tell me this one. "And Cain knew his wife." That's nice, but where the hell did she come from? 4:17

Question

so your saying god is okay with incest and that all humans come from incest??

Answer 1

She was one of the other people from other lands that were created by other gods around the same time as the christian god was starting his little experiment in the Garden of Eden

Answer 2

Good question and one that has puzzled many inquiring minds. Several solutions have beed offered through the years.
(1) In the 17th century, some Bible expositors, in an effort to answer the question, “where did Cain get his wife?” posited the view that Cain’s wife and the inhabitants of Cain’s city were people who did not descend from Adam, but from some pre-Adamic race, who lived in the indefinite past before Adam. The first to have developed this theory was a man named Isaac La Peyrère, a Jewish convert to Catholicism from Bordeaux. This thory has no Biblicla support.
(2) In the 18th and 19th centuries, because white and non-white people looked superficially different, a minority of Christians thought that God had created non-whites separately from Adam, and so they must have descended from pre-Adamic creatures. And Cain's wife, it was suggested, came from this pre-Adamic race. Pre-Adamism took the form of polygenism, or multiple creations of different races. Proponents of this idea often thought that non-whites were inferior beings who could be treated as slaves. Pre-Adamism thus became a justification for slavery, and a defense for racism. This theory also has no Biblical basis.
3)The testimony of the Bible is that all humans who have ever lived in the world are descendants of Adam and, therefore, are of essentially the same race - the human race. As to from where Cain obtained his wife, the most popular explanation from Christian theologians is that Adam and Eve had more children than juts Cain, Abel and Seth.
Even though only these three males are mentioned by name, Adam and Eve had other children. In Genesis 5:4 a statement sums up the life of Adam and Eve -- "And the days of Adam after he had fathered Seth were eight hundred years. And he fathered sons and daughters." This does not say when they were born. Many could have been born in the 130 years (Genesis 5:3) before Seth was born.
Also, human beings lived for hundreds of years in pre-deluvian earth. Adam and Eve theoretically could have had dozens of children and those children even dozens and dozens more. Cain may have married a cousin or niece.

Answer 3

Cain married one of his sisters. That was God's arrangement back then. How else was the earth to be populated? It was not incest in those days. Incest is defined as sexual relations between relatives that are too close to marry. That is a dangerous practice now because any children resulting from such a union may have birth defects. But such was not the case back in the days of Adam since mankind was not that far removed from perfection. However, after the nation of Israel was formed, God then gave them laws forbidding sex between close relatives.

Answer 4

*SHORT ANSWER*

Cain married one of his own sisters.



*LONG ANSWER*

The Bible doesn't detail all the children that Adam and Eve had, but it would be hard to believe that they only had three children (Cain, Abel, and Seth). They likely had lots of children, including daughters. It was one of these daughters that Cain married.

That sounds pretty gross until you think about a couple of things:

1. The gene pool would have been VASTLY different back then - genetic imperfections were not likely abundant in the parents, and not likely to be passed along. Mutations through inbreeding occurr because both parents carry the mutation and pass it on to their children. Being only the second generation of humans, Cain and company would have had much healthier genes than we do.

2. Even today, brothers and sisters can have children without too high a likelihood that their children will be deformed. It is only when close inbreeding is carried on over successive generations that problems can arise. (Still a super bad idea to marry your sibling, but the taboos and risks simply weren't around 6000+ years ago.)


*EDIT @ OP's ADDITONAL ?*

God is not okay withi ncest today because of the potential for trouble as outlined above. However, since that potential was either non-existant or greatly reduced, God allowed to happen for a short time in human history.

Yes, Christians believe humans came about through incestuous relationships early in their history. That doesn't seem any more odd than the notion that we used to be animals, eh?

Answer 5

Adam and eve had other children that are not mentioned in the Bible, who grew up. incest was allowed at that time in order populate the earth. at that time humans could live up to a thousand years or more. and where closer to perfection then we are today. the health related problems were almost non assistant at the time. so Cain did know his wife because she was one of his sisters or perhaps one of his sisters children

Answer 6

I know isnt that interesting, lol that's nice, but where the hell did she come from. Im still laughing my *** off by your observation.
I guess it was a polite way of saying it was his sister, or some other close relative, but then if that was written then it would be a condradiction wouldnt it? But I guess the appropiate answer would be that it was allowed then, although then is when the bible was written, and we live in the now, still following a book that is obviously does not pertain to the now. How contradicitve is that!!! still lol I wish you well

Answer 7

It was his sister.