Old Testament
Jacob had twelve sons. Most of all of them he loved Joseph, the best and kindest. One day Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful robe, and Joseph's brothers were angry with him and envied him.
One day Joseph had a dream about how he and his brothers were knitting sheaves in a field, and his brothers’ sheaves bowed down to his sheaf. Another time he saw in a dream that the sun, moon and stars of heaven bowed to him. The brothers became even more angry with Joseph.
One day, when the brothers went to a distant pasture with flocks of sheep, Joseph's father sent Joseph to visit them. The brothers, seeing him, decided to punish him: they took off his beautiful clothes and threw him into a deep hole.
At this time, merchants with a caravan passed by. The brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him to merchants for 20 silver coins. Then they stained his clothes with the blood of a slaughtered goat and brought them to his father with the words:
- This is what we found. Isn't this Joseph's clothing?
Jacob thought that a wild beast had killed Joseph and wept bitterly for him.
The merchants took Joseph to Egypt and sold him there to one of the courtiers of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The owner fell in love with the smart and handsome Joseph, trusted him, and made him the manager of the house, the chief of his servants. But he had an evil and deceitful wife, she wanted Joseph to deceive her husband with her, and when he refused, she slandered him, and poor Joseph went to prison.
Soon, two courtiers ended up in the same prison - the one who poured wine for Pharaoh, and the one who served bread (butler and baker). One day, they both saw amazing dreams at night. Joseph explained them to them: Pharaoh would soon forgive one of them, and execute the other. And so it happened.
After some time, Pharaoh himself saw strange, mysterious dreams: once he saw that seven fat cows came out of the river, and then seven more thin cows came out, which ate the fat ones, but they themselves remained thin. And then he had a dream that seven full, beautiful ears grew, and behind them were seven empty ears, which destroyed the full ones, but themselves remained thin. No one could explain to Pharaoh his dreams.
Then the servant, to whom Joseph explained his dream in prison, told Pharaoh about it, and Joseph was called out of prison. He explained to Pharaoh the dreams that were incomprehensible to him. The dreams meant that there would be a good harvest for seven years, and there would be plenty of everything, and then there would be seven hungry years.
“It is necessary,” said Joseph, “during good years, to collect large reserves so that there is enough for the time of famine.”
Pharaoh liked Joseph's advice and instructed him to handle the matter himself. Thus, Joseph became a very important person in the Egyptian kingdom.
The years of a rich harvest have passed. Joseph had collected huge reserves, and a terrible famine began in neighboring countries, especially in the land of Canaan, where Joseph’s brothers lived. Old Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy grain there, but did not let his youngest son, Benjamin, go with them.
When the brothers were brought to Joseph, they did not recognize their poor brother in the important Egyptian nobleman. He immediately recognized them, but did not open up to them. He told them:
- You are probably spies - you came to spy on us.
“No,” the brothers answered, “we are honest people.” My father had twelve brothers, but one died, and the youngest remained at home.
Joseph was glad to know that his father was alive. He gave the brothers some bread, but ordered them to prove that they were telling the truth by bringing their younger brother, only then would he give them the rest of the bread.
The brothers returned home with bread. However, the bread they brought quickly ran out. They had to go to Egypt again and, saddening their father, take Benjamin with them.
Now Joseph received them very graciously. He was so happy to see his younger, beloved brother that he went into another room and began to cry. He fed the brothers, gave them a lot of bread, and quietly put his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack.
Before the brothers had gone far, Joseph’s servants caught up with them and said:
“Why did you steal our master’s favorite cup?” The brothers began to refuse and said:
- Search us, if the cup is found, let the one who has it die, and we will all be your slaves. They began to search and found the cup on Benjamin. The brothers were horrified, and everyone was forced to return to Joseph.
“We took this boy with us under our responsibility, and we cannot return without him.” Do me a favor, leave us all as your slaves, and let Benjamin go home. Otherwise, our father will die of grief,” they said.
Joseph realized that his brothers had changed for the better since they sold him into slavery. He could bear it no longer, and with tears opened himself to them. The brothers were at first afraid that he would want to take revenge on them for the evil they had done to him, but Joseph calmed them down.
- God turned the evil you did into good, without me you could have died of starvation. Go, tell your father that I am alive and I invite him to move to Egypt with me, along with all of you.
And the brothers rejoiced, and cried, and hugged, and asked Joseph for forgiveness. Joseph gave them rich gifts, and he sent a lot of good things with them to their father. Chariots followed the donkeys laden with gifts to bring their father to Joseph in Egypt. And Jacob went with all his family, with sons and daughters, and with grandsons, and with granddaughters, and with all his flocks, and they settled in Egypt, and it was good for them, and Joseph took care of them.
