Answers to High Schoolers' Questions about the Flood

Alice C. Linsley


Part 4: The Flood
This continues the series on Questions that High Schoolers Ask about Genesis. Additional important data is provided here.


Q:  Was the flood global or regional?

A:  This was the question most often asked by the high school students about Noah's flood.  To answer this question we must consider who Noah was, where he lived, and the climate conditions that he experienced.  Not all of this information can be found in the Bible.  However, Genesis provides many clues that can direct the search for the historical Noah.

Noah lived approximately 2490-2415 BC, when the Sahara experienced a wet period (Karl W. Butzer 1966). This is the period of the Old Kingdom, a time of great cultural and technological achievement in Egypt.

Noah, a descendant of the men named in the Genesis 4 and 5 King Lists, was a great ruler.  The  rulers named in Genesis controlled the major water systems of Lake Chad, the Nile, and the Tigris and Euphrates.  The interconnected waterways were their roads. In other words, Noah would have been familiar with boats and likely had a fleet. 

These ancient rulers imposed taxes on cargo that moved through their territories. They used the rivers to expand their kingdoms and to spread their Afro-Asiatic worldview.  Nimrod is an example.  His father was Kush, a ruler who controlled a vast region of the Upper Nile.  Nimrod left the Nile region and built his kingdom along the Tigris in Mesopotamia. (Gen. 10:8-12)

Noah likely lived in the region of Bor-Nu (Land of Noah) near Lake Chad. This is the only place on Earth that claims to be Noah's homeland. Satellite photographs reveal that Lake Mega-Chad was once a huge body of water, five times the surface area of Lake Superior and with a depth ranging from 200 to 600 feet. This part of Africa was much wetter than it is today due to climate cycles and the African rifts that created great watersheds or troughs.

Rifting combined with prolonged rains caused this entire region to flood.
 Lake Chad is located at the boundary of Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon.

In Noah's time, there was a prolonged wet period due to monsoons circulating from the Indian Ocean. During this wet period, the major water systems from the Benue Trough to the Tigris-Euphrates overflowed, creating a vast watery world. This was the world that Noah knew, so from his perspective the whole world was flooded.

During the Late Holocene, Lake Chad had a surface area of approximately 159000 square miles. As the climate changed and the waters receded, what was once a single lake became three separate lakes: Lake Chad, Lake Bodele and Lake Fitri.

In 1987, a fully preserved boat was discovered in the region where Noah's flood took place. The Dufuna dugout was buried at a depth of 16 feet under clays and sands whose alternating sequence showed evidence of deposition in standing and flowing water. The dugout is 8000 years old. By comparison, Egypt's oldest boat is about 5000 years old.

Peter Breunig (University of Frankfurt, Germany) lead the excavation of the Dufuna boat. He said, “The bow and stern are both carefully worked to points, giving the boat a notably more elegant form.” Breunig believes that, “It is highly probable that the Dufuna boat does not represent the beginning of a tradition, but had already undergone a long development, and that the origins of water transport in Africa lie even further back in time.”

The Dufuna dugout dates from the time of the collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in North America. This resulted in a significant rise in global sea levels. This event contributed to the success of European farming, but was not the main cause of Noah's flood. The flood recorded in Genesis was due more to seismic events and climate changes closer to Noah’s home in Africa.

The story of Noah's ark landing on a mountain in Armenia represents a misunderstanding of the Afro-Arabian words Har Meni, meaning Mount Meni located in East Africa. David M. Westley, PhD, Director of the African Studies Library at Boston University, reports that "From the center of the Chad Basin to Mount Meni is about 230 miles."


Not all peoples have flood stories. Those that do live near major water systems which had catastropic flooding in the past. There is no geological evidence for a worldwide flood. Nor is there sufficient water in Earth's biosphere for the mountains to be covered by flood waters.  It has been argued that God created more water to flood the entire earth, but this is contrary to the biblical assertion that God completed all His creation on the 6th day and thereafter rested from the work of creating.



