Genesis 4

Taking this to be the first reason why marriage as a contract was entered into, it is easy to understand why certain civil and moral rights, duties and obligations should follow as corollaries to the matrimonial agreement.

Monogamy was the original law of marriage, but the unity of the bond soon became impaired by polygamy, which seems to have originated among the Canaanites, as we are told in Genesis 4:19, that Lamech took unto himself two wives.

Polygamy afterwards prevailed among the Jews, but the principle of monogamy was retained even in the practice of polygamy by a distinction being made between the first wife and the subsequent ones.

She was regarded as the chief, and they were little better than concubines.

It was the custom in some parts for the bridegroom to place a ring upon his intended bride's finger.

Although there is no mention in the Bible of betrothal finger rings, we find that a ring is mentioned therein as a token of fidelity or friendship.

Genesis 41:42, and of adoption, Luke 15:22.

Between the betrothal and the marriage, an interval elapsed, varying from a few days in the patriarchal age, ten in the case of Rebecca, to a year for virgins, and a month for widows in later times.

So I think that illustrates that there can often be a big lag between, um, your, your biological development and your cultural development.

Genesis 4 also tells us that Cain practiced agriculture and Abel raised livestock, both of which, archeologically speaking, only emerged around 10,000 years ago.

If Adam lived 900,000 years earlier, how do you explain the fact that his sons were already farmers?

Well, to think that they were already farming is again to interpret this literature literally, and the point that I and Jack Collins have made is that that is a mistake.

Which is a tragedy and the opposite of what humans were intended to do.

So humans so far, when they are cooperating with this beast or a beast, they are actually becoming less human, which is something we've noticed in Genesis 3 and Genesis 4.

And now you're saying in Genesis 6 where they are... becoming less human because they're becoming less like God and more like this distorted, titanic version of ruling, which is destroying the earth instead of taking care of it and offering it to God like we see Job do.

Yeah.