Cain's Wife

(Genesis 4:17)

The question has often been asked: "Who did Cain marry ?" The short answer is: "Scripture does not tell us". However this will not satisfy the sceptic who will almost certainly point out that as the only people around according to his reading of Genesis were Adam and Eve (assuming by that time Cain had killed Abel and Seth had not yet been born, that is, reading chapter 4 chronologically) there was no woman for him to marry. However most knowledgeable Biblical creationists would point out that in chapter five verse four it is stated that Adam had both sons and daughters and would probably state that Cain must have married one of his sisters. However, although the case for saying that Cain married one of his sisters is fairly strong, it is not cast iron. Someone could say that as the birth of daughters is not mentioned until chapter five they were not around when Cain had reached a marriageable age or they would not have wanted to marry the murderer of their brother, assuming he was not already married when he did the deed ! Perhaps (a remote possibility) Cain married one of his nieces, assuming a brother of his had already married one of his sisters and produced female offspring. Someone might object that marrying one's sister would be incest and therefore not an acceptable thing to do. However, it has been pointed out that there would have been no genetic harm from marrying one's sister before harmful mutations had built up in the human genome. Further, we know that Abraham married his sister, although a critic might point out she was only his half sister (Genesis 20:12). As a matter of fact few men would want to marry their own sisters - the sexual attraction would not be there. It may also be mentioned that the early chapters of Genesis are almost entirely concerned with the male line. Eve is mentioned, and also certain women on Cain's line, but on Seth's line no woman is mentioned by name until Sarai (Genesis 11:29). It is therefore quite likely that some of Adam's daughters were born quite early on as well as Cain and Abel. The early chapters of Genesis only tell us what God considers we need to know and do not give a lot of detail simply to satisfy our curiosity. If all the detail as to creation were given it would fill volumes as well as not have been intelligible to those who lived before the age when the natural world had been scientifically investigated. What would xrays, radio waves etc. have meant to our forefathers ?

Other suggestions may be made as to where Cain got his wife as follows:-

1. Cain married some kind of hominid (a being that had evolved from an apelike creature). As to this it may be said that there is nothing about hominids in Scripture and the evolutionist's idea that such beings existed is based on very suspect evidence. In any case are we to suppose that there was both a created human race and an evolved one ? Such an idea would not be acceptable either to an evolutionist or a creationist and by most would probably be rejected out of hand.

2. Cain married some kind of extra-terrestrial like the the sons of God mentioned in chapter six verses one to eight. However this can be fairly easily dismissed as an unrealistic possibility because there is no suggestion that daughters of God ever existed, let alone involved themselves with the human race. Spiritual beings are always spoken of using the masculine pronoun. Further, the involvement of the sons of God with the daughters of men was not until mankind had begun to multiply on the earth. The sons of God were almost certainly angelic beings - compare Daniel 3:25 and 3:28. It may also be mentioned that if we introduce the idea of women other than daughters of Eve into the human race we would appear to violate the statement of Adam that she was the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20). The same objection would apply to 1 above. It may be noted that it does not say that Adam was the father of all living although he was the head of the human race. This is perhaps because the beings mentioned in chapter six had become sexually involved with the human race.