Q:  Did Noah literally put two of every species on the Ark?

A:  According to Genesis 6:19, Noah brought only a male and female of the species onto the ark. However, Genesis 7:2 says that he saved seven pairs of only "clean" animals.  Clearly, there are two flood accounts, just as there are two creation stories. These represent different traditions among Abraham's Afro-Asiatic people.

The emphasis on having a male and female indicates God's concern that the various species survive the extensive flooding. The animals were indigenous to the region where Noah lived and some were imported. Noah probably had a ménagerie, something that was common among rulers during that period.  Ménagerie animals were kept in pairs so that they would reproduce. Perhaps these were the animals that God instructed Noah to save.

Syrian bears were brought to Egypt during the 5th Dynasty. These bears were generally docile and kept on leashes.  Athenaios of Naucratis reports that a white bear was housed by Ptolemy II in his private zoo at Alexandria.  The oldest known zoo was in Nekhen (Hierakonpolis), a shrine city dedicated to Horus (the Deity of Abraham's Horite people). The Nekhen ménagerie existed in the middle of the second millennium BC. It is believed that the local ruler kept powerful wild animals as symbols of his power.



Q:  How did Noah built the Ark? Did he have help?

A:  Noah was a great ruler. He would have had boat builders, household servants and gardeners.  He is remembered for having a vineyard (Gen. 9:20). As a king, Noah had access to the best and the most plentiful supply of boat building materials and shipwrights.

Noah's reign must have been one of great prosperity for his people.  An oracle concerning Noah states, “This one shall bring us relief from our work and the toil of our hands.” (Genesis 5:29)

The greatness of the Lake Chad region declined when the Monsoon Belt moved more to the south and the desert began to encroach. Apparently, many people migrated toward the Nile and the center of political power shifted from west central Africa to eastern Sudan, Egypt, Arabia and Mesopotamia. This corresponds to the Kushite migration of Abraham's ancestors confirmed by DNA studies.



Q:  Did Noah know about tar or pitch to seal the planks of his boat?

Egyptians making ropes and fishing lines

A:  Noah used technologies and materials that were available.  The ancient Egyptians used tar in mummification so it was known to Noah and was available. Tar and pitch were used in the ancient world to waterproof ship hulls and to caulk the seams of sailing vessels. Pitch is more solid while tar is more liquid. The words tar and pitch are often used interchangeably.

Ships and boats require wood rudders, sails and ropes.  The ancient Egyptians were the first to document how to make ropes. The Egyptians were consummate ship builders.  In Noah's day ships were built of both wood and reeds. 

4000 year old Egyptian ship plank

Q:  What was the weight capacity of Noah's Ark?

A: The answer to that question depends on the materials used to construct the boat.  According to Genesis 6:14, Noah's Ark was constructed of גפר (gofer/gopher) wood. Since this word does not appear elsewhere in the Bible, there is a good deal of speculation about the material used to build the Ark. Noah would have built with materials available to him and those materials included wood and reeds.

Noah's boats were likely constructed mainly of reeds. Reeds were an abundant building material in Bor-nu during Noah's time. The word translated "ark" in Genesis 6:14 is found only one other place in the Bible. Moses' mother put him in a reed basket which is called an "ark" in Exodus 2:3. This is why some Bibles read: "Make yourself an Ark of gofer wood, with reeds make the Ark..." (Schocken Bible, Vol. I, p. 35)

If the ark was constructed of a wood frame with hollow reeds in large bundles it would have had great buoyancy. Thor Heyerdahl learned from the Marsh Arabs that if the reeds are cut in August they retain their buoyancy rather than absorbing water.

Reed boats of this type were about 60 feet long and were capable of carrying 50 tons of cargo when fully loaded.



Q:  Maybe all the species on earth today evolved from the "pairs" of animals saved on Noah's Ark. Wouldn't this support evolution by natural selection?

