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Question about Genesis 4&5 - Where did Cain's wife come from?

Unknown
edited August 2006 in Faith Issues
Hey everyone,

I have a question on Genesis chapters 4 and 5.

In Genesis 4:16-17, it says, "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."

My question is where did Cain's wife come from? As far as i know, at the time of Cain, there was only Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel living on Earth. Where did Cain's wife come from?

Similarly, at the end of chapter 4, it says that Adam and Eve gave birth to a third son to take place of their 2 lost sons (Cain and Abel), and his name is Seth. Then, in the beginning of chapter 5, it says that Seth begot Enosh. Who was Seth's wife? Where did she come from?

Comments

  • jumpin4joyjumpin4joy
    I once asked this question to my father of confession and he told me that the Church tradition says that in order for creation to continue, at the beginning of time babies were born in twins (i.e. one girl and one boy) and at that time siblings could have children together. So Cain had a sister/wife and so did Abel. But this wasn't mentioned in the Bible.

    Hope this is accurate enough:)
  • Unknown
    So you're saying that Cain had a twin sister, and she became his wife? And Abel had a twin sister, and she became Abel's wife?
  • Unknown
    Ok, I found another answer to my question from this website...

    http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c004.html

    It says that Adam and Eve had Seth after Abel was killed, and the Bible says that Adam was 130 years old when he had Seth, and Seth was considered to be a replacement for Abel after he died. So, this means that the period from Cain's birth to Abel's death would've been around 100 years (this assumes that Cain was born when Adam was around 30 years old). 100 years is enough time for Adam and Eve to have more children who would marry each other and have children and granchildren. So, by the time Abel was killed, there would've been a lot of people on the earth already. Also, the website says the Cain married his wife before Abel was killed. This makes sense because no one would marry the first murderer.

    I'm not sure if this stuff is accurate, but it makes sense.
  • tktk
    This topic was treated in a related question some weeks back.
    I had posted that as student of Bible studies [1979], this was my first question to my teacher and his answer then was female children were not usually counted then so Adam might have had them. But to this day, as many as asked this question,my curiousity is aroused.
    I keep asking what community did he marry from as the Bible indicates that he, Cain had fled to live with another community from whre he married.
    But then people lived much longer than is obtainable today...could any one with some more explaination pls help?
  • EnoughEnough
    im really confused as well, just a few weeks ago, i was reading when God punished calin and put a mark on him so that no one would kill him :-\ If it was only his wife who else would be left on earth to kill him?
    confusing...
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