Cain

The story of Adam and Eve is ancient myth. it was probably was inspired by earlier Sumerian myth.

Actually, I don't believe it says at the time he was married, there were no other families. I mean, the Bible doesn't specifically mention them, but it also doesn't say they were none. There is a lot of old documents and research that supports the claim that there were other cities and other towns the Bible did not specifically speak of at that time. So he could have married someone like that. Or he could have married his sister. Back then, the bloodlines were pure, and there was no danger of of having children with horrible defects. It was not looked on as wrong then, because they had a different society then that is no where near we are today.

Adam and Eve had daughters before Cain and Abel were born, hence her triumphant cry of "I have gotten a MAN child from the Lord". It is estimated that Adam & Eve had anything from 50 - 90 children throughout their life. Animal breeders today will tell you that there is nothing wrong with in-breeding in pure stock. In fact, it is desirable. Adam & Eve were pure stock and there was no problem with in-breeding. It wasn't until many years later that the human race (through Moses) was told this was wrong.

In the book of Genesis also, there is a verse which says that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters and therefore it is probable that Cain got a wife from one of his sisters as there was no law yet prohibiting the marriage between brothers and sisters and considering that there were yet few people. When there were already many people, God prohibited the marriage of near relatives and those are in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

His sister... may be years younger to him.

This is a good question. I can still remember in our religion class, my teacher (a nun) have taught us how to answer this. It goes like this: "It was not written in the Bible". But for me, even if it is not written in the Bible it is understood already that God instructed "go forth and multiply", to reproduce human beings and fill the earth. If our mind is limited only to the story in the bible (Genesis) then who else was his wife? But we may also think that there might be other human beings (who have formed villages,groups) already placed on earth. Women therefore played an important role of bearing children.

There were no taboos against marrying a sister or brother in those days, as the genetic pool had not yet separated.. all had the full range of genes. So it was dangerous as it is today, and a taboo. _ They also lived very long lives.. up to a thousand years, perhaps even longer in some cases.. so by time Cain slew Abel, some have figured there could easily have been about 20,000 people at the time.. - also note, Cain was given a "mark on his brow" a prominant brow? What happened to the Cainites? (The Neanderthal?) They perished at the flood..

Girls were usually not mentioned then, unless they did some great thing. So Cain married his sister since there were no other families and the effects of sin in inherited diseases had not started yet. However he killed Abel before Abel could get a wife. If you read that part of Genesis and see how Cain acted, his brutal murder of his brother and his excuse, it sounds something like someone in their late teens or early twenties would act, and Abel was younger. We also do not know how old Cain's wife was. Since this was the beginning of humankind, the need of having children would be paramount and the girl would probably be around thirteen or fourteen when her brother took her for his wife.

This is a fascinating post! I hadn't thought about this for many years but now, thinking that Cain must have married his sister, it does seem rather odd, doesn't it? I know, today's standards are different, and obviously since humanity started out with just two people there had to be in-breeding for the human race to continue, but it still seems strange. Annie

Bible says Adam lived about 930 years.Bible does not every thing that happened in Adam's family. descentants of Adam are many so there is no difficulty in finding a woman for him.Bible is God's word so just believe it is absolutely correct.

Mother or sister are the only possible answers. Anyway, the Genesis is a myth... the very first man on earth could not have lived in the Iron Age, when men were proficient at agriculture (genesis 4,1), played musical instruments (genesis 4,21) and crafted iron and copper tools (genesis 4,22)!The human species started about 100,000 years ago; while Adam only lived 5,000-10,000 years ago.