“Who's That Girl?”

Saturday, January 05, 2013

My question tonight is coming from the Old Testament in Genesis.  I understand and have read that Adam was the first being created, and, of course, his helper, Eve, was created from his rib.  They came to know each other, and Eve conceived her firstborn, Cain, but Cain slew his brother, Abel, and was exiled from his home into the land of Nod by God for his sin, according to Gen 4:16-17, and Cain knew his wife, and she conceived.  My question: where did this female that Cain married come from?  Gen 4:17 states that Cain knew his wife.  That word ‘knew’ – does that mean intercourse, or does it mean that he knew her because she was in the Adamic family bloodline, or perhaps both?  In Gen 5:4, it reads that Adam did have other children, but it was after the birth of Seth, and I am also looking at the fact that there were timeframes (such as the eight hundred years), but Cain's wife was not mentioned, neither was her name. Please help me in this study.

Sincerely,
Mystery Woman

Dear Mystery Woman,

Eve is the mother of all living (Gen 3:20).  In the beginning, there were only Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve had multiple children (Gen 5:3-4).  In the genealogies of Genesis 5, none of the daughters are named – only the sons.  This is because Jewish genealogies (and Genesis is a Jewish book) follow the male lineage – we never know the dates or names of the daughters that are born.  Cain was Adam’s firstborn son (Gen 4:1).  When Cain went to find a wife, the only logical person he could marry would be his sister.  Therefore, Cain’s wife was also his sister (Gen 4:17).  It is morally repugnant in today’s society for someone to marry his sister, but it wasn’t that way in the beginning.  In the beginning, they had no other choice.  God told the family of Adam to “go forth and multiply” (Gen 1:28).  When Adam’s sons and daughters intermarried, they fulfilled God’s command.

Today we worry about children having deformities if the mother and father are too closely related.  This is because of genetic mutations and defects in our DNA.  Adam and Eve wouldn’t have had these defects.  When God made Adam and Eve, they were genetically perfect, and their descendants wouldn’t have had to worry about biological deformities.  God didn’t prohibit close intermarriage until almost 2,500 years after Adam and Eve (Lev 18:9-17); it took that long for genetic mutations to increase enough to become a real issue.

So the conclusion is… Cain married his sister.

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