Who Was the Wife of Cain?
A closer look at one of the most enigmatic women in Genesis
This illustration shows Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where God gave them the command to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). Photo: From Charles Foster, The Story of the Bible (1897).
While there are many examples of strong and inspiring men and women in Genesis, the book is also packed with stories of dysfunctional families, which is evidenced from the very beginning with the first family—Adam, Eve and their two children, Cain and Abel. In no short amount of time—just 16 verses after announcing the birth of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4—Cain has murdered his younger brother and is consequently exiled from the land. In theory, this would have dropped the world’s population from four down to three. The narrative continues in Genesis 4 with Cain settling in the land of Nod and having children with his wife. Who did Cain marry? Where did she come from? Are there other people outside of Eden? In the November/December 2013 issue of BAR, Mary Joan Winn Leith addresses these questions and explores the identity of the wife of Cain in “Who Did Cain Marry?”
Given that the wife of Cain is only mentioned once in the Old Testament, she would not be counted among the famous women in Genesis. Nevertheless, her identity is still worth investigating. Who did Cain marry? Mary Joan Winn Leith first explores the traditional Jewish and Christian answers that contend that the wife of Cain was another daughter of Adam and Eve. According to this reasoning, Cain would have married his sister—one of Abel’s twin sisters no less, according to the Genesis Rabbah.
Mary Joan Winn Leith explores the identity of the wife of Cain.
A different answer emerges when Leith turns from the traditional responses about the wife of Cain and delves into modern scholarship. Looking at recent work done by sociologists and anthropologists, she notes that when forming a group identity, we tend to define ourselves by how we differ from other groups. In the ancient Near East, sometimes those outside of a particular group or society were considered less “human” by those inside of the group. An important factor that contributes to this mindset is geography. People in the ancient Near East typically stayed close to home, which affected their perception of the world. Surely they knew that other groups of people—potential enemies or allies—existed far away, but if they never came into contact with these groups, what did they matter?
Mary Joan Winn Leith suggests that while the Israelite storyteller knew that other men and women in Genesis existed outside of Eden, they did not matter to him or factor into his account. He was concerned with Adam and Eve and their progeny—not those outside of this group.
Who did Cain marry? There are many answers. For Leith’s explanation of the identity of the wife of Cain—one of the often-overlooked women in Genesis—read her full Biblical Views column “Who Did Cain Marry?”
BAS Library Members: Read the full Biblical Views column “Who Did Cain Marry?” by Mary Joan Winn Leith in the November/December 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.
This Bible History Daily feature was originally published in 2013.
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Hello Robert,
I agree that false teaching has lead to some murder and hate.
I agree that we can learn from Genetic studies and radiometric dating.
Neither the Bible nor the church has not taught that the earth was flat. There were a very few individuals in history that did. Neither the Bible nor the church taught that you would fall off the edge of the world.
The church did not change the orbit of the solar system, science did. The Bible did not say how the orbits worked. It only gave the motions from an earth bound point of view. This is exactly what your local weatherman does every day. Greek scientists like Aristotle gave us the wrong motions. These were later corrected by Christians like Copernicus and Galileo.
I have not heard of Christianity stating that no one could clone animals, geneticly modify genes or make an atomic bomb. Where did you get this information?
Christians started most of the sciences. Even the Big Bang theory was fathered by a preist.
By the way, the fundamentals of the Big Bang are taught in the Bible: constant laws of physics, a beginning of space and time and an expanding universe.
Where did Cain get his wife? Simple, accounting for the Biblical record that Eve is the mother of all the living, Cain (prior to the ban of marrying a close relative which is due to our mutating DNA) married his sister. When the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense (most of the time).
@robert The Bible, at Job 26:7, speaks of God as “hanging the earth upon nothing.” Science says that the earth remains in its orbit in space primarily because of the interaction of gravity and centrifugal force. These forces, of course, are invisible. Therefore the earth, like other heavenly bodies, is suspended in space as if hanging on nothing.
The prophet Isaiah wrote under inspiration: “There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth, the dwellers in which are as grasshoppers.” (Isa 40:22)
The Bible says: “He [God] has described a circle upon the face of the waters.” (Job 26:10) The waters are limited by his decree to their proper place. They do not come up and inundate the land; neither do they fly off into space. (Job 38:8-11)
The Flat Earth model is an archaic belief that the Earth’s shape is a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures have had conceptions of a flat Earth, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period (early centuries AD) and China until the 17th century. It was also typically held in the aboriginal cultures of the Americas, and a flat Earth domed by the firmament in the shape of an inverted bowl is common in pre-scientific societies.
