Where did Mrs. Cain come from?

Question

In the Bible, Adam and Eve are the first 2 humans who were created by God in Genesis 2. They had 2 children, Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel, then he took a wife and gave birth to Enoch.

Where did his wife come from? According to the Bible, there were only 3 humans on Earth at that time and they were Cain and his parents.

Answer 1

Where did Cain get his wife if there was just one family?

Gen. 3:20: “Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she had to become the mother of everyone living.” (So all humans were to be the offspring of Adam and Eve.)

Gen. 5:3, 4: “Adam lived on for a hundred and thirty years. Then he became father to a son in his likeness, in his image, and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam after his fathering Seth came to be eight hundred years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.” (One of Adam’s sons was Cain, and one of Adam’s daughters must have become Cain’s wife. At that time in human history when humans still had outstanding physical health and vitality, as indicated by the length of their lives, the likelihood of passing on defects as a result of marrying a close relative was not great. After some 2,500 years of human history, however, when mankind’s physical condition had greatly deteriorated, Jehovah gave to Israel laws forbidding incest.)

Gen. 4:16, 17: “Cain went away from the face of Jehovah and took up residence in the land of Fugitiveness [or, Nod] to the east of Eden. Afterward Cain had intercourse with his wife [“knew his wife,” that is, intimately so, KJ, RS; “lay with his wife,” NE] and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch.” (Notice that Cain did not first meet his wife in the land to which he fled, as if she were from another family. Rather, it was there that he had sexual relations with her to produce a son.)

Answer 2

Introduction: The Bible not only provides man with answers to such great questions as man’s origin, purpose, and destiny, but it is the source of faith (Gen. 1, 2; Eccl. 12: 13, 14; Matt. 25: 46). Paul wrote, "so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10: 17). The saving faith of the scriptures is active and productive (Jas. 2: 19-26, Gal. 5: 6). However, sometimes man encounters matters in the Bible which tend to weaken his faith and cause doubt. I. Cain was the first son of Adam and Eve (Gen. 4: 1). A. After Cain murdered his brother, God sent Cain away (Gen. 4: 8-14). B. The Bible tells us "Cain knew his wife, and she conceived…" (Gen. 4: 17). C. The question is how did Cain find a wife if only he, Adam, and Eve were living at this time. II. The matter of Cain finding a wife has given way to many fanciful notions A. Some have argued there was a pre-adamic race or people from a parallel world and out of these Cain found a wife. This kind of thinking supplied much material to the old television program, The Twilight Zone. a. Some in a feeble effort to satisfy the doubters and "protect" the Bible have suggested this parallel world as a possibility. However, the Bible says Adam was the "first man" (I Cor. 15: 45). The Bible also says Eve was the mother of all living (Gen. 3: 20). Hence, the parallel world theory is not plausible or tenable. B. Another view is that Cain simply married his sister. a.As a rule, the Bible does not specifically mention the birth of daughters. However, we are told regarding Adam, "…and he begat sons and daughters" (Gen. 5: 4). b. It is important to realize that the Bible does not really say when Cain found his wife (cp. Gen. 4: 16, 17). c. The Bible does not say, either, that Cain married his sister, but such a conclusion appears necessary. III. The Bible teaches against marriages of close relatives A. This argument is offered (usually by those attempting to disprove the Bible) in an effort to prove Cain’s wife was not his sister. a. Some argue that if you offer as a plausible explanation that Cain married his sister, you are forcing the Bible to contradict itself (the scriptures forbid such marriages , Lev. 18). Of course, Cain had not been very concerned about doing God’s will – he committed murder! B. It is true that later such marriages were forbidden (Lev. 18). a. One probable reason for such prohibition seems to have been the genetic dangers of brother-sister marriages. Such marriages during the time of Leviticus 18 and today can and often do involve mutant genes in the genetic systems of such couples. However, in the case of Adam and Eve, the progenitors of the human race, and their children there would have been no such condition or danger, according to geneticists. Conclusion: The Bible does not say where Cain found Mrs. Cain. Man seems to have endless problems with what the Bible does say (see Mk. 16: 16) and when the Bible does not say, man has problems with the absence of information. However, how could the command to populate the earth be executed without intermarriages (Gen. 1: 28)? Remember, Adam and Eve were the only humans God created.

