Ken Ham answers the question “Cain’s Wife—Who Was She?” as featured in The New Answers DVD 1.
Is She the Most-Talked-About Wife in History?
Defenders of the gospel must be able to show that all human beings are descendants of one man and one woman.
We don’t even know her name, yet she was discussed at the Scopes Trial,mentioned in the movies Inherit the Wind1 and Contact,2 and talked about in countries all over the world for hundreds of years.
Skeptics of the Bible have used Cain’s wife time and again to try to discreditthe book of Genesis as a true historical record. Sadly, most Christians have notgiven an adequate answer to this question. As a result, the world sees them as notbeing able to defend the authority of Scripture and thus the Christian faith.
For instance, at the historic Scopes Trial in Tennessee in 1925, William Jennings Bryan, the prosecutor who stood for the Christian faith, failed to answer thequestion about Cain’s wife posed by the ACLU lawyer Clarence Darrow. Considerthe following excerpt from the trial record as Darrow interrogates Bryan:
Q—Did you ever discover where Cain got his wife?
A—No, sir; I leave the agnostics to hunt for her.
Q—You have never found out?
A—I have never tried to find.
Q—You have never tried to find?
A—No.
Q—The Bible says he got one doesn’t it? Were there other people on the earth at that time?
A—I cannot say.
Q—You cannot say. Did that ever enter your consideration?
A—Never bothered me.
Q—There were no others recorded, but Cain got a wife.
A—That is what the Bible says.
Q—Where she came from you do not know.3
The world’s press was focused on this trial, and what they heard has affectedChristianity to this day—Christians can’t defend the biblical record!
In recent times, this same example was taken up by Carl Sagan in hisbook Contact2 (which was on the New York Times best-seller list) and used inthe movie of the same name based upon this work.
In the book, we read the fictional character Ellie’s account of how shecould not get answers from a minister’s wife, who was the leader of a churchdiscussion group:
Ellie had never seriously read the Bible before . . . . So over the weekendpreceding her first class, she read through what seemed to be the importantparts of the Old Testament, trying to keep an open mind. She atonce recognized that there were two different and mutually contradictorystories of Creation . . . and had trouble figuring out exactly who itwas that Cain had married.4
Sagan cleverly listed a number of common questions (including Cain’swife) that are often directed at Christians in an attempt to supposedly prove the Bible is full of contradictions and can’t be defended. The truthis—most Christians probably couldn’t answer these questions. And yetthere are answers. But since churches lack in the teaching of apologetics,5particularly in regard to the book of Genesis, most believers in the churchare not able to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asksyou a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).
Why Is It Important?
Many skeptics have claimed that for Cain to find a wife, there must havebeen other “races” of people on the earth who were not descendants of Adamand Eve. To many people, this question is a stumbling block to accepting thecreation account of Genesis and its record of only one man and woman at thebeginning of history. Defenders of the gospel must be able to show that allhuman beings are descendants of one man and one woman (Adam and Eve)because only descendants of Adam and Eve can be saved. Thus, believers needto be able to account for Cain’s wife and show clearly she was a descendantof Adam and Eve.
In order to answer this question of where Cain got his wife, we firstneed to cover some background information concerning the meaning of the gospel.
The First Man
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:12).
We read in 1 Corinthians 15:45 that Adam was “the first man.” God did not start by making a race of men.
The Bible makes it clear that only the descendants of Adam can be saved. Romans 5 teaches that we sin because Adam sinned. The death penalty, whichAdam received as judgment for his sin of rebellion, has also been passed onto all his descendants.
Since Adam was the head of the human race, when he fell we who werein the loins of Adam fell also. Thus, we are all separated from God. The finalconsequence of sin would be separation from God in our sinful state forever.However, the good news is that there is a way for us to return to God.
Because a man brought sin and death into the world, the humanrace, who are all descendants of Adam, needed a sinless Man to pay thepenalty for sin and the resultingjudgment of death.However, the Bible teachesthat “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). What was the solution?
