“For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away.” Matthew 24:38-39
In my Bible study, we have been studying the book of Genesis. I have always been curious about the time between the fall of man in the Garden of Eden and the Flood in Noah’s day. So, I decided to do some research and find out more about the generations who came after Adam and before Noah. It was not a pretty picture!
The New Testament repeats the truth that only eight people survived the global Flood. “……..God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water…..” 1 Peter 3:20. So, everyone outside the Ark perished. How many lives were lost at this time? Bible scholars don’t know the exact number, but many believe the population to be close to 750 million or as high as billions given the long life spans and prodigious birth rates! However, the people were extremely corrupt and violence, murder and wars were common. It seems the children of Seth were corrupted by the children of Cain and were soon going the “way of Cain.” “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” Genesis 4:16. Cain was a bitter, angry man with an unthankful, unforgiving spirit. God had no regard for Cain’s offering of the fruit of the land.
Cain’s descendants lived in tents and raised livestock, some played musical instruments, others forged tools out of bronze and iron. These were not “Stone Age” people! Cain built a city and named it after his firstborn son, Enoch. It’s obvious these early builders were highly intelligent. Having lived for long periods of time, they would have developed math and engineering skills enough to build cities. The Bible passage in Genesis 4 could be describing the early Sumerians, an early civilization dating to 5000 BC. It could be Cain’s descendants.
Sumer was located in ancient Mesopotamia, known as the “land between the rivers,” the Tigris and Euphrates. The early people were farmers. They had settlements that were stable and prosperous. By 4000 BC, Sumer was made up of walled city-states. They followed a similar layout, a walled metropolis containing a Ziggurat (temple to a god) at the center. As many as 12 cities existed by 3000 BC with populations of 80,000 or more, all situated around the branches of the Euphrates River. Does this sound like the generations of Cain? The Sumerians provided the world with it’s first civilized cultural practices: They made pottery, they were carpenters, architects, farmers, weavers, mathematicians, and astronomers. They invented the wheel, the plow, law codes and literature. They were the first to have a writing system (Cuneiform), a written language on clay tablets. One of the first stories documented is the story of a God dying and coming back from the dead in the Sumerian poem, “The Descent of Innana.” It parallels the gospel story. The story of the sacrifice for the sins of man was past down through the generations looking forward to the Messiah, Jesus!
But for all their brilliant minds, they gave no thought to the one true God who had created them! Their religion was Cain’s religion, worshiping many gods, not the true God! They all died in the Flood! “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man…..I will wipe mankind….from the face of the earth….but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:5-6,8.
In these last days before Jesus comes back, may each of us “find favor in the eyes of the Lord!”
Your friend, Jean