who cain married

The story of Cain and Abel is a teaching story. It is meant to make a point and not to be taken as history. Accuracy is not the backbone of a teaching story. It is the point or moral of the story that is important.

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There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. -Edith Wharton

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i can't give you a clear formula for when it's rendered as a name, and when it's a noun. but when it says (et-)ha-adam it's usually refering to "the man (in specific)" but not a name. sometimes when it says adam it means "mankind" and sometimes it's rendered as a proper name. it varies from translation to translation.

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but the word "adam" does appear in genesis 1.

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Personifying a word into a name is a common story telling and literary practice. In Job the word for adversary (satan) was personified.According to Richard E. Friedman in "Who Wrote the Bible?", Genesis 1 is a priestly writing probably written after the fall of the northern kingdom. From what he discovered the priestly writer of Genesis 1 was writing an alternative to the A&E version of creation.So I can understand why the word "adam" was not personified in Genesis 1. The writer wasn't trying to write a tale about good and evil.

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There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. -Edith Wharton

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i think the author of genesi 1 is trying to describe a broader creation. gen 2+3 is really just the localized hebrew tradition; where their fathers came from. genesis 1 seems to be using "adam" to mean "mankind" (in my opinion).

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I would agree broader in the sense that by the time Genesis 1 was written mankind would have had a broader view of the world and the universe. Not the same as when the folk tales were told. So I agree that the author meant mankind and not an individual.Also it was written after the fall of the northern kingdom and we have northern tales mixing with the southern tales to try and bring the people together (J&E).The J&E writing seem more earth central, whereas P or Genesis 1 is more cosmic.I guess my original point on the word "adam" was that the Story of A&E personified the word used for mankind into a name, hence a story and not factual. In Genesis 1 the author seems to be trying for a more serious universal approach without the talking snakes and such. Not a children's tale.

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There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. -Edith Wharton

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adamah is the word for ground

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You're right, I forgot about that. So the older tale personified dirt and then that name generalized into a term for mankind by the time Genesis 1 was written.It is amazing the trail that words take.

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There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. -Edith Wharton