The Last Adam
God provided the solution—a way to deliver manfrom his wretched state.Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 15 that God providedanother Adam. The Son ofGod became a man—a perfectMan—yet still our relation.He is called “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45) because he took the place of the first Adam. He became the new head and, because He was sinless, was able to pay the penalty for sin:
For since by [a] man came death, by [a] Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:21–22).
Only descendants of the first man Adam can be saved.
Christ suffered death (the penalty for sin) on the Cross, shedding Hisblood (“and without shedding of blood there is no remission,” Hebrews 9:22) so that those who put their trust in His work on the Cross can come in repentanceof their sin of rebellion (in Adam) and be reconciled to God.
Thus, only descendants of the first man Adam can be saved.
All Related
Since the Bible describes allhuman beings as sinners, and weare all related (“And He has madefrom one blood every nation ofmen to dwell on all the face ofthe earth,” Acts 17:26), the gospelmakes sense only on the basisthat all humans alive and all thathave ever lived (except for the firstwoman6 ) are descendants of thefirst man Adam. If this were notso, then the gospel could not beexplained or defended.
Thus, there was only one manat the beginning—made from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7).
This also means that Cain’s wife was a descendant of Adam. She couldn’thave come from another race of people and must be accounted for fromAdam’s descendants.
The First Woman
In Genesis 3:20 we read, “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, becauseshe was the mother of all living.” In other words, all people other than Adam are descendants of Eve—she wasthe first woman.
Eve was made from Adam’sside (Genesis 2:21–24)—thiswas a unique event. In the NewTestament, Jesus (Matthew 19:4-6) and Paul (Ephesians 5:31) use this historical and onetimeevent as the foundation forthe marriage of one man andone woman.
Also, in Genesis 2:20, weare told that when Adam lookedat the animals, he couldn’t finda mate—there was no one ofhis kind.
All this makes it obvious that there was only one woman, Adam’s wife,from the beginning. There could not have been a “race” of women.
Thus, if Christians cannot defend that all humans, including Cain’s wife,can trace their ancestry ultimately to Adam and Eve, then how can they understandand explain the gospel? How can they justify sending missionaries toevery tribe and nation? Therefore, one needs to be able to explain Cain’s wife, toillustrate that Christians can defend the gospel and all that it teaches.
Who Was Cain?
Cain was the first child of Adam and Eve recorded in Scripture (Genesis 4:1). He and his brothers, Abel (Genesis 4:2) and Seth (Genesis 4:25), were part of the first generation of children ever born on this earth. Eventhough these three males are specifically mentioned, Adam and Eve hadother children.
Cain’s Brothers and Sisters
In Genesis 5:4 we read a statement that sums up the life of Adam andEve: “After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and hehad sons and daughters.”
During their lives, Adam and Eve had a number of male and femalechildren. In fact, the Jewish historian Josephus wrote, “The number of Adam’s children, as says the old tradition,was thirty-three sons and twenty-threedaughters.”7
Scripture doesn’t tell us how manychildren were born to Adam and Eve,but considering their long life spans(Adam lived for 930 years—Genesis 5:5), it would seem logical to suggestthere were many. Remember, they werecommanded to “be fruitful, and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).
The Wife
If we now work totally from Scripture, without any personal prejudices orother extrabiblical ideas, then back at the beginning, when there was only thefirst generation, brothers would have had to marry sisters or there wouldn’thave been any more generations!
We’re not told when Cain married or many of the details of other marriages and children, but we can say for certain that Cain’s wife was either his sister or a close relative.
We’re not told when Cain married or many of the details of other marriagesand children, but we can say for certain that Cain’s wife was either hissister or a close relative.
A closer look at the Hebrew word for “wife” in Genesis reveals somethingreaders may miss in translation. It was more obvious to those speakingHebrew that Cain’s wife was likely his sister. (There is a slim possibilitythat she was his niece, but either way, a brother and sister would havemarried in the beginning.) The Hebrew word for “wife” used in Genesis 4:17 (the first mention of Cain’s wife) is ishshah, and it means “woman/wife/female.”
And Cain knew his wife [ishshah], 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 (Genesis 4:17).
