Everyone knows the phrase that God addressed to the first people on earth. “Be fruitful and multiply,” he said to Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:28) when they were still in paradise. Nevertheless, during the entire stay of the first woman in the heavenly booths, she did not give birth to a single child. How did this happen?
Birth of the first child
It is generally accepted that the firstborn of Adam and Eve was the future murderer of his brother Cain. Saint Philaret argued that the first birth of Cain can be explained by the fact that by that time his parents had not yet had time to repent and repent of their sin. Indeed, at the time of the birth of the eldest son, the first people had already been expelled by God from paradise.
Nevertheless, Eve turned out to be so happy with the child that she exclaimed: “I have acquired a man from the Lord” (Genesis 4: 1). She even called the boy "acquisition." After all, the name "Cain" is precisely translated from the Hebrew. If Eve actually found happiness in the person of her son, then why did she not follow God's call “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28) earlier, when she still lived with Adam in a better place, that is, before exile from Paradise?
Conception before exile
The Scripture says that the Creator told the first people to populate the earth. “Multiply,” said the Lord (Gen. 1:28). Saint Basil the Great argued that this call of God can be explained by the fact that his “creation was directed at many people,” and not only at the first couple. Thus, it turns out that the Lord really wanted Adam and Eve to produce new people.
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In fact, it is difficult to imagine that Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord even before the appearance of the tempting serpent and did not begin to fulfill God's covenant of reproduction. Otherwise, most likely, it would have necessarily been mentioned in the Bible. As a result, it can be assumed that Eve was already carrying a child under her heart when the Lord drove her and Adam out of the heavens. A similar version was voiced by the professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, Father Andrei Kuraev, in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta (No. 6172).
Short life in paradise
But what about the fact that the words about the emergence of a close relationship between the first man and the first woman in Scripture come immediately after the mention of the exile: “Adam knew Eve, his wife; and she conceived”(Genesis 4: 1)? Many interpreters believe that this sentence should be understood in the past tense, that is, "the knowledge of Eve" preceded the departure of people from paradise. Andrey Kuraev also spoke about this on the pages of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.
However, none of the religious texts indicate the exact number of days, months, or years during which Adam and Eve lived in paradise. This is due to the fact that time in paradise did not exist in principle. It is precisely time that mankind owes to the presence of death, which all animals and plants created by God at first even suspected. Thus Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) wrote: “Plants were not subject to decay or disease; and decay, and disease, and the very tares appeared after the change of the earth after the fall of man. " Ignatius was echoed by Theophan the Recluse: "… being created incorruptible, because of human sins it became corruptible, for we also became corruptible from incorruptible."
It turns out that it is not possible to determine the exact duration of Adam and Eve's stay in paradise. However, if we assume that the first people followed God's covenant of reproduction and conceived a child even before the exile, then Eve did not give birth to a son in paradise only because she left there with Adam after a few weeks. It turns out that the first people lived in paradise for a very short time, at least less than 9 months.
Yulia Popova
