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Renato S. Grun
Renato S. Grun
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There is a strange way of saying that the human population increase on parsha Bereishis (6:1). The pasuk says:

וַֽיְהִי֙ כִּֽי־הֵחֵ֣ל הָֽאָדָ֔ם לָרֹ֖ב עַל־פְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֲדָמָ֑ה וּבָנ֖וֹת יֻלְּד֥וּ לָהֶֽם:

"And it came to pass when man commenced to multiply upon the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them".

These last words are intriguing. Does that implies that until that time the daughters were not born to them? The Radak makes an interesting point here by saying that it is obvious to think that human species cannot survived without male and female, but he does not explain why the pasuk miss to mention the male offspring.

Abravanel to Noach (p. 214) (and others) says that these words meant a lot of daughters (as opposed to a few ones) but this not explain why the males are absent here too. (In fact, he does say that both male and female are hinted in "Adam" in the begining of the pasuk, but then the mention of daughters would be superfluous).

Interestingly, there is no explicit mention of female children being before this (with the exception of Cain knowing his wife). It almost makes one want to presume that there was some kind of asexual reproduction for a while. The causative הוליד is not used until Terach; before that it’s only the simple ילד or יולד , almost implying as if the males had their kids by themselves (?). Is there any commentary or midrash on that?

There is a strange way of saying that the human population increase on parsha Bereishis (6:1). The pasuk says:

וַֽיְהִי֙ כִּֽי־הֵחֵ֣ל הָֽאָדָ֔ם לָרֹ֖ב עַל־פְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֲדָמָ֑ה וּבָנ֖וֹת יֻלְּד֥וּ לָהֶֽם:

"And it came to pass when man commenced to multiply upon the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them".

These last words are intriguing. Does that implies that until that time the daughters were not born to them? The Radak makes an interesting point here by saying that it is obvious to think that human species cannot survived without male and female, but he does not explain why the pasuk miss to mention the male offspring.

Abravanel to Noach (p. 214) (and others) says that these words meant a lot of daughters (as opposed to a few ones) but this not explain why the males are absent here too. (In fact, he does say that both male and female are hinted in "Adam" in the begining of the pasuk, but then the mention of daughters would be superfluous).

Interestingly, there is no explicit mention of female children being before this (with the exception of Cain knowing his wife). It almost makes one want to presume that there was some kind of asexual reproduction for a while. The causative הוליד is not used until Terach; before that it’s only the simple ילד or יולד , almost implying as if the males had their kids by themselves (?). Is there any commentary midrash on that?

There is a strange way of saying that the human population increase on parsha Bereishis (6:1). The pasuk says:

וַֽיְהִי֙ כִּֽי־הֵחֵ֣ל הָֽאָדָ֔ם לָרֹ֖ב עַל־פְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֲדָמָ֑ה וּבָנ֖וֹת יֻלְּד֥וּ לָהֶֽם:

"And it came to pass when man commenced to multiply upon the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them".

These last words are intriguing. Does that implies that until that time the daughters were not born to them? The Radak makes an interesting point here by saying that it is obvious to think that human species cannot survived without male and female, but he does not explain why the pasuk miss to mention the male offspring.

Abravanel to Noach (p. 214) (and others) says that these words meant a lot of daughters (as opposed to a few ones) but this not explain why the males are absent here too. (In fact, he does say that both male and female are hinted in "Adam" in the begining of the pasuk, but then the mention of daughters would be superfluous).

Interestingly, there is no explicit mention of female children being before this (with the exception of Cain knowing his wife). It almost makes one want to presume that there was some kind of asexual reproduction for a while. The causative הוליד is not used until Terach; before that it’s only the simple ילד or יולד , almost implying as if the males had their kids by themselves (?). Is there any commentary or midrash on that?

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Renato S. Grun
Renato S. Grun
  • 7.1k
  • 1
  • 23
  • 57

and daughters were born to them (bereishis 6:1)

There is a strange way of saying that the human population increase on parsha Bereishis (6:1). The pasuk says:

וַֽיְהִי֙ כִּֽי־הֵחֵ֣ל הָֽאָדָ֔ם לָרֹ֖ב עַל־פְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֲדָמָ֑ה וּבָנ֖וֹת יֻלְּד֥וּ לָהֶֽם:

"And it came to pass when man commenced to multiply upon the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them".

These last words are intriguing. Does that implies that until that time the daughters were not born to them? The Radak makes an interesting point here by saying that it is obvious to think that human species cannot survived without male and female, but he does not explain why the pasuk miss to mention the male offspring.

Abravanel to Noach (p. 214) (and others) says that these words meant a lot of daughters (as opposed to a few ones) but this not explain why the males are absent here too. (In fact, he does say that both male and female are hinted in "Adam" in the begining of the pasuk, but then the mention of daughters would be superfluous).

Interestingly, there is no explicit mention of female children being before this (with the exception of Cain knowing his wife). It almost makes one want to presume that there was some kind of asexual reproduction for a while. The causative הוליד is not used until Terach; before that it’s only the simple ילד or יולד , almost implying as if the males had their kids by themselves (?). Is there any commentary midrash on that?