FOR CHILDREN ABOUT THE FIRST SIN
Adam and Eve lived in a large, beautiful garden, which was planted for them by God Himself. Many beautiful trees grew there, producing delicious fruits. A wonderful river flowed there, giving rise to the four main rivers of the earth. It was always so warm there that people did not need clothes and walked around naked. They weren't ashamed. After all, shame comes with sin. Adam and Eve were innocent and sinless, so they had nothing to be ashamed of.
This garden was called paradise. Adam was to cultivate this garden and keep it.
Among all the trees of paradise, two were different from the rest. One was called the tree of life, and the other was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The Lord God immediately warned the man: “You can eat fruit from every tree in the garden, but you must never eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do not obey Me and eat the fruit of this tree, you will die that same day.” Adam told Eve about this too.
Was it difficult for people to obey their Creator? Not at all. There were so many delicious fruits, fruits, and berries around that one could easily endure and not break such a simple commandment.
But something terrible happened: people tried the fruits of the forbidden tree. And the evil devil pushed them to do this. He became envious that God loves man, cares about him, speaks to him; It is enviable that a person can live so well in paradise. The devil planned to destroy people. He slowly made his way into paradise, entered the serpent and climbed a tree from which people were forbidden to eat fruit, and waited to see if Adam or Eve would come up to persuade them to break God’s commandment.
One day, as Eve walked past the tree of knowledge, she suddenly heard a voice. She looked up and saw a beautiful snake. The serpent asked Eve: “Did God truly say: You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?” “No,” answered Eve, “we can eat fruit from any tree except this one, because if we eat fruit from this tree, we will die.” “Do not believe this,” said the serpent, “God knows that on the day you eat them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.”
Eve listened, and she kept looking at the beautiful fruits. She liked them more and more. “Really,” she thought, “the serpent is telling the truth, and from these fruits Adam and I will become smarter. If this is so, then what's wrong with that? Besides, there are a lot of fruits on the tree—God won’t even know if I pick a few for myself and my husband.”
And so Eve took fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ate; and she gave it also to her husband, and he ate.
But as soon as they ate the fruits, they remembered the words of God. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they had sinned. Immediately they became ashamed to look at each other: they found out that they were naked, and they sewed together fig leaves and made aprons for themselves. Soon Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise during the cool of the day. But instead of joyfully rushing to meet Him, as they had done before, Adam and Eve were afraid and hid between the trees. They thought that God would not see them there.
This is how it happened that instead of becoming smarter, people, having violated the commandment of God, became stupider than they were - they thought to hide from the All-Seeing God.
"Adam, where are you?" - God said in a stern voice. Then Adam answered: “I heard Your voice and was afraid, and hid myself, because I was naked.” - “Who told you that you were naked? Have you not eaten fruit from the tree from which I forbade you to eat?” - asked God. At this point Adam would have confessed to breaking the commandment, but instead he began to justify himself: “The woman whom You gave me brought me fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
The Lord sternly asked Eve: “Why did you do this?” “Merciful God,” answered Eve, “it’s not my fault either. The serpent deceived me. He talked me into doing it."
So, neither Adam nor Eve admitted their guilt or brought repentance to the Lord. For this, the Lord appointed them punishment. But the first to be punished was the devil who sat in the serpent. God punished him more severely than anyone else. He told the devil this: “The Savior who will be born of a woman will defeat you. He will not allow you to deceive people in the future, but will give people an even better paradise than this, and not on earth, but in heaven.”
And the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all the beasts; You will crawl on your belly and eat earth all the days of your life.” As soon as God said this, the serpent, who had previously been the most beautiful and intelligent of animals, turned into the most disgusting and ugliest.
God said to Eve: “You will suffer many illnesses while giving birth to children, and because you seduced your husband, he will rule over you, and you must listen to him.”
God said to Adam: “Since you did not obey Me, here is your punishment: from now on you will have to work hard, getting bread for your food, so that sweat will flow from your face when you work the land. You sow rye or wheat, and instead of bread, worthless grass or thorns will grow in your field. You will spend your whole life in hard labor, and then you will return to the land from which you were taken.”
From that moment on, Adam and Eve could no longer remain in paradise. The Lord God expelled them from the Garden of Eden, and so that they could not return back, He placed an Angel with a fiery sword in front of the entrance.
Only now did Adam and Eve understand what they had done. But, alas, it was already too late.