The word ishshah is the word for “woman,” and it means “from man.” Itis a derivation of the Hebrew words ‘iysh (pronounced: eesh) and enowsh, which both mean“man.” This can be seen in Genesis 2:23 where the name “woman” (ishshah)is given to one who came from Adam.
And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman [ishshah], because she was taken out of Man [iysh]” (Genesis 2:23).
Thus, Cain’s wife is a descendant of Adam/man. Therefore, she had tobe his sister (or possibly niece). Hebrew readers should be able to make thisconnection easier; however, much is lost when translated.
Objections
God’s Laws
Many people immediately reject the conclusion that Adam and Eve’s sonsand daughters married each other by appealing to the law against brother-sistermarriage. Some say that you can’t marry your relation. Actually, if youdon’t marry your relation, you don’t marry a human! A wife is related to herhusband before they are married because all people are descendants of Adamand Eve—all are of one blood. This law forbidding close relatives marrying wasnot given until the time of Moses (Leviticus 18–20). Provided marriage wasone man for one woman for life (based on Genesis 1–2), there was no disobedienceto God’s law originally (before the time of Moses) when close relatives(even brothers and sisters) married each other.
Remember that Abraham was married to his half-sister (Genesis 20:12).8God’s law forbade such marriages,9 but that was some four hundred yearslater at the time of Moses.
Biological Deformities
Today, brothers and sisters (and half-brothers and half-sisters, etc.) arenot currently permitted by law to marry and have children.
Now it is true that children produced in a union between brother andsister have a greater chance to be have genetic disorders. As a matter of fact, the closerthe couple are in relationship, the more likely it is that any offspring will bedeformed. It is very easy to understand this without going into all the technicaldetails.
Each person inherits a set of genes from his or her mother and father.Unfortunately, genes today contain many mistakes (because of sin and the Curse), and thesemistakes show up in a varietyof ways. For instance, peoplelet their hair grow over theirears to hide the fact that oneear is lower than the other. Orperhaps someone’s nose is notquite in the middle of his orher face, or someone’s jaw is alittle out of shape. Let’s face it,the main reason we call eachother normal is because of ourcommon agreement to do so!
The more closely relatedtwo people are, the more likelyit is that they will have similar mistakes in their genes, inherited from thesame parents. Therefore, brother and sister are likely to have similar mistakesin their genetic material. If there were to be a union between thesetwo that produces offspring, children would inherit one set of genes fromeach of their parents. Because the genes probably have similar mistakes,the mistakes pair together and result in genetic disorders in the children.
Conversely, the further away the parents are in relationship to each other,the more likely it is that they will have different mistakes in their genes.Children, inheriting one set of genes from each parent, are likely to endup with some of the pairs of genes containing only one bad gene in eachpair. The good gene tends to override the bad so that a disorder (a seriousone, anyway) does not occur. Instead of having totally deformed ears,for instance, a person may have only crooked ones. (Overall, though, thehuman race is slowly degenerating as mistakes accumulate generation aftergeneration.)
However, this fact of present-day life did not apply to Adam and Eve.When the first two people were created, they were perfect. Everything Godmade was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). That means their genes were perfect—no mistakes. But when sin entered the world because of Adam (Genesis 3:6),God cursed the world so that the perfect creation then began to degenerate,that is, suffer death and decay (Romans 8:22). Over a long period of time,this degeneration would have resulted in all sorts of mistakes occurring in the genetic material of living things.
But Cain was in the first generation of children ever born. He, as well ashis brothers and sisters, would have received virtually no imperfect genes fromAdam or Eve, since the effects of sin and the Curse would have been minimalto start with. In that situation, brother and sister could have married (providedit was one man for one woman, which is what marriage is all about, Matthew 19:4–6) without any potential to produce deformed offspring.
By the time of Moses (about 2,500 years later), degenerative mistakeswould have accumulated to such an extent in the human race that it wouldhave been necessary for God to bring in the laws forbidding brother-sister(and close relative) marriage (Leviticus 18–20).10
(Also, there wereplenty of people on theearth by now, and therewas no reason for closerelations to marry.)
In all, there appearto be three interrelatedreasons for theintroduction of lawsforbidding close intermarriage:
- As we have already discussed, there was the need to protect against the increasingpotential to produce deformed offspring.