A:  The animals on Noah's ark would be animals that we recognize today as species indigeneous to Africa and Arabia.  They are not the progenitors of all the animal species today.  The Bible does not provide evidence to support evolution of one species becoming an entirely different species gradually over time.



Related reading:  Analysis of the Flood Story; The Extent of Noah's Flood; Abraham's Ancestors Came Out of Africa; Part 1: Answers About God; Part 2: Answers About Adam and Eve; Part 3: Answers About the Serpent

Answers to High Schoolers' Questions About Adam and Eve

Alice C. Linsley


It is ironic that people insist on reading Genesis 1-3 as history and and yet ignore the historicity of Genesis 4-11. In this later section we find data that is verified by the sciences, especially kinship analysis, DNA studies, migration studies, climate studies, archaeology and linguistics. Were we to pursue the picture of Abraham's ancestors presented in Genesis 4-11 we would better understand the Nilo-Saharan context of the Genesis 1-3 accounts. Only when we put this material in its proper cultural context will we be able to reconcile science and Scripture.

This continues the series on Answers to High Schooler's Questions About Genesis


Q: How did Adam come to earth? Was he made on earth or in heaven and poofed to earth?

A: Genesis tells us that God formed the man from the dust of the earth. The word human reflects this belief. Human is related to the word humus, meaning soil or dirt. Likewise, in many places in the Bible the word Adam is a synonym of human being.


Q:  Were Adam and Eve real?  I  mean did they really exist?

A:  Keep in mind that the Bible presents Adam in two different ways: as the first created human, and as the founder of the line of ruler-priests who are associated with Abraham and his territory in Edom. The idea of Adam as the first man comes from Biblical writers who are speaking analogically (using an analogy). They draw a parallel between the first Adam who caused sin and death and the New Adam - Jesus Christ - who redeems the world from sin and death. This is not to be taken as history.

On the other hand, Adam as the first of the line of rulers associated with the great kings of ancient Israel, has an enormous amount of Biblical support and also aligns with data in the sciences. The Biblical writers recognized that the people among them with red skin were of an ancestral line of extreme antiquity. Some of these people were rulers in Edom. These are listed in Genesis 36. Esau the Elder and Esau the Younger were among them. Esau is specifically described as being red in Genesis 26. King David was also red and he had Edomite ancestry.

The Hebrew word for red is edom and it is a cognate to the Hausa word odum, meaning red-brown. Both are related to the word dam, meaning blood, and to the name of the first man Adam, who was formed from the red clay which washed down to the Upper Nile Valley from the Ethiopian highlands. These soils have a cambic B horizon. Chromic cambisols have a strong red brown color. It is evident then that the Upper Nile is the urheimat of the Adam and Eve story.

Jeff A. Benner, an expert on ancient Hebrew, explains:

We are all familiar with the name "Adam" as found in the book of Genesis, but what does it really mean? Let us begin by looking at its roots. This word/name is a child root derived from the parent דם meaning, "blood". By placing the letter א in front of the parent root, the child rootאדם is formed and is related in meaning to דם (blood). 

By examining a few other words derived from the child root אדם we can see a common meaning in them all. The Hebrew word אדמה (adamah) is the feminine form of אדם meaning "ground" (see Genesis 2:7). The word/name אדום (Edom) means "red". Each of these words have the common meaning of "red". Dam is the "red" blood, adamah is the "red" ground, edom is the color "red" and adam is the "red" man. There is one other connection between "adam" and "adamah" as seen in Genesis 2:7 which states that "the adam" was formed out of the "adamah".

In the ancient Hebrew world, a person’s name was not simply an identifier but descriptive of one's character. As Adam was formed out of the ground, his name identifies his origins. (From here.)

If Adam and Eve are the first created humans, they would have lived about 3.6 million years ago. That is when the first humans appear on the Earth's surface, and these were fully human. Genesis tells us that Abraham's ancestors came out of Africa. The descendants of Noah were Nilo-Saharans. The Bible sometimes refers to these peoples ar "Kushites." Kush is the Nile Valley, especially the upper Nile region which is where the oldest human fossils have been found. Further, the names Adam (ha-dam, the Blood) and Eve (ha-vah, the Birther) and the creation stories of Genesis 1-4:16 are traceable back to Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors.


