Cain & Abel First Family Episode One
Following is the truth about the brothers Cain and Abel. Of course, no treatment of the family of Adam and Eve is complete without touching a little on the first parents themselves. This episode focuses on the children Adam and Eve had before Cain or Abel.
Adam-Ondi-Ahman
All Children of Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve lived many years in a land called Adam-Ondi-Ahman after they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. In those years they produced many children. Reason dictates that those two had more than two children, more than Cain and Abel, as most Christians believe. It is more than reasonable that other children existed or they did not come from Adam and Eve. Since this article supports the belief that all humanity descends from Adam and Eve, there is no credence given to the possibility of another group of humans outside of them producing spouses for Cain or Able.
Cain and Abel participated in the first recorded murder. That makes them mention-worthy. The firstborn child of Adam and Eve would also be newsworthy. Why that first birth is not mentioned in modern scripture is a mystery. It may have been included on other records that no longer exist or that are no longer available.
Extra-Biblical Testimony
Modern revelation teaches Adam and Eve had considerably more than two children up to the point of the murder of Abel, the birthright son. After the expulsion from Eden, it was the plan for
Adam and Eve to have children, which they did. The sequence of events in Moses 5 indicates that sons and daughters were born to them even before Cain and Abel were born. Their children “began to divide two and two in the land, and to till the land, and to tend flocks and they also begat sons and daughters” (Moses 5:3). We know the names of only three sons: Cain, Abel, and Seth. [1]
Artist Depiction of Family of Adam and Eve
In the Pearl of Great Price, which is a compilation of records and declarations by prophets (one being a revelation about the writing of Moses) is recorded:
Adam knew his wife, and she bare unto him sons and daughters, and they began to multiply and to replenish the earth.And from that time forth, the sons and daughters of Adam began to divide two and two in the land, and to till the land, and to tend flocks, and they also begat sons and daughters. Moses 5:2-3
Adam and Eve produced many children after they left the garden who in turn paired off and divided in the land to produce more children. This information is based on the revelations given to Joseph Smith Jr. and other prophets in the latter days.
The question as to whether Adam and Eve had other children before Cain and Abel is settled with the information in The Pearl of Great Price; however, the information must still be accepted against the tradition of current sects of all Abrahamic-based faiths.
There are traditions that suggest that Cain mated with a baboon and produced the African races. These types of belief traditions are refuted by the simple truth that Adam and Eve had many children before Cain and Abel, and those children married and produced other children and began to spread into the land and populate it BEFORE Cain was introduced to the world.
Jesus Revealed to Adam and Eve
First Christians
Adam and Eve can are the first Christians since Moses reveals that they knew of Him. Adam was commanded by God to offer a sacrifice of the firstling (or best) of his flocks. Adam, willing to be obedient to God without question, did so until he was visited by an angel inquiring the reason he offered sacrifices of the firstlings of his flocks.
Adam did not know the reason for doing it other than God commanded him. It would appear that the angel gave Adam the opportunity to be humble and admit that he knew nothing about the reason for the sacrifice. The angel explained that
This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth. Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore. Moses 5:7-9
Adam failed to keep God's commandment to avoid partaking of the fruit by choice, but he did not fail in offering up the firstling of his flock, also by choice.
In reward for his obedience, God sent an angel to reveal the reason for this commandment to offer up the best sheep or lamb as similitude, or representation of the Son of God, even Jesus Christ. The offering witnessed that a savior would come in time, and He would go like a lamb to the slaughter for the transgression of Adam and Eve and the sins of the world.
Point to Consider
Teachings or doctrines that salvation comes via Christ have been around since the beginning according to modem scripture. "Messiah" or "God" in the original Edenic language was used instead of the Anglican "Christ," and Yesuah may have been used instead of Jesus. Christianity is eternal, not because of the name given to believing Saints by Greeks in derision, but based on the principle of love of God and fellow beings Christianity has come to represent. Christianity is simply a fulfillment of Judaism, never a replacement. It's not a different religion in truth, but culturally, Christianity has evolved into its own faith.
Depiction of Adam and Eve Offering Sacrifice in Similitude of Christ's.
Adam & Eve Converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ
In Moroni 10;3-5 there is a promise that the Holy Ghost will reveal the truth to the willing believer as was Adam. When Adam heard the words of the Angel, some time "in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father from the beginning, henceforth and forever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will." Moses 5:9
Adam learned that he could be redeemed from the fall from Eden. This prompted Adam to bless "God and [he was] filled [with the Spirit of God], and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth." Moses 5:10 Adam testified he would see God in the flesh, or in his body again as he did see Him in the Garden of Eden.
"Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient." Moses 5:11
Poll
The poll about whether Adam and Eve had other children before Cain or Abel taken in the past suggests that 58% of readers do NOT believe other children were born prior to the two sons. What do you say?
Do you believe that Adam and Eve had other Children before Cain and Abel?
Related
- Truth About Cain & Abel: Hope in Cain?
Adam and even taught their children the gospel, but apparently, the serpent in the garden, Satan, was not through with Adam and Eve. Since he could not tempt them away from God to worship him, he did so with the other humans. This is part two of a fo - Adam & Eve Hope in Covenant Child Episode Fifteen
First parents had other children ... There is more truth out there to factor into the equation. Here is perspective on succession of the priesthood authority God entrusted with Adam and his children.
Referenced Sources
- What Modern Revelation Teaches about Adam [1]
Truths restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith bring Adam and Eve out of obscurity and into marvelous light, revealing they were noble and great forebears who “fell that men might be” (2 Ne. 2:25).
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
© 2018 Rodric Anthony Johnson