Verse

Genesis 5:4

ESV The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.
NIV After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.
NASB Then the days of Adam after he fathered Seth were eight hundred years, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
CSB Adam lived 800 years after he fathered Seth, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
NLT After the birth of Seth, Adam lived another 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
KJV And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:

What does Genesis 5:4 mean?

The previous verse tells us that Adam was 130 years old when he fathered Seth. Now we learn that Adam, having many other children, lived another 800 years after Seth was born. These long lifespans seem amazing, but make sense when one considers a world free from pollution, most diseases, and most genetic disorders.

It would have been necessary, of course, for Adam and Eve to have many, many children. With no other source of humanity yet on the planet, their children would have married each other, had more children, and then continued to intermarry with members of the ever-expanding family.

Later, God would restrict the practice of marrying close relatives. As humanity continued to suffer the consequences of the fall, genetic diseases would have become more likely, and more problematic. As a result, close intermarriage carries a much greater risk of birth defects for the offspring. At this time, however, before that genetic pool had become so diverse, that would not have been an issue.
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