Question:

Where did Cain get his wife?

Answer:

This question is often asked by those who are trying to disprove the Genesis record of the history of mankind in preference for some view of evolution. Other times it is asked just for the sake of curiosity, since the Bible does not name Cain’s wife nor specifically tell her origin.

Two possible answers are available to us. The first is the possibility that in addition to God creating Adam and Eve, He also created other races or tribes of people, in other places, that the Bible doesn’t tell us about. I will reject that possibility because of important doctrinal considerations.

The second possibility is that Cain married one of his sisters. I will demonstrate the reasonableness of that possibility from Scripture.

In Genesis 2:19-22, the Bible record claims that God had created Adam and placed him in a specially prepared garden. God declared that it was not good for Adam to live alone and he had Adam search amongst all living creature for a suitable helper. None was found. Had God created other races of people in additional to Adam, then a helper could have been found. Such was not the case. So, verses 21-22 state, “So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” Thus, Eve was created by God. Adam and Eve were commanded by God to “be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it….” (Genesis 1:28)

Genesis 5:3-4 then tells us, "When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died. We know for certain, then, that in addition to Cain, Abel and Seth, Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters. The Bible does not tell us how many, but with the command to increase and God’s full blessing upon them, we can suppose they had many other children.

Many will then argue that Cain got his wife from Nod, where he went to dwell, and that there is no record of any of Adam and Eves’ children going anywhere else in the world prior to this. There are two flaws in this argument. First, the Bible does not tell us every detail about the lives of people it chronicles. Some of their children may or may not have traveled to other places prior to Cain going to the land of Nod. Additionally, the Bible does not say Cain got his wife in Nod. Genesis 4:16-17 simply states, “So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.” There is no mention of when Cain married, where he married or who he married. Only that he married sometime. He could easily have been married prior to killing Abel.

The idea that Cain married his sister is upsetting to some, because they assume it then condones incest. At this point in the history of God’s dealings with mankind, incest had not been established as a sin against God. It is not until the covenant is delivered at Sinai that God forbids marriage to close relatives. Prior to that, we see that even Abraham is married to his half-sister. God blesses them and their marriage. There is, perhaps, a practical reason why God later condemns incest. It has to do with the fact that we now live in a fallen world steeped in sin. A result of the fallen nature of this world is genetic decline. When God first created Adam and Eve, there were no genetic mutations or mistakes present in their makeup. As time progressed, however, the genetic pool became stained, and flaws began to creep in. It is likely, though the Bible never specifies, that this is why God condemns in Leviticus 18 the marrying of close kin.

There is one further thought to be explored in this question. Why does it matter that we insist Cain married his sister? It has to do with New Testament doctrine that must not be broken. Look at Romans 5:12: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned…” The inspired apostle Paul insists that sin entered into the world by one man, that being Adam. God did not start with bunches of men and women. He started with one man and one woman and filled the earth through them. For Cain to have found a wife elsewhere in the world not related to him would indicate that another group of people somewhere else might not have committed sin. All sin stems from the one sin first committed by Adam.

Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 15:45 states, “So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.” Again, the Bible insists when God created, He created only Adam. All other people came from Adam. Earlier in the chapter, verses 21-22, Paul insists, “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

The very doctrine of salvation from sin through Christ hinges on our understanding that only Adam was created and all mankind descended from him. Any other solution destroys the validity of New Testament doctrine concerning the fall and salvation from the fall.