INCEST AND ADULTERY IN GENESIS

Jews consider that someone is a Jew when his mother is a Jew. One can have doubts about the father, but not about the mother.

Genesis, the first book of the Jewish Bible (the Old Testament) recognizes the fact that because of extramarital relations some lineages are real and others are supposed. Whereas the real lineages are based on the ‘father begot son’ principle (Adam begot Seth, Seth begat…), the supposed lineages use formulas such as, for instance, “Cain knew his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch.” Therefore, the Enoch and Lamech that appear in the supposed lineage of Cain (the first son of Adam) can be the same as the Enoch and Lamech that appear in the real lineage of Seth (the third son of Adam and direct ancestor of Noah).

Since both genealogies offer similar names for Lamech’s father – Methushael in Cain’s and Methuselah in Seth’s –, Genesis encourages readers with an inquisitive mind to find out whether that is a possibility. When one studies the information Genesis offers one sees that this is indeed possible, but that it entails endogamy, incest and adultery.* Once one has discovered the secrets regarding the genealogies in the OT, it is later much easier to discover the secrets regarding the genealogies in the NT.

*Adam and Eve refer to that generation that put an end to harmony and not to the first people on earth.