Talk:Land of Nod

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…This is a situation that has always bothered me. If Adam and Eve, then Cain and Abel, were the first people on earth, where in the heck did the other people on earth, in particular, those found in the land of Nod, come from? There weren't any other people for Cain to wander amongst. I have never seen this commented about ever.

Connie in Canada

I've heard a lot of comments and theories. One is that God created other people than Adam and Eve, but he didn't mention them in Genesis. (Genesis only says Adam was first – it doesn't preclude the possiblity that He created others elsewhere as well, possibly in other Gardens like Eden.) Another odd theory is that the land of Nod was filled with early hominids, like Austrolopithicines or whatnot. And the "pure" people God created interbred with the proto-human cave-people, which led to the decreased lifespan and increased evil. (This theory also cleverly weds evolution and creationism.) The most likely possibility is that the Cain-and-Able story was originally not about the world's first offspring. It was just an old legend about two brothers. The Adam-and-Eve story was a different old legend, originally unrelated. When the stories were combined into Genesis, Cain and Able were called the children of Adam and Eve just to give the story some sort of narrative. – Quadell (talk) (sleuth) 19:14, Feb 27, 2005 (UTC)
According to the Genealogies of Genesis, Adam lived to 930. Depending on his age when he fathered Cain and Abel, and how old Cain was when he was wandering, and even how long he wandered for, several generations could have come and gone to supply the people for him to wonder among. boffy_b 04:29, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

cf CS Lewis' fictional "Chronicles of Narnia" series. A similar situation exists there. There are people from northern tribes that aren't of human blood, yet look like them and interbreed with them. Humans are morally superior, in some sort of genetic way. This fiction is particularly notable considering that CS Lewis was an influential Christian theologian. matturn 15:58, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Occam's Razor, people. Cain and Abel were Adam and Eve's first children, but we don't know that they weren't rather old by the time one slew the other, and it's almost certain that A&E had more children after them. As such, those children had children and went on to populate Nod (even with so few people, everyone needs to move away from their parents at some point).

Occam's Razor, revisited: if one views the Bible as myth, one does not expect it to be logical.
This is a silly argument. The Land of Nod is not a place; it's a translation anomaly. See article.

The current Bible passage is from the somewhat obscure New Living Translation. I'm going to change it to one from the King James Version, just because that is arguably the most familiar version. The KJV isn't even my preferred translation, but it is more well known. Lairor 17:50, 28 December 2005 (UTC)


Jenifer of Quebec:

My point is not to offend anyone, or any believes, I'm just adding my bits and bits of knowledge: It is also written that there was someone else in "the Land of Nod" before Cain was cast away: Lilith, Adam's first "wife". She refuse to obey Adam and was cast away from the Eden by God. So there was someone else outside. In many many books, (sc-fi, you'll say) it is written that when Cain "entered" in the land of Nod, he found Lilith and they had a son, Enoch. What I am saying, and I'n not saying i've got it all figured it out (!), but wouldn't it be possible that God banished more people "before" or that other people, or creature decided to live outside the land of Eden? Wouldn't it be possible that there was people outside?

Sure, but it's just simpler to say that 'nod' means wandering, and Cain wandered. He may or may not have ever met another human being in his entire life, depending whether you believe in certain disputed-canon books that say he married and had children. Cain and Abel's story might well have reduced human population back to 2, before Adam and Eve decided to try again and have some better kids this time.

[edit] Coast to Coast

Coast to Coast Am hosted by Art Bell was announced from "The Land of Nye" not Nod. Art lived in Nye County, NV. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.21.111.186 (talk) 04:54, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Translation question

I have a question abt this paragraph which an expert on Hebrew might be able to fix:

"Nod" (נוד) is the Hebrew root of the verb "to wander" (לנדוד) and is possibly an etymological etiology intended to explain the peripatetic lifestyle of Cain and his descendants, the Cainites. One interpretation of Genesis 4:16 is that Cain was cursed to wander the land forever, not that he was exiled to a "Land of Wanderers", otherwise absent from the Old Testament.

My question relates to the 'Land of 'Wanderers" part - I don't think you can in fact translate eretz-nod as "land of wanderers", as nod is not a plural noun. I think "Land of Wander(ing)" might be closer, but I'm not suer. Any ideas? PiCo 01:41, 8 September 2007 (UTC)