Expert: Rev C.Brian Ross - 11/23/2011

Question
I was reading the bible and I got a little confused at the part where Cain killed his brother and was banished from the land. Because when he was banished he met a woman and married her, but if god only made Adam and Eve where did this woman come from?

Answer
Hi Kirsty!

Thank you for your question.

In Gen.5:4, we read that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters (apart, that is, from the ones whose names are given). Josephus, the Jewish historian, states that "The number of Adam's children, as says the old tradition, was thirty-three sons and twenty-three daughters." The point, of course, is that Adam and Eve did have many children.

Remember that the law against close intermarriage was not given until the time of Moses — e.g. "You must never have sexual relations with a close relative, for I am YHWH." (Leviticus 18:6). There was nothing wrong with brother and sister marriages, originally. If you think about it, that is the only way to populate the world, if one is starting with only one pair.

Also, as Adam and Eve were created perfect, their genes would have been perfect. As the curse God placed upon creation started to operate only after they sinned, their descendants would not have had many mistakes in their genes. These mistakes (harmful mutations) add up only after a long period of time.

So brothers and sisters (Adam's and Eve's children) could have married and not had the problems of deformities in their offspring as might well happen today, if such close relatives married and had children. This is because today humans have lots of mistakes—because of the curse—in their genes. This may cause problems when matching pairs are inherited from both parents, as is much more likely with close intermarriage.

Considering the longevity of those days, it is also possible that Cain married a niece! Again, nothing wrong with that when the gene-pool was still relatively pure, and there was no prohibition.

Of course, there are those who point out that "... Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, ..." (Gen 4:16-17).  They say, therefore, that Cain must have found his wife in the land of Nod. However, that need not be so. He may have been married (without a formal ceremony!) before he left or, equally possibly, a sister or niece may already have moved there. We are not given a detailed diary-record, but an 'overview'.

By the way, may I suggest that, if you are going to read the Bible, don't read it like an ordinary book.  Remember that it is, in fact, a library of 66 books. Just as you would not (normally!) go into a library and start reading the first book on the shelf, so starting with Genesis - important 'though that book is - may not always be best. I would suggest Mark's account of the Gospel, before returning to Genesis. Remember, also, that the Bible was not written in the English language, but in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. As you undoubtedly know, translation isn't always simple. A word in one language may have a number of meanings in another language. This is why it is always good to read a modern commentary if there is something that one doesn't understand.

I hope that the above is helpful but, of course, please feel free to come back with another, or a supplementary, question.