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Did Adam have only one wife?

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In Genesis 4:25, the Bible says, "And Adam knew his wife again: and she bare a son, and called his name Seth:.
For God, said she, has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew."
Notice that the wife who bare a son for Adam in this verse is not named.
In Genesis 4:1-2, the Bible says, "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain and said,
'I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel.
Notice that this earlier time Adam's wife is named as Eve.
If Genesis is written chronologically, in chapter 4, there are 7 generations named from the birth of Cain until
the birth of Seth. (Cain, Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methusael, Lamech, & Jabal and his siblings.) Then the birth of Seth is listed.
We know that Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born (Genesis 5:4). According to Genesis 1:27, Adam was created on the 6th day of creation. The Bible does not say exactly when Eve was created. But if we assume it is shortly after Adam, then Eve would have been close to 130 years also. Early in the Bible, we are told that a woman who is 90 years old is too old to bear a child without a miracle. (Sarai) (Genesis 17:17) So how could Eve bear a son at 130 years old? The fact that the Bible does not name Eve as bearing Seth and the fact that Eve was close to 130 years old at this time makes me think that maybe another wife bore Seth for Adam. Because a polygynous family often lives together, the sentence spoken by this unnamed woman,"God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew," could make perfect sense. This woman could have been appointed by God to bear another son for Adam instead of Abel.
Even if we use a very young age needed for a generation to grow up and reproduce another generation, for 7 generations to be born and raised would need about 126 years (18 years old times 7 generations). This is the time frame between when Cain and Abel were born and when Seth was born. So I think Adam probably did
have another wife that bore Seth, and likely other wives as well, because he lived another 800 years and continued to have sons and daughters. (Genesis 5:4)
 
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We can say that, sure. It's possible since it doesn't list Eve a second time it could have been someone else. It could also be that because she was already mentioned, why say her name again? But then if Eve was mentioned for the first two, why not list the other wife for this one? No matter how much we hypothesize, it'll never go beyond that. I could also stipulate that, although by Sarai's time, women were limited in childbearing years, Eve was the original copy (oxymoron, i know, but she was from Adam and not an original creation). Maybe her childbearing years were much longer, whereas Sarai was a copy of a copy of a copy, etc.... and by that time, genetics being what they are, this was the first thing to go as the human race began to degrade.
 
I have to admit, I have had some fascination whether Eve was the only wife of Adam or not. The one verse that I always encounter when debating this with myself is Genesis 3:20 (NASB) Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. If God created another woman for Adam, that woman's children would not be descendants of Eve, at least not until they intermarried with Eve's descendants. As I read that, the only other way this could happen is if Adam married one of his own daughters. I can't tell you whether this happened or not, but it seems unlikely. That said, there are many things that might stretch our modern minds about Adam and Eve and the first few generations, such as where did their sons find wives?
 
aineo said:
That said, there are many things that might stretch our modern minds about Adam and Eve and the first few generations, such as where did their sons find wives?
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Check out the Creation account in the Book of Jubilees. The boys married their sisters. Their names, birth years and spouses are all listed.

Also interesting to google Adam and Lilith
 
There is no reason to think that pre-flood women were infertile by the age of 90. We know men lived for much longer and could father children for hundreds of years, there is no reason to think otherwise for women. The standard view of Eve as Adam's only wife who bore all his children makes perfect sense of the statement that Eve is the mother of all living, and generally the simplest answer that explains everything is the truth. There is no need to unnecessarily overcomplicate this.

If Adam did also marry his own daughters that wouldn't oppose this, but nor is it hinted at in Scripture.

Lilith is a Jewish myth that I believe originated during the Babylonian captivity under the influence of pagan ideas. She is not in scripture, and being stated to have been Adam's first wife would cause serious theological problems. I would dismiss her completely as a myth of pagan origin.
 
Theological problems, just off the top of my head:
YHWH saw that Adam was alone, so he created Eve. But if he already had Lilith, he wasn't alone. So why was Eve created? Why was Lilith created?
Was Lilith tempted by Satan? Did she fall? If not, did she have children? Are they un-fallen, and not needing salvation? Or are they fallen because of Adam's sin, even if Lilith didn't sin? Could they be saved by Yeshua, descended from Eve, or not?
Eve is clearly stated to be the mother of all living. Ie, the mother of all humans. So, if Lilith had any children, are they even human? Was she human? Was she some other creature breeding hybrid offspring?

