who was the wife of Cain? One of his sisters, one of his younger niece or underage step-niece (wow)?

Question

Praised be the incest!

Answer 1

Adam and Eve had sons and daughters(Genesis 5:4) Only three sons are mentioned though and they were Cain,Abel and Seth.
Where, then, did Cain get his wife? It was obviously from among his own family. His wife was one of his fleshly sisters, a daughter of Adam and Eve.“But such a union is incest!” some may object,It must be remembered, however, that circumstances were different in earlier times. Adam and Eve were created perfect, and the instruction for them ‘to multiply and fill the earth’ would necessarily require that their offspring marry one another and reproduce. (Gen. 1:28) But as perfect humans, their children would have been perfect as were their parents.
Even though Adam and Eve sinned and became imperfect, Cain and his brothers and sisters were still so near to physical perfection that the children they produced did not suffer the same adverse effects as do children born of such unions today. Even some 2,000 years afterward, God’s faithful servant Abraham married his half-sister Sarah, and God did not disapprove. (Gen. 20:12) It was yet another 450 years or so before God saw fit to provide his nation of Israel a body of laws that forbade incest on penalty of death. (Lev. 18:8-17) By that time imperfection had apparently developed to such an extent that no longer was it safe for close relatives to marry.
So, really, the question of where Cain got his wife is not a difficult one. The answer is provided right within the Bible, and it becomes obvious when the Bible account is read carefully.

Answer 2

Often, apparent inconsistencies can be resolved if we just look at the context. Consider, for example, the often-raised problem about Cain’s wife. As is well known, Cain killed Abel; but after that, we read that Cain had a wife and children. (Genesis 4:17) If Adam and Eve had only two sons, where did Cain find his wife?

Where did Cain get his wife? Is there a logical Bible answer?

Yes, there is. It is pointed to in the very instructions given to Adam and Eve shortly after their creation, namely: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it.”—Gen. 1:28.

Obedience to this command would require that Adam and Eve have children. Then these children, in turn, would marry and bear children. This process of reproduction by succeeding generations would need to continue in order to fill the earth in harmony with God’s purpose.


The solution lies in the fact that Adam and Eve had more than two children. According to the context, they had a large family. At Genesis 5:3 we read that Adam became father to another son named Seth and then, in the following verse, we read: “He became father to sons and daughters.” (Genesis 5:4) So Cain could have married one of his sisters or even one of his nieces.

At that early stage of human history, when mankind was so close to perfection, such a marriage evidently did not pose the risks for the children of the union that it would today.

It is probable that, while yet alive, Abel had sisters; the record mentions the birth of daughters to his parents, but their names are not recorded. (Ge 5:1-4)

Cain went into banishment in “the land of Fugitiveness to the east of Eden,” taking with him his wife, an anonymous daughter of Adam and Eve. (Ge 4:16, 17; compare 5:4, also the much later example of Abraham’s marriage to his half sister Sarah, Ge 20:12.)

Answer 3

Here are two possible answers.

If we take a literalist view of the story, Cain married one of his sisters. The situation would not likely be considered incest, as this would be the only way to get the human race started from one individual. A recent science report backs up this idea:

Roots of Human Family Tree Are Shallow
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2142987

On the other hand, if we look at the story as a particular form of etiologic allegory, Adam and Eve stand for Everyman and Everywoman--ie they are just representatives of the human race, the most likely there would have been a number of less closely related potential partners for Cain available nearby.

Answer 4

In Genesis 4:17 it speaks of Cain's wife, but no name is given,
except to say that she was one of Adam's offspring. She had a
son named Enoch. I am assumeing that she must have been
related to Cain in some way, since it says she was an offspring
of Adam, Cain's father.

How can you say praise be the incest? You do not understand
that in those times, the people of Israel often inter-married.
Do not dirty the Word of God! You must not think this way.

Read the first 4 books of Genesis and you will see Cain's story.

Answer 5

Cain, Abel and Seth were the only three sons of Adam and Eve. There were no female children born to Adam and Eve. Cain's wife was from the land of Nod which was east of Eden. Go to Genesis Chapter 4, verses 15 thru 26.

Answer 6

There are many things in life whether spiritual or not that we try to rationalize or humanize. Whatever happened in the beginning is certainly different than today. God, being God, can do things that are beyond human comprehension. It could be simple enough that God suspended the problems that is encountered when close family mate or it also could be that information about other humans was not as elaborated upon as Adam, Cain and that line of our human ancestors. No matter the way God choose to achieve his purpose it was done according to His will and purpose and due to that you didn't see the adverse effects of close relatives conceiving. Today on the other hand those problems are very real and do exist and therefore should be avoided.

Answer 7

Is it unreasonable to believe that all of us descended from the same original parents?

“Science now corroborates what most great religions have long been preaching: Human beings of all races are . . . descended from the same first man.”—Heredity in Humans (Philadelphia and New York, 1972), Amram Scheinfeld, p. 238.

“The Bible story of Adam and Eve, father and mother of the whole human race, told centuries ago the same truth that science has shown today: that all the peoples of the earth are a single family and have a common origin.”—The Races of Mankind (New York, 1978), Ruth Benedict and Gene Weltfish, p. 3.

Acts 17:26: “[God] made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth.”

Answer 8

It was Luluwa, his twin. The Bible was Patrilineal in nature (meaning only the Fathers were important). Seth married Qelima. Noah married his first cousin through his fathers brother (Emzara, a true love match). You must realize, that it was only 1 generation removed from PERFECTION so there were no genetic diseases (this takes 10 generations to set in in Mammals, and 5 generations in plants (botany)). So God had not yet made incest taboo.

Answer 9

Her name was Lilleth and she was actually the first wife of Adam as well. But when Cain killed his brother Able he was banished into the wild where he found Lilleth who was banished from the Garden of Eden by God prior to the banishinment Adam & Eve.

Answer 10

And dont forget that Cain met his wife in the land of Nod..east of Eden...where he was cast out to...