Who Was Cain's Wife?

Who was Cain's wife? Where did she come from? Why was she here? Where did she go?

It is easy for many of us to begin reading the Bible and come to Genesis chapter four for example and wonder where Cain got his wife. This question arises because many are convinced that Adam and Eve only had three children and they were all boys (Cain, Abel and Seth).

Is this true? Not at all. Genesis 5:4 says,

"...he [Adam] had other sons and daughters."

Chapter four is not a chronology of the order of Adam and Eve's children. We do gain insight into some chronology such as:

1. Cain was their first child (4:1).
2. Seth was the next child born after the death of Abel (4:25).

However, no one knows when Abel was born. All we know is that he was murdered by his brother at some point before Adam's 130th birthday (5:3). He could have been the second child or child number fifty, but from the verse above we are made sure that in between these three brothers Adam and Eve had borne other sons and daughters.

 

Here she is!

While it was possible for her to be his niece, more than likely she was his sister. Not just any sister though because since he was the oldest child, therefore the oldest son, it is reasonable to conclude that Cain may have married his first sister (Adam's oldest daughter).

Isn't that incest? Wasn't that against the law?

That is a good question. This specific law was given by God some twenty-five hundred years later to the Israelites who were encamped around Mount Sinai. The sexual qualifications are revealed to us in Leviticus chapter eighteen.

Before 1445 B.C. it was okay to marry a sibling. At that time the genetic pool had not yet suffered the corruption which it has for us today. Basically I am saying that God gave this law for the safety of the human race. Researchers have found in recent studies that 40% of children born from a first degree incestuous relationship are born with either autosomal recessive disorders, congenital physical malformations, or severe intellectual deficits.

This, however, was not the case for Cain and his wife. Nor was it a factor for anyone before 1445 B.C. God gave the people plenty of notice on these future ramifications which we now face today. God informed mankind in 1445 B.C. that it was no longer safe for them to marry within their close relatives, especially the immediate family.

Isn't that, you know, kind of gross?

Well, look at it from Cain's perspective. He had no other options and he didn't view it the way we do today. We have had this law and have been living under it for almost thirty-five hundred years now. It's become like second nature for us because that's how we were all raised. We just don't do that.

Cain, on the other hand, was raised in a rather different world than you and I. They did do that and it was okay...especially in the case of Adam and Eve's children. The same is true for Noah and his children when they left the ark. Ultimately we can all trace our lineage to Noah and his wife who survived the Great Flood.