Listen to God, children, listen to your parents, listen to your teachers and elders - they love you and teach you good things.
If you happen to do something that is forbidden, do not lock yourself in your wrongdoing, do not blame others, but confess without hiding anything, ask for forgiveness, correct yourself, and be more obedient in the future. Reprinted from the book: The Bible for Children. Based on the text of Rev. A. Sokolova. St. Petersburg, 2006. HOME
Jewish interpretations of the Bible
There are quite original interpretations of the biblical text, common in Jewish traditions . According to them, in addition to the first three children - Cain, Abel and Seth - Adam had other children who were not born by Eve. After committing original sin, disobeying the Lord, Adam separated from her for 130 years.
During this period, he had numerous relationships with evil spirits , and Eve gave birth to children from demons. The demonic entities that emerged as a result still fill the entire world. There is also a version that before the creation of Eve, Adam’s wife was a rather strong demoness named Lilith . This information is not found in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.
It is impossible to compile the most specific family tree of the entire human race, therefore our contemporaries can only rely on the texts of the Holy Scriptures, taking into account the nuances of its interpretation in different faiths.
You can learn more about how many children Adam and Eve had by watching the video :
History of the Antediluvian Church
The world in which we live and to which we ourselves belong consists of creatures that appeared at a certain time and have a certain continuation: this means that all of it, in its entirety, once did not exist. Indeed, God called him into existence. (Gen. 1:1–2; Vas. Vel. on the six-day. Bes. I. Diop. Areon. Neb. Jer. ch. 6 and 7).
At the very beginning, God created from nothing (a) the spiritual, heavenly, invisible world and the material, earthly, visible world a). (Heb. 11:3, Rom. 4:17. 2Mac. 7:28).
In the spiritual world, a mental light has been created, characteristic of the bliss of those whom God loves; rational beings invisible to the eyes of the body were produced from non-existence into being, and all the decoration of mental creations was created. Incorporeal intelligent beings, depending on the degree of their approach to God, constituted the highest, middle and lower ranks. To the highest order belong the flaming, fire-breathing Seraphim, the knowledgeable Cherubim, and the Thrones; to the middle - Dominance, Strength and Authority, to the lower - Principalities, Archangels and Angels. Of the countless number of these disembodied spirits, seven directly stand before the throne of God or enter unrestrainedly before the Glory of the Holy One, these are: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and others.
The fate of the spiritual world is hidden from us. One event is open. A certain Light-Bearer, who shone in the face of the angels like a star among the stars, before pure love for God completely and inalienably penetrated his being, already felt that he had knowledge that was constantly growing and expanding, and seemed to allow him to notice his superiority: then he dreamed of being equal to the Most High God and did not want to be obedient to the will of his Creator. Following this, the goodness of the Creator left him, and he did not maintain his rank: from a pure, light spirit he became unclean, dark. As an opponent of God, he is called Satan; as a critic of all good, who loves lies and denigrates everything that is dear to God, he is called a slanderer, a devil. His example of disobedience to God spread to other spirits: he drew them from heaven with him. Immense pride, which did not allow even a shadow of humility and did not give room for repentance, closed for them forever the mountainous abode of light: cast down into the abyss, in eternal bonds of darkness, they are reserved for the judgment of the predetermined great day.
Everything visible, of which the material world consists, according to its initial creation, had nothing definite in itself: it was something limitless, like an abyss, without solid foundations, without staring images, like water; something that cannot be contemplated and about which nothing positive can be said. Meanwhile, the Spirit of God hovered over this composition of the material world and poured life-giving power into it.
Life 1:3–25, 27, 31; 2:1–8
God communicated the actual structure to the world through His Word.
God said: “Let there be light!” And there was light. God separated the light from the darkness; He called the presence of light day and the darkness night. With this name of day and night, He laid the foundation for time, by which the existence of the earthly world and the continuation of all creatures in it are measured. When the light made its first urgent movement, it was determined: evening, morning and day.
On the second day, God said: “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate waters from waters!” Then, in the newly created abyss of existence, or the so-called original waters, a division occurred. Open spaces accessible to light were created. They separated dark masses of matter from which huge bodies were formed, scattered in countless numbers throughout the immeasurable region of the universe. All these world bodies, including our globe, are firmly held within their Permanent limits by the force contained in those spaces; that is why their totality is designated by the name of the firmament. And God called the firmament heaven.
