Who did Cain marry?
Many new Christians and Bible
searchers have often pondered on the Book of Genesis. What did Adam and Eve do
when they left the Garden of Eden? Why did Cain kill Abel? Who did Cain and Abel
marry? Where did all the people in the beginning come from?
Cain was the third to be cursed of God; first was the serpent and second was the
ground.
Genesis 4:13-14 And Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is greater than I can
bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I
shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the
earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me."
I was shocked at Cain’s reaction in regard to God’s punishment for killing his
brother Abel. Cain expressed his distress only at the punishment he received,
not at the crime he had done. Nor was there any note of repentance concerning
his dreadful action.
I have read the scripture over again and realized that “the apple did not fall
far from the tree.” Remember how Adam blamed Eve for her disobedience in the
Garden? Adam told God that it was the woman GOD gave to him that caused him to
sin [Genesis 3:12 Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she
gave me of the tree, and I ate."]
Cain also blamed God for the actions he did himself. Cain was more concerned
over any retribution from his brothers and sisters over Abel’s death, because he
did not want to face the same type of death his brother suffered.
I read one commentary that stated Adam and Eve had many children; one author
stated that it is possible that they reproduced over 100 children in their
lifetime alone. Some theologians have proposed that God created others outside
the Garden of Eden, but the Scriptures give no indication of this. Remember that
the lineage from Adam and Eve were pure. There were no genetic deformities or
illness from each brother and sister intertwining and creating offspring.
One reason the Bible does not state how many children Adam and Eve had was a
lack of record keeping. The Hebrew people passed on their beliefs through
tradition because for many years writing was primitive or nonexistent. Stories
were told to children who passed them on to their children. Genealogies gave a
skeletal outline that helped people remember the stories. For centuries these
genealogies were added to and passed down from family to family. Remember how
God promised Adam and Eve in the Garden that one day a Promised Messiah Jesus
Christ would come to end Satan's evil plotting? It was the passing down through
generations this same hopeful promise of redemption from sin. I once visited a
synagogue where the Rabbi told us how there was a large staff and with each
generations a notch was made into the staff. The staff was then passed down to
the first born son through generations along with the names and important family
history.
Genesis 4:16-18 ["Then 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 bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the
name of his son-Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and
Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech."]
Cain most likely acquired a wife from among his other siblings . The name Enoch
means "Dedicated One"-the same name as the godly descendant of Seth who "walked
with God" (5:21). The fact that Cain built a city named after his son speaks of
a dramatic, rapid increase in population, where there were six generations born
to Enoch alone.
My dear friend, I have read the Book of Genesis many times over and each time a
new secret from the Lord is revealed. That is the same with each and every Book
in the Bible. Please continue your search for God's truth. Do not forget to ask
the Lord for Wisdom and Knowledge as you study His Word.
Sue Ramsey
Associate Director of Bible Questions
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"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: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of
his son, Enoch." (Genesis 4:16-17).
The Bible does not give the time period when Cain took his wife. Depending on
how much time there was between Cain being married, he either married a distant
sister, or if enough time transpired, he could have married his own niece. Most
likely it was a niece. We can see by how it is written. It is a summary of a
whole period of time. He married, his wife conceived and they even built a city;
obviously with other people. The imperfection from sin accumulated over time and
eventually corrupted the gene pool. This made it wrong to marry within the
family line. By Moses’ time it was forbidden.
The full scripture is as follows:.... Genesis 4: 1-26 - 5: 1-5 (New King James
Version) "Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and
said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.” Then she bore again, this time his
brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the
ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering
of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of
his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He
did not respect Cain and his offering."
"And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him."
"Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not
know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The voice of
your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from
the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your
hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A
fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” And Cain said to the LORD,
“My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this
day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a
fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds
me will kill me.” And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain,
vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain,
lest anyone finding him should kill him."
"Then 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 bore Enoch.
And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his
son—Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot
Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech. Then Lamech took for himself two wives:
the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. And Adah bore
Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His
brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and
flute. And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every
craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah. Then
Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech,
listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man
for hurting me.
If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” Another Son
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God
has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” And as for
Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call
on the name of the LORD."
"This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man,
He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed
them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived one
hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image,
and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred
years; and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine
hundred and thirty years; and he died."
As we can see by reading scripture that quite a lot of time passed by. So Cain
could have married any niece or cousin before it was forbidden in the time of
Moses. They never came out and said who exactly that he married, just that he
did marry and built a city and had a son, and he named the city he built after
his son.
DeeDee
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In Genesis 1:28, the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, were told to "Be
fruitful and increase in number" (NIV)
The length of time between that command and the fall from grace is unknown -
Scripture does not give us a time frame here - except that this was the sixth
day and then on the seventh day the Lord rested.
In Genesis 3:16 after the fall from grace, it says, "To the woman he said, 'I
will greatly increase your pains in childbearing...' "
It seems reasonable to me to say that the word "increase" is an important word
here. The word "increase" implies something more than what has happened before,
and therefore makes it possible that children were born to Adam and Eve in the
garden, though the births were not recorded. Eve would not have understood the
curse if there had been no experience of childbirth pain to be increased.
It is possible that if there were prior children, that these children went to
live "east of Eden," and it is possible that among these people, or their
children, depending on the amount of time lapsed, Cain found a wife.
Prayerfully offered as a possible explanation.
Rev. Roberta Rooks
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The bible is silent on Cain's
marriage. The bible writes that after he killed Abel he was afraid that someone
may find and kill him. Who was he afraid of? This may be close relatives of his.
Chances are that Cain married someone closely related to him. To emphasise once
more the bible is silent on this issue
Weldon Siongok
Nairobi Kenya
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I believe Cain took his sister or his niece for his wife. It had to be a member of his family. Gen 4: 16-18.
Ralph
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He had to marry his sister. There were not enough people on earth at that
time to make any other choice, in my opinion. Seth had the same choice. The
morals of today did not exist then and they knew nothing of birth defects.
Billy K.
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Cain probably married Abel's twin sister.
Jack Segal
Houston, Texas
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Okay briefly let's say Cain married a sister. Yes I know you will say so he committed incest. Yes he did, reason being that it was his only option, and then so you will ask if you can do it in case its your only option. Well frankly speaking in our modern world that level we can't come to having only one option left, otherwise our savior understands, and then when you read the book of Genesis you will notice that the books of Moses are also called the books of the law, basically this means that as the world grew God introduced the laws that's why in this five books God speaks most in the Old Testament, therefore before Cain's incident there was no law on incest. Look at Isaac and Rachael (she was her relative), Jacob and Leah and her sister (these were his cousins), but then sooner or later the world was vast and then to encourage variety God discouraged this kind of segregation. Thus it's sin "now" to commit incest.
Asiimwe Job
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Cain's wife is his own sister (Gen 1:22).
Johannes Awondatu
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Cain married one of his sisters born by Adam and Eve. The culture in the
middle-east permitted a man to marry his sister e.g. Abraham married Sarah his
sister, Isaac married a close relative and also Jacob.
This is primarily because, women were not regarded as members of the family.
This is why women are not included in genealogical records unless in exceptional
cases.
Prince Oshiojum