Q:  Eve is called the "mother of all living" in Genesis 3:20. Why is Adam never called the "father of all living"?

A:  It is also possible that the ancients from whom we received the information in Genesis knew more than we recognize about the durability of the Mt-chromosome, and the loss of the original Y-chromosome. The most recent male ancestor of all males today lived in Africa around 59,000 years ago. The so-called "Mitochondrial Eve" is dated to about 143,000 years ago. She is considered the mother of modern humans. She is not the mother of archaic humans. That Eve would have lived much earlier.



Q: What fruit did Adam and Eve eat?

A: This information is not found in Genesis. In many works of art the fruit is shown as an apple. An older tradition maintains that the fruit was a fig from the Sycamore Fig tree (Ficus sycomorus) which was abundant along rivers in the region where Eden was located. This tradition is also represented in paintings by the fig leaves covering Adam and Eve's private parts.

The Syacmore fig is a large edible fruit which ranges from green to yellow or red when ripe. In its natural habitat, the tree can bear fruit year round, peaking from July to December. Jesus “cursed” the Sycamore Fig tree when it failed to produce fruit, suggesting that the tree's failure to bear fruit was an effect of the corruption of creation (the Fall).

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. (Mark 11: 12-14)

Range of the Syacmore Fig tree

The Sycamore Fig grew in abundance along the Nile, the region from which Abraham's ancestors came. It was cultivated by the Egyptians and the Kushites. Zohary and Hopf, authors of Domestication of Plants in the Old World (Oxford University Press), assert that Egypt was "the principal area of sycamore fig development." They note that "the fruit and the timber, and sometimes even the twigs, are richly represented in the tombs of the Egyptian Early, Middle and Late Kingdoms. In numerous cases the parched sycons bear characteristic gashing marks indicating that this art, which induces ripening, was practiced in Egypt in ancient times."

In ancient Egyptian iconography the Sycamore stands on the threshold of life and death, veiling the threshold by its abundant low-hanging foliage. The caskets of some Egyptian mummies were made from the wood of the Sycamore Fig tree. Pharaohs called the Sycamore Fig trees Nehet.




Q: Why did Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit?

A: Eve ate the forbidden fruit first and then gave some to Adam. She was tempted by the serpent who appealed to her God-inspired appreciation of beauty. Genesis 3:6 says that the woman saw that the fruit was “pleasing to the eye.” Here we see how the Good in us can be used to make us sin. This is why Genesis 3:1 describes the serpent as “more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made."

Q: Why didn't Adam stop Eve from sinning?

A: Genesis 3:6 says that "her husband" was with her when she took and ate the fruit, but does not offer an explanation as to why he failed to stop her. The book of Genesis typically does not speculate about why men failed to do right. For example, we are not given an explanation about Noah’s drunkenness that led him to curse his son/grandson, or about Lot’s drunkenness that led to incest with his daughters. Both stories indicate that drunkeness is a condition that leads to bad things. Perhaps the moral of this story is that moral weakness in husbands and fathers leads to bad things.



Q: Why did God have to punish all of us if only Adam and Eve sinned?

A: God does not punish us. We suffer the consequences of sin and death because these are characteristics of the fallen world in which we live. God's gifts of forgiveness, strength, wisdom, patience and joy enable us to live in the fallen world as people who grow in the image and likeness of God, according to our original blessing.



Q: Why did God place the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden?

A: Genesis does not answer this question. However, Genesis 3:3 tells us that this tree was in the middle of the garden, which means it was at the sacred center. Among many tribes, the sacred center is where knowledge is revealed. For example, the Lakota vision quest (Hunblecheya) requires that the participant remain at the center of the circle drawn by the shaman until he receives a vision from the Great Spirit about his role and destiny.



Q: Who did Adam and Eve's children marry?