The modern misconception that educated Europeans at the time of Columbus believed in a flat Earth, and that his voyages refuted that belief, has been referred to as the Myth of the Flat Earth.[6] In 1945, the misconception was listed by the Historical Association (of Britain) as the second of 20 in a pamphlet on common errors in history.
The Bible describes many other scientific areas such as, the water cycle, the classifying of animal life into kinds, the complexity of the universe. Although the Bible is not a scientific book, it is scientifically accurate.
As for religions being blood guilty, I fully agree. Far too many wars have been fought in the name of religious intolerance. But we would be ignorant to think that wars are fought only on the backs of religous thinkers. Consider the post Darwinian age. By enhancing Socialism with Darwinism, Communism emerged as a powerful movement led by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party, later wrenching control of Russia in the Revolution of 1917. All land, materials, and biological (including human) resources became property of the state. Lenin implemented social programs and began starving and slaughtering whole societies whom he regarded as herds of animals. He was encouraged by the deaths of millions and believed people would lose faith in God and turn more to socialism. To survive the famine, many turned to cannibalism. Lenin’s ideology was inspired by Darwin’s Origin of Species: “Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of higher animals, directly follows” (Darwin 1886). As Darwinism spread throughout Europe, violence was legitimized under the “struggle for existence” theory. As Austro-Hungarian chief of staff, Franz Baron Conrad von Hoetzendorff wrote in his post-war memoirs: “It is in accordance with this great principle that the catastrophe of the World War came about as the result of the motive forces in the lives of states and peoples
Why do people who don’t even believe that there was a literal person name Cain care about who he married? These same people mock the Faith of billions of people by pretending to be open minded.
The great majority of “open questions” that we have from ancient Biblical history were not open questions when they were written. Oral tradition was critical to honoring a family legacy. Written text was like gold. If we are incapable of understanding cultural and historical context, then its better to remain silent.
If the Bible is silent on a topic it was either know by everyone and was insignificant to pass on or God deemed it unimportant to reveal to His prophets. I for one do not take lightly mocking God.
The ancient peoples would have understood the antagonisms that would have at times occured between settled farmers dwelling in cities and semi-nomadic herdsmen dwelling in camps; since prehistoric times. The fact that Cain was religious like his brother Abel reminds us that this tale is still revelant due to the fratricide occuring presently between people of the same race adhering to diverse religious beliefs. The Lord counsels Cain and warns him, ” but if you don’t do right, sin is crouching at the door; its urge is toward you, yet you can be its master” (Genesis 4:7). Indeed, it is in some people’s interests to emphasize the differences of other religions or sects rather than the similarities between them. Often neglected are the mystical traditions of medieval times that linked together Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which arose from the revival of philosophical thought developed from the schools of Plato and Aristotle
The 13th century work of Jewish mysticism, the Book of Zohar, contains theories based on the philosophical doctrine of the soul that often contradict one another. The modern commentator, Isaiah Tishby, in his “The Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 2”, attempts to streamline this reservoir that combines philosophy with scripture. In the earliest part of the Zohar, humans have an animal soul (nephesh) whose desires are the source of sin, and and intellectual soul (neshamah) that functions to serve as a stimulus to religious activity.
“The nephesh hayyah (soul of the living), the lesser of the two, was formed from the earth when Adam was created, and it has a terrestrial, physical origin in every man” (p.708). This is also called the vital soul, since the Hebrew word for vitality is “hiyyut” is akin to the word for beasts, “hayyot”.
“In contrast to the lowly and coarse nature of the vital soul we have the neshamah (breath), a holy force, whose principle function is to guide man along the right path and to draw him near to God. By following its instructions man will acquire life in the future world.” (p. 709). It is this future world that is the source of the breath of life, existing beyond the limitations of this world, and comprises of both past and future.
“Rabbi Isaac said: In respect to the soul (neshamah) that He provides, for [the wicked man] goes and clings to the power of the beasts. This is the meaning of ‘But man does not remain in honor. He is like the beasts that perish’ (Psalm 49:13)” (p.780). This statement was extracted from the section of the Zohar Hadash, Bereshith, 16a-16c, also known as the Midrash ha-Ne’elam. Since Tishby’s book is an anthology, he was careful to omit one detail of which I have been unable to find an English translation of: “the intriguing reference to cannabis in the context of a fleeting comprehension of the knowledge of God” (Zohar; The Book of Enlightenment, by Daniel Matt. 226). In other words, this is something one might briefly comprehend while high, but quickly forget.
