In Genesis chapter 4, it says that Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel were living near the Garden of Eden. Cain and Abel are the only children Adam and Eve had at this point, according to the Bible narrative. (The children Adam had at Genesis 5:4 were born AFTER Cain killed Abel)

Many people may react to this by saying “So what?” or “What does this have to do with evolution?” Let me elaborate.

After God punishes Cain for killing Abel, and sentences him to be a fugitive, Cain complains:

“I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”” (Genesis‬ ‭4:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬)

At this point in the Genesis narrative, the only people mentioned as living near the Garden of Eden were Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel. No one else. So who is Cain terrified of? Who are the people that Cain thinks will kill him?

In case you think this was just Cain being overly paranoid or delusional, look at God’s reaction in the story:

“…Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.” (Genesis‬ ‭4:15‬ ‭NIV‬‬)

Apparently God agreed with Cain that there were other people out there who might want to kill Cain. Who were these other people?

But that’s not all! Now, all of a sudden, after Cain relocates to a new land, he finds a woman and takes her to be his wife, and they have a son.

“Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.” (Genesis‬ ‭4:17‬ ‭NIV‬‬)

Now, I know the common, popular answer that Christians give here is that Adam and Eve must have had other children not mentioned in the Bible, so Cain just married one of his sisters or nieces. This just doesn’t really work with the narrative of the account.

Genesis presents Cain and Abel as the only children of Adam and Eve to be born at this time, and look how it describes the 3rd child born:

“Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” ‭‭(Genesis‬ ‭4:25‬ ‭NIV‬‬)

The Bible says that the 3rd child born, Seth, was a REPLACEMENT child for Abel who was killed by Cain. Then it says AFTER this, that Adam has many more sons and daughters:

“After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.” (Genesis‬ ‭5:4‬ ‭NIV‬‬)

The way this is worded makes no sense if Adam and Eve had other children besides Cain and Abel before Seth. Seth would not need to be a replacement for Abel if Adam had other children already.

Okay, so who are these other people?

It would make sense for there to be other people already living in areas outside the Garden, because humans have been naturally evolving for 200,000 years.

When examined closely, with an open mind, the Bible harmonizes with evolution.

Furthermore, Genesis may continue to speak about these other people in Genesis chapter 6.

“When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” (‭‭Genesis‬ ‭6:1-2‬ ‭NIV‬‬)

It describes two separate categories of people who began to intermarry: “The sons of God” and “the daughters of humans.” This has been interpreted in many different ways, and no Bible scholar is 100% sure what it is talking about.

But wouldn’t it make sense for these two categories of people to be the same two categories mentioned in Genesis 4 and 5— those who lived near the Garden and those who were already living outside the Garden area?

To me, I see evidence supporting the harmonization of Genesis and evolution.