Where did Cain's wife come from?

[BrideOfChrist]

Genesis 4:13-17 And Cain said unto the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold, And the Lord set a mark upon Cain , lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch...

Who did Cain think was going to kill him? It was presumably only he and his parents and siblings on the earth. Did God create others in addition to Adam and Eve that dwelt elsewhere on the planet and just didn't mention it in Scripture? The Bible says he went to dwell in another land and, it sounds like, met and married a woman there. I had always thought that Cain married one of his siblings, but reading these verses opens me up to more questions.

[only1isgood]

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/who-was-cains-wife

I hope it helps!

[Beth O]

AIG has it right. If their were other people before Adam and Even, then God's Word would be untrue. Adam was the first formed by God just as it says in Genesis.

We all come from Adam and Eve. I guess you can say we have been in breeding for a very long time. The effects of in breeding have become a problem today, but not in the beginning. Some believe that the long effects of in breeding have produced a dumbing down of the human race. That in the beginning man was much smarter and healthier. I wouldn't be surprised if this were true.

[kgreen20]

He most likely married a sister, after she was born and grew up. The ban on marrying close relatives didn't exist back then, and besides, close relatives would have been the only people he had to choose for a wife.

[antitox]

He most likely married a sister, after she was born and grew up. The ban on marrying close relatives didn't exist back then, and besides, close relatives would have been the only people he had to choose for a wife.

That is probably the case.

(Gen 5:4) "The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years; and he had other sons and daughters."

[Racheal59]

Cain’s Wife—Who Was She?

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Defenders of the gospel must be able to show that all human beings are descendants of one man and one woman Is She the Most-Talked-About Wife in History?
We don’t even know her name, yet she was discussed at the Scopes Trial, mentioned in the movies Inherit the Wind1 and Contact,2 and talked about in countries all over the world for hundreds of years.

Skeptics of the Bible have used Cain’s wife time and again to try to discredit the book of Genesis as a true historical record. Sadly, most Christians have not given an adequate answer to this question. As a result, the world sees them as not being able to defend the authority of Scripture and thus the Christian faith.

For instance, at the historic Scopes Trial in Tennessee in 1925, William Jennings Bryan, the prosecutor who stood for the Christian faith, failed to answer the question about Cain’s wife posed by the ACLU lawyer Clarence Darrow. Consider the following excerpt from the trial record as Darrow interrogates Bryan:

Q—Did you ever discover where Cain got his wife?

A—No, sir; I leave the agnostics to hunt for her.

Q—You have never found out?

A—I have never tried to find.

Q—You have never tried to find?

A—No.

Q—The Bible says he got one doesn’t it? Were there other people on the earth at that time?

A—I cannot say.

Q—You cannot say. Did that ever enter your consideration?

A—Never bothered me.

Q—There were no others recorded, but Cain got a wife.

A—That is what the Bible says.

Q—Where she came from you do not know.3

The world’s press was focused on this trial, and what they heard has affected Christianity to this day—Christians can’t defend the biblical record!

In recent times, this same example was taken up by Carl Sagan in his book Contact2 (which was on the New York Times best-seller list) and used in the movie of the same name based upon this work.

In the book, we read the fictional character Ellie’s account of how she could not get answers from a minister’s wife, who was the leader of a church discussion group:

Ellie had never seriously read the Bible before ... . So over the weekend preceding her first class, she read through what seemed to be the important parts of the Old Testament, trying to keep an open mind. She at once recognized that there were two different and mutually contradictory stories of Creation ... and had trouble figuring out exactly who it was that Cain had married.4
Sagan cleverly listed a number of common questions (including Cain’s wife) that are often directed at Christians in an attempt to supposedly prove the Bible is full of contradictions and can’t be defended. The truth is—most Christians probably couldn’t answer these questions. And yet there are answers. But since churches lack in the teaching of apologetics,5 particularly in regard to the book of Genesis, most believers in the church are not able to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).


MORE: http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/who-was-cains-wife

[Hootmon]

Where did Cain's wife come from? Scripture doesnt say, so any answers you get are mostly assumptions.

[Racheal59]

Why Is It Important?

Many skeptics have claimed that for Cain to find a wife, there must have been other “races” of people on the earth who were not descendants of Adam and Eve. To many people, this question is a stumbling block to accepting the creation account of Genesis and its record of only one man and woman at the beginning of history. Defenders of the gospel must be able to show that all human beings are descendants of one man and one woman (Adam and Eve) because only descendants of Adam and Eve can be saved. Thus, believers need to be able to account for Cain’s wife and show clearly she was a descendant of Adam and Eve.

In order to answer this question of where Cain got his wife, we first need to cover some background information concerning the meaning of the gospel.

The First Man
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

We read in 1 Corinthians 15:45 that Adam was “the first man.” God did not start by making a race of men.

The Bible makes it clear that only the descendants of Adam can be saved. Romans 5 teaches that we sin because Adam sinned. The death penalty, which Adam received as judgment for his sin of rebellion, has also been passed on to all his descendants.

Since Adam was the head of the human race, when he fell we who were in the loins of Adam fell also. Thus, we are all separated from God. The final consequence of sin would be separation from God in our sinful state forever. However, the good news is that there is a way for us to return to God.

Because a man brought sin and death into the world, the human race, who are all descendants of Adam, needed a sinless Man to pay the penalty for sin and the resulting judgment of death. However, the Bible teaches that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). What was the solution?


Please read this article in Answers.....it's excellent! It has great photos too :)
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/who-was-cains-wife

[Racheal59]

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/who-was-cains-wife

I hope it helps!

Wanted to thank you publically for inserting this website. I have read Ken Ham's stuff and it's so excellent! But I wouldn't have grabbed it as fast as you did! SO thank you for putting it in :) Bless you :hug

[BrideOfChrist]

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/who-was-cains-wife

I hope it helps!

Thanks for the link....very informative.