On the third day, God said: “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear!” And so it happened: the continent moved forward; water flowed into the depressions; the ocean encircled the globe. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of waters sea. Then God said: “Let the earth produce greenery, grass with seeds and trees with fruits, which would contain the seed for the continuation of their kind on earth!” – The earth produced greenery, grass, and trees.
On the fourth day, God said: “Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to separate day from night, to be signs, to determine times, days and years, and may they illuminate the earth from the firmament of heaven! “And God set the sun in the firmament of heaven to illuminate the day, the month to shine in the night, and the stars.
On the fifth day, God said: “Let the waters give birth to reptiles, living creatures, and let birds fly over the earth in the firmament of heaven!” Then the waters were filled with sea monsters, fish and amphibious animals; feathered birds appeared in the air. And God blessed all these animal creatures with the ability to reproduce.
On the sixth day, God said: “Let the earth produce animals with the ability to multiply its kind, livestock, creeping things and beasts of the earth!” When living creatures appeared on land, God created man, male and female.
Thus, in six days the heavens and the earth, and everything that fills and adorns them, were completed. And God looked at everything that he created: he found everything beautiful. The only witnesses to the structure of the visible world were angels. Struck by the greatness and beauty of creation, they sang songs of praise to the Creator and God in the mountain villages.
On the seventh day there were no new works of creation. God rested and blessed the seventh day, that is, He taught him something joyful. He destined intelligent creatures to sanctify this day with memories of God’s good deeds and praises to the Creator of the world and Provider.
Garden of Eden
Almost every decade, scientists discover more and more new locations. But in the Bible the origin of Adam and Eve, as well as their places of stay, is described quite clearly. There are references to the area, recognizable toponyms. They are mostly attributed specifically to modern Ethiopia.
There is also a description of four rivers, among which there is a mention of the Tigris and Euphrates. That is why most travelers think that nowadays they are more likely to find the valley of these rivers. Among several options for finding these places, none has any significant evidence.
What is the meaning of the Fall of Adam and Eve?
The reason for this event was the free will of people. They did this act of their own free will. The devil can induce sin, but he cannot force him to commit it. Every person has the right to make their own choice.
After they tasted the fruit, they were called by the Lord. Adam said that the wife was to blame, and she shifted the blame onto the serpent. The result of this fall was the emergence of suffering and various diseases. People have lost the opportunity to live forever and lead a righteous life.
This original sin fell not only on the first people, but also on their descendants. In addition to expulsion from paradise, they were punished with other troubles:
- women will suffer more during childbirth;
- There will be a constant struggle for power between the sexes.
And the solution to this issue will in no way depend on the development of society and medical advances.
May the Lord protect you!
Other children of the first people on Earth
According to the writings of the Old Testament, people in those days lived for 800-900 years. After Cain was expelled, Eve gave birth to another son , Seth. Adam was about 130 years old at that time.
It is to Seth that the entire line of the human race ascends; through the line of Seth, the Messiah Jesus Christ came to earth
The Bible indicates that after his birth Adam lived another 800 years. During this time, Eve gave birth to 30 sons and 30 daughters, in total they gave birth to 63 children, who later settled throughout the planet .
Both Jewish and Christian sources agree that the wives of Cain, Enoch and the other first born children were their sisters . And there is nothing reprehensible in this fact: even when Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, God commanded them: “Be fruitful and multiply.”
it was allowed to marry sisters . The deepest differences between brotherly-sisterly and marital love appeared much later.
Noah and his family
A very significant biblical figure was Noah, a tenth generation direct descendant of Adam and Eve, the son of one of the sons of Seth.
Noah was saved by the Lord from the Flood , since he was the only righteous person in his generation. It was he who managed to continue the human race; all other formed families died.
The Flood represented Divine punishment for the spiritual and moral decay of humanity
God warned Noah in advance about the decision to exterminate the human race and gave him instructions on how to build an ark in order to survive in the raging elements .
At the time Noah began building the ark, he was 500 years old and had three sons. Construction took approximately 120 years. In addition to his family, God allowed Noah to take with him seven pairs of clean and unclean animals.
The flood lasted 40 days and 40 nights . The water buried everything created, including the tops of the mountains. It began to decrease only on the 150th day, and the ark was able to stop on the rocks of the Ararat Mountains . Noah allowed his family and the animals he had taken with him to go outside. Then a sacrifice was made to them: the animals were burned, and God blessed Noah, his family and all their descendants.
Noah is mentioned in Islam: he is considered one of the prophets of Allah, sent by God to Earth with the goal that people would recognize the one Allah and leave their pagan faith. There are mentions of him in the New Testament of the Bible.
Noah and his family
