How many children did Adam and Eve have?

Answer  
  

The short answer is, we do not know. The Bible does not tell us exactly how many children [Adam and Eve](Adam-and-Eve-story.html) had together during their lifetimes. Here are two things we *do* know about their children:  
  


• We know the names of three of their children: Cain (Genesis 4:1\), Abel (Genesis 4:2\), and Seth (Genesis 4:25\).  
  

• We know that Adam and Eve “had other sons and daughters” (Genesis 5:4\).  
  

Since Adam and Eve were both clearly capable of having children at the age of 130 (cf. Genesis 5:3\), they experienced a much longer period during which they could continue having children. Their window of opportunity for childbearing was quite wide. So, it is quite possible that the “other sons and daughters” were conceived and born over many decades or even centuries.
Today, a woman’s childbearing years usually run from about age 18 to age 40, a span of 22 years, or about 28 percent of her lifetime. If Eve lived to be 900 years old (Adam lived to 930, according to Genesis 5:5\), and her childbearing years were 28 percent of that, then it is possible she could have been bearing children for 252 years. How many children could Eve have borne in that time? When time Adam and Eve died in their ninth century, they could perhaps have had hundreds of children together as they obeyed the command to “be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:27\).  
  

It is important to emphasize that all this is highly speculative. All of us on earth are ultimately children of Adam and Eve, but we are simply not in a position to determine the precise number of their immediate children. Scripture has not given us enough information to determine the size of the first generation.  
  