In the Sumerian poem “Lugalbanda and the Mountain cave,” the hero, Lugalbanda, is acompanying his seven brothers on a military comapain against “Aratta ,the mountain of the holy divine powers.” While his brothers are noblemen who command troops, Lugalbanda is a virtual nobody who is introduced only as “their eighth one.” But like David in 1 Samuel 17, he would prevail over his brothers and become king of Unug (Uruk). Along the way he becomes ill and his brothers leave him in a cave supplied with provisions until he should recouperate. Upon recovery he leaves the cave and embarks on a kind of vision quest: “The rolling rivers, mothers of the hills, brought life-saving water. He bit on the life-saving plants, he sipped from the life-saving water … Like a lone wild ass of Sakkan he darted over the mountains .Like a large powerful donkey he raced; a slim donkey, eager to run, he bounded along.” This recalls Ishmael as being “a wild donkey of a man” (Genesis 16:12), and when his mother Hagar left Ishmael under one of the shrubs (Genesis 21:15), this calls to mind the fact that the word for shrub, (siyach, Genesis 2:5), is related to meditation, as in “May my meditation (siyach) be pleasing to Him (Psalm 104:33,34). It has been suggested that the vicinity of Beer Lachai Roi (Well of the Seeing One) where the angel appeared to Hagar, had become a shrine to which Isaac visited when he was “meditating (suach) in the field” in Genesis 24:62 (Meditation and the Bible, by Aryeh Kaplan, p.101).
Like Lugalbanda, Ishmael had revived his vitality, with the Sumerian god Sakkan being responsible for the fertility of “all the beasts on land” (Genesis 1:30). Lugalbanda may have also discovered the foretelling of future events through dreams, as the poem describes him making a bed out of “the pure herb of the mountains,” where he “lay down not to sleep, he lay down to dream – not turning back at the door of the dream, not turning back at the door-pivot. To the liar it talks in lies, to the truthful it speaks truth. iT can make one man happy, it can make another man sing, but it is the closed tablet-basket of the gods.” A waking dream, like the kind mentioned in “The Matrix.”
“I dot not know of dust to dust
I live from breath to breath
I live to climb that mountain
to the fountain of Lamneth.
Yet my eyes are drawn toward
the mountain in the east
fascinates and captivates
gives my heart no peace.”
“Fountain of Lamneth”, by Rush
Many like to look beyond the truth of the bible, and peer into “artfully contrived stories” of Jewish mystics and story tellers. This is not in line with the scriptural thought of “keeping hold to the healthful pattern of words”. (2Tim. 1:13) Paul in fact warned the congregation in Crete of such stories (Titus 1:14) he told the Cretans to avoid the Jewish Fables. Why? Because these stories were the stories of “old women” (1Tim 4:7) and had no place being taught in the first century congregation. Consider one such story that Paul, being a student of Jewish oral and scriptural tradition would have been familiar with.
The apocryphal story of Tobit written over two hundred years prior to Paul tells of a pious Jew named Tobit who had the dung of a bird land in his eye and blind him. He sends his son Tobias to collect a debt. On the way Tobias is directed by an angel to collect the Heart, Liver, and Gall of a fish. He then encounters a widow who is still a virgin because , although being married seven times her husbands were all killed by an evil spirit on the wedding night. Tobias is prompted by the angel to marry the widow and uses the heart and liver to drive off the wicked spirit and later uses the gall to restore Tobit’s sight. This tale is truly not truthful but a Jewish fable. It is steeped in occultic practices that the Israelites were warned against practicing, and is full of superstitious teachings. Further at Tobit 1:4,11, 14:1 we see the historical inaccuracies. Tobit is said to have been witness to both the revolt of the ten tribe kingdoms of Israel and the deportation to Nineveh. These events are separated by 257 years according to biblical and secular historians such as Josephus. This is just one of the examples of Jewish fables that were prevalent in Paul’s day.
It is no wonder then that those who search for the truth of the bible are warned repeatedly in the scriptures not to fall prey to the empty deceptions of human thinking. These artfully contrived stories do nothing but pull people away from the true teachings of Jesus. So we should heed Paul’s counsel to Timothy (1 Tim 6:3-5) do not be teachers of things contrary to the Christ.
Getting back to the original article, the tradition is that Cain married Abel’s twin sister, as commanded by Adam. Abel was commanded also, to marry Cain’s twin sister. The early 19th century commentator, Adam Clarke reasoned that both Cain and Abel raised families well before the birth of Seth. The interpretation is that after Cain killed Abel, Cain took Abel’s widow as his wife which is recorded possibly in Gen 4:17. The Jewish commentary suggests that Cain was the author of the genocide of Abel’s “potential” family although I believe that Adam Clarke was correct.
