What happened to Adam and Eve after leaving the Garden of Eden?
“Maybe it is better out here anyway,” Adam said to Eve. “We will be without God’s rules.”
Animals passed by scrambling down the mountain. God also sent every animal on earth out of the perfect environment.
“Stop,” shouted Eve. “Will you carry us?” she asked the horse racing by. No animals stopped when requested.
Sweeping his right hand across overgrown bushes along the steep descent Adam screamed out in pain.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
At the spot blood oozed out of his palm Adam pulled out thorns. Some plants had needles, thistles and thorns. Other plants would cause itching, burning and rashes. At times they would wake up with nausea and vomiting after tasting leaves, once thought safe, now containing poisons or digestive discomforts.
In the valley they began to work the soil. Hard and impossible to break with ones bare hand, they sought out branches from tough to break wood. Dispersed throughout each fields of grain stood green and gray plants. Adam and Eve named them weeds with their voracious growth and abundant seeds cast in the blowing wind.
Cattle refused to obey the voices of humans such as in plowing or collecting as they did in Paradise. Domesticated animals needed to be captured and prodded with sticks or pulled by ropes. Verbal commands or hand gestures were useless here. Animals did what their instincts demanded.
Ancient books tell that after a while Adam and Eve repented and cried out to God.
Gone are the delicious foods remembered from Paradise. Constant toil filled the days. They missed the daily fellowship with God. Having a strong desire to return to the Garden of Eden up the mountain they went. At the entrance near the peak of the highest mountain stood that same elect angel. One large rock boulder sealed the entrance. After lifting his flaming sword they turned around descending back to the valley below.
Eve bore children. Elect angels taught and guided Adam, Eve and their children about God’s ways for a while, guided afterwards by angels and in dreams. The Lord did interact with others in the future such as Moses at the burning bush and with Paul and John. Eve bore two sons Abel and Cain. The obedient Abel loved God and his ways. Cain became disinterested. Jealous of Abel’s closeness to his parents he killed his brother one day while working in a field. Now under God’s curse, hidden from His presence and unproductive in agriculture, Cain wandered eastward. His parents had another boy named Seth. Seth followed in God’s ways like Abel and Adam.
What did the land outside the Garden of Eden look like?
On each side of the mountain containing Paradise waterfalls fell from one of the four rivers in the garden. Other rivers flowed over the continent, but are not identified in scripture. Abundant warm artesian springs gently rose out of the ground and geysers ejected hot water from below. Condensation from warm ground and cooler air created a daily mist hovering over the ground. Although there were low mountains, the overall land surface was gentle with rolling hills. The great mountains we see on Earth today formed during the Biblical flood’s uplift. The preflood supercontinent had a land mass much larger than if the present earth’s continents were attached.
Shallow seas held some visible water. God contained much of Earth’s water under or inside the earth’s crust. Giant water storage caverns or cisterns located above today’s abyssal plains and some under the continents contained much of the earth’s water. Abundant plants and animal life scurried over the warm, moist land. From geologic finds in coal deposits more different types of plants and in a greater number lived at that time than known today. Human and animal diets consisted of herbs, vegetables and fruits. Scripture indicates humans had no fear of large animals before the biblical flood, as they were not yet dangerous. God instructed humans they should not eat uncooked meat with liquid blood.
Gen 1:9-10
And God said, “ Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear. And it was so, God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.”
How was the earth watered before the biblical Flood?
Scientists take different Biblical views about how the earth was watered and why some people had long lives before the flood. Scriptures tell in Genesis 1:6,7 And God said “ Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so.” Scriptures also say rain was unknown before the Flood.
One viewpoint is that God created a translucent canopy high above the earth. Water or ice, a few inches to yards thick, allowed sunlight to penetrate but kept out deadly sunrays. This allowed humans to have longer lives than after the Flood. Scripture tells that the people on Earth could see the sun, moon and stars. Therefore the canopy could not be too thick. In the skies today there are about 1 ½ inches of rain in the atmosphere.
The second viewpoint is that God watered the earth supernaturally like He will do during the Millennium. God will have it rain during the evening each day. This will take place after the Church Age we live in now and the after the seven year Tribulation time yet to come. The sun will be seven times brighter then, than today. Humans at that time will be comfortable and the
earth uniformly warmer. During the millennium people will live full lives until the end of the thousand years if they believe and follow God. Each non-believer has one hundred years to become a believer before death. God believes that is enough time having seen all the miracles God performed during that age and the Tribulation period before it.
Isaiah 30:26 “The moon will shine seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days.”
Why were there long lives before the Biblical Flood?
Although scripture does not say the reason in the Bible, God may have extended human life spans in this era just as He does during the millennium after the seven year Tribulation on earth ends. To increase the number of humans on earth within a certain period of time God increased the length of human life so more people could be born, but not for all. Those that choose God and live godly lives would continue to live on earth until the end of the millennium. Those who were born during this time and rejected God would die by age one hundred.
Isaiah 65:20
“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.”
The Bible records that Adam lived 930 years, Enosh lived 815 years, Methuselah 969 years, Jared 962 years, Noah 950 years and Mahalaleel lived 895 years. As sin increased throughout the land and some humans mated with Nephilim, their children had a greater chance to be born with genetic disorders and diseases increased with each generation’s weakened body system. As some parents lived hundreds of years this enhanced the probability they would pass down harmful mutations. But scripture indicates that believers had normal children even when they were over 500 years old. With God enhanced believers bodies from the effects of aging, genetic disorders or diseases could be greatly slowed, showing up only after they were hundreds of years old.
Adam and Eve’s descendants
“Be fruitful, multiply and fill the land,” the Lord told Adam and Eve. When Adam was 187 years old they had the first of two sons named Abel and Cain and two daughters named Awan and Azura. Eight more sons came after Seth. There could be as many as 500,000 million to 6.1 billion people living on earth at the time of the Flood depending on how many were killed or died of disease during this timeframe. The people built cities (Genesis 4:17), cattle ranches (4:20), composed and played music (4:21), and discovered the science of metallurgy such as making brass (4:22).
Heartbroken by the murder of Abel, Cain migrated from the valley near Paradise over the low mountains to the plains and rolling hills in Mesopotamia. Having slain Abel here, this would be ideal terrain to grow crops. Cain married his sister Awan. They named their first son and city Enoch.
Seth married Azura. The birth of their first son Enos came soon. He followed God’s teachings and led a quiet, disciplined life. His descendants remained in the mountains and foothills near Paradise and near Adam. Determined and diligent in work, Seth’s descendants took only one season to raise crops to produce enough food to live on for forty years. Seth’s family and descendants became prosperous. But over time, with days full of leisure, many lost interest in God’s thoughts and ways and became lazy. This came about the time Methuselah became interested in the ways of the Cainites after the death of Adam. As their population increased some of them lived closer to the Canaanites. Charmed with their erotic pleasures and magical arts, Seth’s descendants intermixed socially and then mated with Cain’s descendants forsaking God’s teachings and spiritual practices. After a while they began to mate with the Nephilim.
Jared in the line of Seth and Baraka in the line of Cain had son named Enoch. Jared was Noah’s great-great grandfather. It was the first time writings mentioned Seth’s children marrying Cain’s children. Enoch learned to write and gained much knowledge and wisdom others didn’t know. For example he taught about growing crops during different seasons and months of the year. Seth and Cain families respected him. The Book of Jubilees tells that angels taught Methuselah and Enoch. This would make sense. God could not teach all the humans living on earth at once and humans would not be born with spiritual and knowledge needed to survive on Earth.