I have been thinking about this for quite some time now. This would also help to explain why the evidence of "men" is found that is older than our "Biblical" world indicates.
When God created male and female, on the sixth day, He told them to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth... to have dominion over all the animals, etc.... and that all happened on the sixth day.
I am coming to believe that chapter two begins the story of the family of Adam. "Mankind" already existed on the earth, perhaps for thousands of years? Then God began the family of Adam.... intending that they live in the land of Eden, in the garden..... until they messed up.
So, when Cain was banished, he said he would have to be a vagrant and a wanderer, and "whoever finds me will kill me"..... who would have been out there to find him and kill him?
One fly in the ointment of this theory is the verse that says Adam called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living.... but that could be that Adam didn't know there were other "mankind" out in the world.... so Eve would have been the mother of all of the family of Adam...
Also, why was it important to trace Jesus' lineage all the way back to Adam? (the first son of God) Why not just back to David?
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Exactly...and you make some excellent points.
If people had not been given the creation story we all know, they would have read Genesis one and two as two stories of creation. One of the creation of the universe..the other the creation of the Garden in Eden and those who came from the Man..Adam..God placed in the Garden of Eden. We all know that Adam was called the first Son of God, so his Sons would also be Sons of God. With this knowledge (Genesis 6:4) can be read as it was meant to be read. Adams Sons...AKA..the Sons of God took wives from the Sons of Man created in Genesis one.
There were giants on the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:4)
Ahh.....But how do we explain the Giants?
Those animals Noah put on the Ark, they were the ones God created in the Garden of Eden. Those Animals God created in Genesis one...were the Giants...What we call today...the dinosaur!!
This is why they do not exist today, they were not put on the Ark...So they all perished in the flood.
In other words...these Giants were here before the flood, but not after the flood.
So why are they mentioned?
Since they didn't have a dating system, the writer simply uses the Giants as a reference of the time, the time when all this took place. Much like we say to those in future generation...the Great Chicago fire happened in 1871.
Simply put...The time of the Flood was a time when the Dinosaurs (Giants) walked on the Earth.
and also after that...refers to those Giants who were put on the Ark..like Elephants and Giraffes.
The Giants existence, which lived before and after the flood, creates a Time Frame.