- God’s laws were instrumental in keeping the Jewish nation strong, healthy,and within the purposes of God.
- These laws were a means of protecting the individual, the family structure,and society at large. The psychological damage caused by incestuousrelationships should not be minimized.
Cain and the Land of Nod
Some claim that the passage in Genesis 4:16–17 means that Cain went tothe land of Nod and found a wife. Thus, they conclude there must have beenanother race of people on the earth who were not descendants of Adam, whoproduced Cain’s wife.
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.
From what has been stated above, it is clear that all humans, Cain’s wifeincluded, are descendants of Adam. However, this passage does not say thatCain went to the land of Nod and found a wife. John Calvin in commentingon these verses states:
From the context we may gather that Cain, before he slew his brother,had married a wife; otherwise Moses would now have related somethingrespecting his marriage.11
Cain was married before he went to the land of Nod. He didn’t find a wifethere but “knew” (had sexual relations with) his wife.12
This makes sense in light of what Nod is, too. Nod means “wandering”in Hebrew. So when Cain went to the land of Nod, he was literally going tothe land of wandering, not a place full of people.
Who Was Cain Fearful of (Genesis 4:14)?
Some claim that there had tobe lots of people on the earth otherthan Adam and Eve’s descendants;otherwise Cain wouldn’thave been fearful of people wantingto slay him because he killedAbel.
First of all, one reason thatsomeone would want to harm Cainfor killing Abel is if that person wasa close relation of Abel!
Secondly, Cain and Abel wereborn quite some time before theevent of Abel’s death. Genesis 4:3 states:
And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offeringof the fruit of the ground to the Lord.
Note the phrase “in the process of time.” We know Seth was born whenAdam was 130 years old (Genesis 5:3), and Eve saw him as a replacement forAbel (Genesis 4:25). Therefore, the time period from Cain’s birth to Abel’sdeath may have been 100 years or more—allowing plenty of time for otherchildren of Adam and Eve to marry and have children. By the time Abel waskilled, there may have been a considerable number of descendants of Adamand Eve involving several generations.
Where Did the Technology Come From?
Some claim that for Cain to go to the land of Nod and build a city, hewould have required a lot of technology that must have already been in thatland, presumably developed by other races.
Adam and Eve’s descendants were very intelligent people. We are toldthat Jubal made musical instruments, such as the harp and organ (Genesis 4:21), and Tubal-cain worked with brass and iron (Genesis 4:22).
Because of intense evolutionary indoctrination, many people today havethe idea that their generation is the most advanced that has ever been on thisplanet. Just because we have jet airplanes and computers doesn’t mean we are the most intelligent or advanced. This modern technology is really a result ofthe accumulation of knowledge.
We have greatly degenerated compared to people many generations ago.
We must remember that our brains have suffered from 6,000 years of theCurse. We have greatly degenerated compared to people many generationsago. We may be nowhere near as intelligent or inventive as Adam and Eve’schildren. Scripture gives us a glimpse of what appears to be advanced technologyalmost from the beginning.
Cain had the knowledge and talent to know how to build a city!
Conclusion
One of the reasons many Christians cannot answer the question aboutCain’s wife is that they tend to look at today’s world and the problems thatwould be associated with close relations marrying, and they do not look at theclear historical record God has given to us.
They try to interpret Genesis from our present situation rather than understandthe true biblical history of the world and the changes that haveoccurred because of sin. Because they are not building their worldview onScripture but taking a secular way of thinking to the Bible, they are blindedto the simple answers.
Genesis is the record of the God who was there as history happened. It isthe Word of One who knows everything and who is a reliable Witness fromthe past. Thus, when we use Genesis as a basis for understanding history, wecan make sense of evidence which would otherwise be a real mystery. You see,if evolution is true, science has an even bigger problem than Cain’s wife toexplain—namely, how could man ever evolve by mutations (mistakes) in thefirst place, since that process would have made everyone’s children deformed?The mere fact that people can produce offspring that are not largely deformedis a testimony to creation, not evolution.