A: God commanded Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth and subdue it." (Gen. 1:28) Abraham's ancestors obviously took this command seriously because their rulers had two wives and usually two concubines. Marriage partners were carefully selected, especially for rulers and their heirs.  We do not know what rules governed the selection of marriage partners among the earliest humans 3.4-3.6 million years ago, but analysis of the Genesis King Lists reveals a sophisticated marriage and ascendency structure for Abraham's ancestors.




Q: What was going on between Adam and Eve and Noah? How can that be enough time to populate the earth?

A: If Adam and Eve are the first created humans, they lived at least 3.6 million years ago since that is the age of  the oldest human fossils. Noah lived much later, between 2490-2415 B.C. when the Sahara experienced a wet period (Karl W. Butzer 1996).

Before Noah's time there were already human populations dispersed around the world. There were numerous river populations in China between 7000-2000 B.C. In southern Africa, there were forest populations who mined red ochre from the Lebombo Mountains more than 30,000 years ago.  This blood-like substance was used to bury nobles in the hope of life beyond the grave. The practice was widespread, perhaps global, before the time of Noah.

Noah's immediate descendants included Shem, Ham and Japheth, whose lines intermarried. This means that these ruling lines were genetically related.

Ham lived between 2438-2363 B.C. and became the father of Kush. Kush lived between 2417-2342 B.C. and became the father of Raamah and Nimrod. Kush ruled in the Upper Nile and his son Nimrod established a kingdom in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley (Gen. 10:8-12).

Obviously, there is a gap of time between Adam and Eve and Noah, plenty of time for populations to migrate. The Kushite marriage and ascendancy structure drove the migration of peoples out of Africa.


Q: Were there other people on earth besides Adam and Eve that God created too?

A: Genesis does not address this question. The material in Genesis comes to us from a people who spread far and wide. This is refered to as the Kushite migration out of Africa, although there were various migrations both in and out of Africa before the time of Kush (Gen. 10). Findings in molecular genealogy indicate that most of the peoples of the world are their descendants, but perhaps not all people. More research needs to be done.


Q: Why did God create the man first

A: So that the stronger of the species could protect the weaker of the species. Unfortunately, Adam failed to protect his wife from the serpent's wiles.

Q: How long were Adam and Eve in the garden before they sinned?

A: This is not answered in Genesis, but the suggestion is that they lived there a good while as caretakers of the ground, the plants and the animals. Eden time probably seemed different than our time since they enjoyed perfect communion with a timeless.


Q: When they were in the garden before the fall, did Adam and Eve have sex

A: Very likely. They were told to bring forth offspring. Sex is not an effect of the Fall. Shame and sexual perversion are.


Q: Why did Adam name the animals. Why didn't God name them?

A: Naming is a way of making sense of our world. Perhaps God thought that this was important for Adam's cognitive development. God alone could create the animals, but by allowing the man to name the animals, God grants him a way to share in the creative process.

St. Anthony the Great offers this explanation:  "God, by His Logos, created the different kinds of animals to meet the variety of our needs: some for our food, others for our service. And He created man to apprehend them and their actions and to appraise them gratefully. Man should therefore strive not to die, like the non-rational animals, without having attained some apprehension of God and His works."


Related reading: Adam and Eve: The "Blood" and the "Birther"; DNA Confirms the Kushite Migration Out of Africa; Questions High Schoolers Ask About Genesis;  Answers to High Schoolers Questions About God

Answers to High Schoolers' Questions about God

Part 1: God
(This is the first in a series on Answers to High Schoolers' Question About Genesis.)


Q: Where did God come from?

A: God is eternally existent. God always existed and will always exist. By the very definition of the term "God" we must infer qualities which are not human.  Therefore we speak of God as eternal, immortal, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, immutable and totally pure and good.



Q: Who created God?