The idea that Cain married his sister flies in the face of modern practice plus the Mosaic law. But traditions still vary from society to society. For example in the northern US it is considered immoral to marry a first cousin but it is not in British society and in some places in the southern US (there are many jokes about this). However, my grandparents, from well respected English families, were married in 1917 in England and they were first cousins.
Mrs Leith is on to something. If you look up Gen 4 you’ll see that Cain, as some of you have found out, after Abels death feared that other men would kill him. But if Adam and Eve – his parents – were the only ones left besides Cain (Abel was dead, remember), did he fear his parents then?
Nope, he feared the descendants of the ones in Gen 1 v.26. The old text uses the word “adam” about these people, too. Not as a spesific person, but as a lot – as men and women in plural. These were “bara” (created/produced), while Adam – the single man – was “yatsar” (formed). The men and women as a part of the creation, but Adam the man, as a part of the great divine plan of salavation.
As a man with a mission – as the first son of God. Made from dust, not inside Eden, but outside and before Eden (yep, that’s right. Read your Bible again). In 2 Cor 15:22/45 Paul makes it clear that Jesus came as no.2 – as the second Adam. Why? Because the first one failed his task. Failed to stand up against the serpents temptation.
So sin – and death, ‘cos death is a reaction to action, a consequence of sin – must be older than Adam, because the serpent must have fallen first. Not according to the law in Eden, but according the law God made for the heavens. He created heavens – “shamayim” – first, remember. And then the created “erets” – translated as “Earth”. So the serpent came crawling because the angels free will was tested first. And because some of them, including the devil in shape of the serpent, failed.
And suddenly it all makes sense, right? Including Cains marriage in a nearby town etc. Btw: The 6000 years often referred to as the time since creation, is in fact the age of Adams bloodline. The Bible says nothing about the age of the creation as a whole. Regards.
Our Readers Ask . . .
Where Did Cain Find His Wife?
▪ “If Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel, where did Cain’s wife come from?” Although this is often asked as a trick question by Bible skeptics, the Bible does provide sufficient detail to give a satisfactory answer.
Genesis chapters 3 and 4 present the following information: (1) Eve was “the mother of everyone living.” (2) Time elapsed between the birth of Cain and his offering the sacrifice that was rejected by God. (3) Following his banishment to become “a wanderer and a fugitive,” Cain worried that ‘anyone finding him’ might try to kill him. (4) God set up a sign to protect Cain, indicating that either his siblings or other relatives might try to kill him. (5) “Afterward,” Cain had intercourse with his wife in “the land of Fugitiveness.”—Genesis 3:20; 4:3, 12, 14-17.
From the above, we can rightly conclude that Cain’s wife was a descendant of Eve born on an unknown date. Genesis 5:4 acknowledges that during his 930 years of life, Adam “became father to sons and daughters.” Of course, the Bible does not specify that Cain’s wife was Eve’s daughter. Indeed, the fact that she is mentioned after Cain’s banishment indicates that enough time had passed that she could even have been one of Adam and Eve’s granddaughters. Hence, The Amplified Old Testament describes Cain’s wife simply as “one of Adam’s offspring.”
Nineteenth-century Bible commentator Adam Clarke speculated that God’s establishing a sign as a result of Cain’s fear came about because several generations of Adam’s descendants already existed—enough “to found several villages.”
That Cain married his sister or a later female descendant of Adam through the marriage of any of Adam’s sons or daughters is viewed by some societies today as unthinkable. This is usually because of societal taboos or fear of genetic defects. Nevertheless, F. LaGard Smith comments in The Narrated Bible in Chronological Order: “It is altogether likely that these first brothers and sisters enter into marriages with each other, despite the sense of inappropriateness which would be felt should that occur in following generations.” Also, it is noteworthy that it was not until Moses received God’s laws for the nation of Israel in 1513 B.C.E. that intercourse between such close relatives was specifically forbidden.—Leviticus 18:9, 17, 24.
Today, we are millenniums away from the perfection once possessed by our original parents. The effect that genetics and heredity have on us might not have been a factor for them. Furthermore, recent studies, such as one published in the Journal of Genetic Counseling, show that unions between first cousins face lower risks of having children with birth defects than is widely perceived. Reasonably, such issues would not have been a serious concern during Adam’s life span or even prior to Noah’s day. Thus, we can conclude that Cain’s wife was one of his female relatives.
http://m.wol.jw.org/es/wol/dsync/r4/lp-s/r1/lp-e/2010649#h=0-1&selpar=0
also
http://m.wol.jw.org/es/wol/dsync/r4/lp-s/r1/lp-e/1101989257#h=0-1&selpar=0