Cain's Wife

By George Feldman

Probably the origin of Cain's wife has been a question that has crossed some folks minds many times. Some no doubt have had honest concerns about this question, but we suspect that others have used it as an occasion to ridicule the Bible.

The verse in question is Genesis 4:17: "And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch..." Since the daughters of Adam and Eve are not mentioned by name, it is assumed by some pompous skeptics that the Bible is in error because it does not state where Cain got his wife.

So where did Cain get his wife? There can be but one answer: he had to have married one of his sisters or a close relative. Adam lived 930 years and during that time he fathered many sons and daughters. Even though Adam and Eve had many children, we are told the names of only three; Cain, Abel and Seth.

However, it is erroneously assumed that they had no children beyond those named. One Bible authority believes that during the first 100 years after the union of Adam and Eve, that it would have been possible for them to have had 32,000 descendants at the time Cain went to live in the land of Nod.

Of course, some people will immediately reject the idea of brothers and sisters marrying each other on the basis of the law of incest, but this law did not originate until the time of Moses, as recorded in Leviticus 18 to 20. Such marriages were absolutely necessary; there was no other way to start the human race.

It must be remembered that Adam's and Eve's genetic systems were perfect; they had no mutant genes in them that would pose the danger of deformed offsprings being born into the world as a consequence of inbreeding. Of course that was only true then; it is no longer true now.

In conclusion, where did Cain get his wife? There can be no doubt about it - Cain got his wife from his mother-in-law.