A: God is Uncreated Creator. Some ancient philosophers regarded God as the “Unmoved Mover.” The pre-Socratic philosopher Anaximander described God as the origin of the Primary Substance.  That is to say that the Creator is not bound or constrained by matter and, to use Anaximader's own words, "All things must in equity again decline into that whence they have their origin; for they must give satisfaction and atonement for injustice, each in the order of time.''



Q: If God created the heavens and the earth, then where was He before? People say that God is everywhere, but where was everywhere if there was no heavens and no earth?

A: God is transcendent, existing outside of time and space. God is not constrained by time and space as creatures are. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is a great miracle of love because the Son of God left his glorious existence outside of time, space and the decay of this fallen world to become human, only without sin. This was the divine plan whereby the “Seed of the Woman” (Gen. 3:15) would bring salvation to repentant sinners.

Q: How did God imagine earth when He created it, before the fall?

A: From Genesis we gather that at every stage of the creative process, God declared His work “good” and before the Fall, Eden is described as Paradise. In Genesis 13:10 the land Lot sees is like the paradeisos of Yahweh, a reference to Eden (the garden of the Lord). Revelation uses the same phrase as Genesis 13:10.

Q: Why was God more active and visible in ancient times than He is today?

A: God is unchanging (immutable). He is as active today as at any time in the past. Those who have ears to hear will hear. Those who have eyes to see will see.

Q:  Why don't we hear God's voice now like people did in the old times?

A:  A wonderful Bible expositor by the name of A.W. Tozer once wrote, "Most Christians don't hear God's voice simply because we've already decided we aren't going to do what He says anyway." I think that is part of the answer. Another part is that we hear and see what we expect to hear and see. Many have been taught that God no longer works miracles; that miracles were only performed in the time of the Apostles. This is false. Ask any missionary who has seen miracles. Ask the average Christian whether God has worked a miracle or two in their life.  We hear what we expect and if we don't expect to hear God, we probably won't.


Q: Why was God more strict during the time of Abraham and Isaac than He is now? Back then He would curse them for not trusting Him. Now He doesn't.

A: God takes lack of trust and sin as seriously today as in the time of the Patriarchs. God does not change (immutable).



Q: I've always known God as a loving, fatherly figure, but when I read Genesis He seems harsh. Is God a loving God or is He harsh? Or has God changed from a harsh God to a loving God?

A: Most of the promises of the Bible are contained in kernel form in Genesis. This is because God is a loving and promise-keeping God.



Q: If God knows all things, why did He allow the fall, which created evil?

A: God is all-knowing (omniscient). God’s knowledge is such that humans are granted freedom to decide how we live and what we do. Humans often make bad decisions and do evil things. This is the result of evil, not the origin of evil.

Q: Why would God create a universe to glorify Him?

A: The universe was made for us to enjoy God’s glory and to share in it. The corruption of sin makes this very difficult, but God’s forgiveness and the Holy Spirit make it possible.

Related reading:  Questions High Schoolers Ask About Genesis; Answers to High Schoolers' Questions about Adam and Eve; Answers to High Schoolers' Questions About the Serpent; Answers to His Schoolers' Questions about Earth; Answers to High Schoolers' Questions About the Flood; Answers to High Schoolers' Question "Why Abraham?"

Questions High Schoolers Ask About Genesis

Alice C. Linsley


I've been conducting research with students in grades 9-12 at a local Christian school.  The objective is to discover the most commonly asked questions about Genesis within this group.  Keep in mind that these students are exposed to Bible readings, sermons, and Christian instruction in their homes and churches. At this school, the majority of the students are from Protestant denominations. About 5% are raised in Roman Catholic homes, and less than 1% are raised in Orthodox homes.

Students were asked to submit questions about the book of Genesis. The questions most often asked touch on God, Adam and Eve, the Serpent, the Flood, the creation and age of Earth, why God chose Abraham, race and how the Earth was populated, and the authorship of Genesis.  I chuckled over this comment from a 10th grader: "I am saving my questions for God."

The younger students tended to ask more metaphysical questions, such as "Where did God come from?" or "How did God come into existance?"  The queries of the older students tended to be more analytical, even scientific, such as "How could there be water on the earth if there was no rain?"

