Where Did Cain Get His Wife?

This question was one of the criticisms brought out against the Bible at the Scopes Trial in 1925. Most Bible teachers assume that Cain took one of his sisters for a wife. This is entirely possible although there is no mention of any children of Adam and Eve until Seth was born much later in Genesis 4:25. There is no mention of a sister, and the Bible does not say Cain’s wife was “his sister.” Cain left Eden alone before he took a wife.

Obviously, Cain would not be afraid of people that would kill him if there were only three people on earth. God set a mark on Cain so that anyone who found him would not kill him. This implies a number of other people were living at this time, or there would be no need of a mark. Cain settled in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden, with enough people to build a city after Cain’s wife gives birth to Enoch. Cain names the city after Enoch.1

The only logical answer to this question is that Cain married a daughter or granddaughter of Adam and Eve. The question of incest immediately comes into light with the following assertion. There are two answers in regards to the question of incest on Cain’s part. (1) Since Adam and Eve were the only parents of the human race it would only be logical that closely-knit marriages were unavoidable. (2) Incest was originally tied to relationships with parents and children. It was only later when the incest was attributed to siblings.

The law that forbade close related marriages was not given until the time of Moses (Lev. 18-20). Since marriage was for one man and woman to marry for life, there would be no act of sin when close relative married. Abraham married his half-sister (Gen. 20:12), but this was before God’s law forbade the marrying of close relatives.

Today, Scripture clearly prohibits the marriage of brothers and sisters or any relatives for that matter. The risk of genetic damage is extremely high in cases of incest. However, since Adam and Eve were created “very good” there would be no biological reasons for restricting marriage until later, as in Leviticus 18-20.2

1 There is some debate over who built this city. See Gordon Wenham, Word Biblical Commentary: Genesis 1-15 (Waco: Word, 1987), p. 111.

2 Ken Ham, Where Did Cain Get His Wife? (Florence: Answers in Genesis, 1997), pp. 18-26.