Answer 3

In Eastern and Middle Eastern cultures to this very day, women are incidental to family geneologies. In the time that Moses was writing, they were chattle. Marriages were arranged by the parents for monitary or social reasons. When your father died you inherited the harem, even though you were not suppose to consumate the marriages.
Younger sons had (and still have in those cultures) lower status as they did not inherit the estate, but were trained to support themselves some other way.
When the first son was born, bells rang, birds sang, etc. When the second son was born you recorded his name in the family record. When a daughter was born, you banished your wife for awhile.
Moses records Cain and Abel because they had an import part in the story. He records Seth because, in the absence of brothers, he became the head of family on the death of Adam. The rest were just back up.
So Cain's wife was probably his sister.
Yes, that was incest. However, with Adam and Eve being genetically perfect, there was little need for incest taboos.

An alternate theory that I don't subscribe to, but that bears mentioning is that there were two creations. The one in Genesis 1 and the one in Genesis 2.

Answer 4

the way the bible is translated today it make it sound like a few days after Adam and Eve came on the scene they had kids..Actually most old testament men did not start having children untill they were almost 100 years old(look it up for your self) since they lived to be many hundred years old it was possible for them to have great numbers of children and populate the earth..Man was created to be immortal. After the fall man's body was genetically altered by sin and his life was shortened to a few hundred years and as wickedness grew man's life was shortened by God to keep a rein on the wickedness of man.(the begining of diseases and malformation of the human body) .. The more deep research that you do on the bible the more fasinating it becomes.. For example we will never know what the MARK was that God put on Cain after he killed his brother Abel (some people theorize it was some physical abnormality)(because Cain's family or blood line was wiped out in the great flood..The bible is MUCH deeper than the little bible stories you may have learned in Sunday school .. Research it and you will be amazed!

Answer 5

You didn't read enough of the Bible. Cain's wife came from the land of Nod...a place east of Eden. GEN 4:16-17
The question is...where did the people of Nod come from?
And no one can truthfully say that Adam and Eve had more than 3 children because we don't know. You can't back up the argument just because you think it was just Adam and Eve and no one else. Just because the Bible doesn't say God made other people, doesn't mean that he didn't. Also, since no one knows 100% where Eden was located and can only guess, then we can only guess that Nod could possibly be Iran.

Answer 6

First, anyone who can't understand that the bible is just BS that was used to control the masses, doesn't have a brain that functions. Just look at this in this way. We already know that some form of humans existed about 40 mil years ago. Now the Christians and I suppose the Jews are trying to tell us that some god made Adam and Eve about a mere 4,500 years ago, We certainly have proof of people living further back in time, of who there is more proof about than there is about any Jesus and most other character mentioned in that funny book. Christians can't say anything about Cain taking a wife because that sort of blows their stupid belief out of the water. If forced to answer they always come up with the statement; "Well, you can't take the bible literally." Then why do they even accept that BS/

Answer 7

Ignorant Christians? They say 1,000,000,000 Chinese can't be wrong...there are a lot more of us than that. Genesis 1:27 says "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them..." It doesn't say that He created only Adam and Eve. We can assume that there are other humans, but Adam and Eve's story was told in Genesis for two reasons. 1.) God found the Garden of Eden beautiful and came down to walk amongst his creations...and 2.) They are responsible for the original sin, and therefore the downfall of mankind. So we can safely assume that there are others created along with Adam & Eve...the Land of Nod had to get populated somehow. No one is claiming that there are missing pages or missing time. Those that are true believers in the Word of God do, however, admit that we can't attest to how time was actually kept in those days.

Answer 8

Females weren't to often mentioned in the Bible, And when Cain took a wife, he married his own sister, As did all the other sons that were born to Adam. and Eve

Answer 9

The Christian Bible does not use all of the Jewish teachings. It leaves out Lilith, Adam's wife before Eve. In Judeo-Christian lore, she was cast out of Eden for refusing to submit to the missionary position. Cast out to this place called Nod. And guess where Cain went to when he was banished?

P.S. I didn't know this either until a few years ago.

Answer 10

she was his sister. The Bible rarely ever recorded the birth of female children, since Judaism was a male dominated society. There was nothing wrong with Cain marrying his sister. The gene pool was pure at the time, and would not have been corrupt by marrying into the same family . It's only when you start making a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy that you start to have problems- which is why today you can't marry your sister. There's not enough genetic drift between you and a sibling anymore.