We must be doing something right at our Christian school since not one student asked "Does God exist?"  Were I doing this survey in a public school, doubtless I would have received that question from multiple students.

The following are some of the questions students asked.


God


Where did God come from?

Who created God?

If God created the heavens and the earth, then where was He before? People say that God is everywhere, but where was everywhere if there was no heavens and no earth?

How did God imagine earth when He created it, before the fall?

Why was God more active and visible in ancient times than He is today?

Why is God more strict during the time of Abraham and Isaac than He is now?  Back then He would curse them for not trusting Him. Now He doesn't.

I've always known God as a loving, fatherly figure, but when I read Genesis He seems harsh. Is God a loving God or is He harsh?  Or has God changed from a harsh God to a loving God?

If God knows all things, why did He allow the fall, which created evil?

Why would God create a universe to glorify Him?

(Answers to these questions are here.)



Adam and Eve


Were Adam and Eve real? I mean did they really exist?

Eve is called the "mother of all living" in Genesis 3:20. Why is Adam never called the "father of all living"?

What fruit did Adam and Eve eat?

Why did Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit?

Why did God have to punish all of us if only Adam and Eve sinned?

Why did God place the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden?

Why didn't Adam stop Eve from sinning?

Who did Adam and Eve's children marry?

How did Adam come to earth? Was he made on earth or in heaven and poofed to earth?

What was going on between Adam and Eve and Noah?  How can that be enough time to populate the earth?

Were there other people on earth besides Adam and Eve that God created too?

Why did God create the man first?

How long were Adam and Eve in the garden before they sinned?

When they were in the garden before the fall, did Adam and Eve have sex?

Why did Adam name the animals.  Why didn't God name them?

Did dinosaurs live in Eden with Adam and Eve?

(Answers to these questions are here.)



The Serpent


Why was the devil in the form of a serpent?

The serpent in Genesis is never directly referred to as Satan. Why is this?

(Answers to these questions are here.)




The Flood


Did Noah literally put two of every species on the Ark?

How did Noah built the Ark?  Did he has help?

Did Noah know about tar or pitch to seal the planks of his boat?

What was the weight capacity of Noah's Ark?

Was the flood global or regional?

Maybe all the species on earth today evolved from the "pairs" of animals saved on Noah's Ark. Wouldn't this support evolution by natural selection?

(Answers to these questions are here.)



The Creation of Earth


How old is the earth?

How many times has God created earth?

What existed before God created everything?

How did everything just appear when God spoke?

Could God have created the world through Evolution?

Were the seven days of creation 24-hour days?

When Genesis says "hovered over the waters" does that mean that water existed before God formed the earth? Or was this water over an unformed earth?

Where was the Garden of Eden?

Why did God take seven days to create the world?

How could water come up from the ground if it hadn't rained yet?

Where do dinosaurs fit in the creation account?

(Answers to these questions are here.)


Abraham

What made Abraham so special that God chose him?

If God gave the land of Israel to Abraham, doesn't that mean that He wants the Jews to have it?

What is the nature of the covenant that God made with Abraham?

How do we know that Abraham was a ruler?

How do we know that Jesus came from Abraham's family?


(Answers to these questions are here.)



Race, Human Populations and the Purpose of Mankind


How did the different races come about?

If Adam and Eve's children married each other, isn't that the sin of incest?

How did the whole earth's popultaion come from just two people?

Did other families exist on Earth at the same tinme that Adam and Eve lived?

How many generations are from Adam and Eve to Abraham?

Why were the men in Genesis so old?

Why did God create Mankind?


(Answers to these questions are here.)


Authorship

Who wrote Genesis?

How do we know that Moses wrote Genesis?

How can we verify that the information in Genesis is factual?

Did the author add things that God didn't tell him to write?



Related reading: Answers to High Schooler's Questions About God; Extraordinary Questions; Just Genesis: Answers to Your Questions