patriarchs are all described as having sons and daughters other than those named in the narrative. The earliest families involved the marriage of sisters to their brothers, and later of cousins to each other.

Genesis 7:13 says that when Noah and their 3 sons entered the Ark, their wives entered with them.

The reason that early humans lived so long is that when God created the Earth, He put a water vapor barrier around the Earth in the upper atmosphere, (Genesis 1:6-7) that kept the most harmful ultra violet rays from entering our atmosphere and contaminating the cellular regeneration process. This allowed the body’s cells to replenish themselves for much longer periods of time.

At the time of the Great Flood the water vapor barrier collapsed onto Earth (Genesis 7:11). Together with the fountains of the deep and the rain that fell, enough water was produced to cover the entire Earth.

After the flood, the absence of this barrier caused lifespans to be shortened dramatically, allowing Shem, one of Noah’s sons, to out-live 9 of the first 10 generations born after the flood. Life spans continued to shorten until finally stabilizing at around 70 years, less than 1/10th of their original duration.