I could go on and on, but it would be as pointless as debating whether Adam's pet unicorn was pink or green, given he probably didn't have a pet unicorn either.
 
All good questions. All with answers with a bit more research. Though I don't agree with him on everything, bitterwaters.com has the most exhaustive study I've come across along with an ebook I haven't read called the Case for Lilith.
 
I would be exceptionally cautious about that site. His evidence, as he says himself, is drawn from Jewish Kabbalah. Kabbalah is Jewish mysticism and at its heart is essentially identical to Buddhism, just using different terminology but arriving at the same destination. It is Satan's consistent deception (there is no God, but you are all part of the one light that exists, and thus can all be gods). Just read a description of it by a practitioner here. There is actually a detailed discussion of kabbalah in today's TruNews broadcast, it's rather pertinent as followers of this philosophy have recently risen to very influential positions in the USA white house.
 
Only a part of his evidence. I found most of his Biblical evidence to be very interesting. I had missed the part where the Serpent was to have a seed as well as Eve and the correlation between the bitter water trial of the accused adulterous woman and the Edenic curse was interesting as well.

Obviously the kabalistic evidence is to be held at arms length though I would still expect him to present it along with any other mention found anywhere else to be as exhaustive as possible. Is the kabalistic evidence conclusive or accurate? I don't think so, but it does seem to follow the general understanding or legend of Lilith.
 
@Biblebeliever Your original ? about Eve being the mother of Seth is interesting but not an impossibility by any means. All other accounts that I have read, (Jubilees, Jasher, etc) list Eve as being his mother. The idea that Eve was too old is interesting but you have to understand that the reference to a woman at 90 being to old to have a child was Sara at almost 8-900 years after the flood. Prior to the flood the age apparently wasn't as much of an issue. Noah's wife had her sons when Noah was 500 years old and according to one account she was older than him.
 
FollowingHim said:
Theological problems, just off the top of my head:
YHWH saw that Adam was alone, so he created Eve. But if he already had Lilith, he wasn't alone. So why was Eve created? Why was Lilith created?
Was Lilith tempted by Satan? Did she fall? If not, did she have children? Are they un-fallen, and not needing salvation? Or are they fallen because of Adam's sin, even if Lilith didn't sin? Could they be saved by Yeshua, descended from Eve, or not?
Eve is clearly stated to be the mother of all living. Ie, the mother of all humans. So, if Lilith had any children, are they even human? Was she human? Was she some other creature breeding hybrid offspring?

I could go on and on, but it would be as pointless as debating whether Adam's pet unicorn was pink or green, given he probably didn't have a pet unicorn either.
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I thought tradition about Lilith was that she died and returned to dust before Chava was created and so Adam was again alone. She was made from dust just like Adam and that's why Adam was so psyched when Chava was made because she was from him..
BTW I'm not saying the Lilith legends are true. I believe they were invented and that's why she's not overtly mentioned in scripture.
 
Verifyveritas76 said:
@Biblebeliever Your original ? about Eve being the mother of Seth is interesting but not an impossibility by any means. All other accounts that I have read, (Jubilees, Jasher, etc) list Eve as being his mother. The idea that Eve was too old is interesting but you have to understand that the reference to a woman at 90 being to old to have a child was Sara at almost 8-900 years after the flood. Prior to the flood the age apparently wasn't as much of an issue. Noah's wife had her sons when Noah was 500 years old and according to one account she was older than him.
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Hey is Jubilees reliabe? Is it Hebrew or Greek like Maccabees and such?
Do you know of a Hebrew version of that? If you do can you send me a link?
Also is there a Hebrew of Jasher? Or is it survived only in Greek?
Anybody please chime in if you know.
 
I find jubilees to be fairly reliable. There may be some minor differences between it and the masoretic text but I find the interesting thing about it is that it fills in gaps in the masoretic. Where there is a lot of information in the Torah, the info in Jubilees is minimal and vice versa.

Jasher I find to be very interesting and informative. Authoritative? Not to the level of the Bible, but I found it very interesting that it seemed to align with Josephus fairly well in chronology. I view it as more of a history book that may have biases from various translators etc.

There's another book that has come to light recently called Gad the Seer, Commentary by Ken Johnson. It's available on Amazon. Highly recommend it and it has quite a provenance.

Ive got a thread in Book reviews that lists a lot of my favorite study books. There are a few others in there that are pretty interesting
 
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