Where did Cain's wife come from?

Question

If it was his sister, isn't incest a sin? Doesn't this
http://www.caw.org/articles/otherpeople.html make a little more sense and explain the trouble that is had when some try to convert "heathens"?

Answer 1

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) also the much later example of Abraham’s marriage to his half sister Sarah.

Answer 2

Adam was created first, then Eve was created from the rib of Adam.

After they were placed on earth, they procreated.
Their offspring were born in pigeon pairs i.e. they had twins who were one male child and one female child.

The female offspring from the first set of twins married the male offspring from the second set of twins.
The male from the first set of twins married the female from the second set of twins.

That was how their family grew.