Where did Cain's wife come from?

Hi to anybody who has a good answer for this...i've been wondering...when Cain killed Able and he (Cain) was sent away or "exiled" to the land "East of Eden" i remember it being said in the bible that "there he took a wife"

So my question is this: If Adam and Eve were the first and only two people God created and they had two sons: Cain and Able and Cain killed able then where did this woman that Cain took for a wife come from?
 

Josephus

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The woman that Cain took a wife from was a daughter of Adam & Eve:

"After Seth was born, Adam lived another 800 years, producing sons and daughters." Genesis 5:4

Obviously in the bible it becomes clear that none of the women descendents are considered important enough to the geneologies that follow, either prior to Seth being born or afterwards.

One would have to infer from this that Adam & Eve had daughters as well as the three sons mentioned in Genesis. And the probability is reasonable when one considers the fact that it was some time passed between Abel's birth in Genesis 4:2a and Genesis 4:2b:

"Her next child was [Cain's] brother, Abel. Abel became a shepherd, while Cain a farmer."

The word "became" obviously implies enough time passed between his birth and Abel becomming a shepherd. More than enough time, by logical standards, for Adam & Eve to have daughters - daughters only mentioned in passing in Genesis 5:4.

I hope this answers your question. If not, then I would reason that the bible doesn't say where mates of the other animals came from either. :)

So be it from this, it is only logical to accept the obvious: Adam & Eve must have had daughters which were sisters to Cain and Abel, who then later became their brothers' wives.
 
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Josephus

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This is why I don't want other people answering questions in here. :)

Answers in Genesis is a site I will not allow as a source for my answers. They may be correct, but I want people to think for themselves and not be told what to believe. Thanks for posting the link though DaBM, but this is my forum. :)
 
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hi, thanks Josephus for your answer it was good but the one

posted by Da Berkshire Massive was the one i really needed

and wanted to hear. I am Christian too, btw but i do have

some questions that i don't know how to answer and am

afraid to ask these in Church for two reason:

a)ridicule

b) i don't want to shake anyone else's faith with my "tough questions"

and incidentally the movie "inherit the wind" a GREAT movie

btw and also was the source for my question.

Thanks to all for answering and Hello, Belle! :D

Now with that answered...here is the logically reply i would probably get from either and Atheist or Agnostic:

"So you mean to tell me that we are all the by-product

of an incestuous relationshiP?

How would each of you answer that criticism?

and to take it one step furthur...how about this too:

If God is the same yester, today and forever then why was it okay originally for brothers to have sexual relationships with their sisters even marry them but not today?

How can it be right then and wrong now? if god never changes his mind about anything?

Thank-you a Great forum btw

Josephus please don't get mad at the help the others offered i did not take it wrong.

I liked the information

so thank-you very much indeed.

-Heartache Kid :wave:
 
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Josephus

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Remeber God only wants what is best for us. Back then, incestuous relationships weren't defined because they probably were not a medical issue. Now, however, the spread of genetic diversity has made it so that when siblings have offspring, that offspring can be defected; and it would make sense that God, who never changes in his loving nature, changes the rules for living so that our actions are better for us in the long run. But this is just the philosophical point of view.

Biblically, it was a command of God for Adam & Eve and later Noah's family, to populate the earth, "be fruitful and multiply." Obviously that command has been fulfilled and is no longer needed. :)
 
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Sinai

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Originally posted by HeartAche Kid:
Hi to anybody who has a good answer for this...i've been wondering...when Cain killed Able and he (Cain) was sent away or "exiled" to the land "East of Eden" i remember it being said in the bible that "there he took a wife"

So my question is this: If Adam and Eve were the first and only two people God created and they had two sons: Cain and Able and Cain killed able then where did this woman that Cain took for a wife come from?

This is one of those topics we can probably discuss and debate as long as we wish without ever coming up with an authoritative and satisfying answer. Since Cain was outside the line of promise, the Bible apparently did not consider this issue important enough to tell us the answer. We are therefore left to our speculations.

The responses generally given tend to fall into two groups: (1) those that think Cain married a relative (i.e., a sister, niece, or other descendent of Adam and/or Eve), and (2) those that think he married a non-relative (i.e., someone not related to Adam and Eve. Sure, that’s an oversimplification, it’s patently obvious, and it pretty well takes in the entire realm of possibilities of Biblical choices.

At first glance, it would appear that only the first of those possibilities could be consistent with what the Bible says. After all, doesn’t the Bible say that Adam and Eve were the first people on Earth? Therefore, they and their children would comprise all of mankind, wouldn’t they?

Although we would be justified in reaching that conclusion from a literal reading of our English versions of the Bible, that is not necessarily what the Bible says. The original Hebrew text and passages from the Talmud (the collection of writings constituting the Jewish civil and religious law) and from ancient Jewish commentators indicate that the Bible does not close the door on the possibility that there were other people—including men before Adam—but that Adam was the first human being to be created with an eternal soul.

Hebrew has two words for soul--nefesh and neshama--and both come into play in the first two chapters of Genesis. When Genesis 1:21 tells us that “God created…every animal,” it signifies that all animals (humans included) are infused with the nefesh or soul of animal life. When humans are mentioned a few verses later (Genesis 1:27 and 2:7), the text tells of a further creation, which distinguishes humans from lower animals: The third “creation” mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis is of our eternal and immortal soul, our neshama (the first two “creations” were of the universe and of life).

The closing of Genesis 2:7 has a subtlety lost in the English. It is usually translated as: “…and [God] breathed into his nostrils the neshama of life and the adam became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). The Hebrew text actually states: “…and the adam became to a living soul.” Nahmanides, seven hundred years ago, wrote that the “to” (the Hebrew letter lamed prefixed to the word “soul” in the verse) is superfluous from a grammatical stance and so must be there to teach something. Lamed, he noted, indicates a change in form and may have been placed there to describe mankind as progressing through stages of mineral, plant, fish, and animal. Finally, upon receiving the neshama, that creature which had already been formed became a human. He concludes his extensive commentary on the implications of this lamed as “it may be that the verse is stating that [prior to receiving the neshama] it was a completely living being and [by the neshama] it was transformed into another man.”
Did you catch that? According to Nahmanides, who is the major kabalistic commentator on the Bible, the biblical text has told us that before the neshama there was something like a man that was not quite a human.

Note that Nahmanides’ writings preceded discoveries of modern paleontology by hundreds of years---and the Bible said it three thousand years before discoveries of modern science.
 
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Sinai

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Originally posted by LouisBooth
*mod hat on*

Sinai please PM me before posting in this forum again

*mod hat off*

I have attempted to do so (both last night and this morning), but your PM is turned off. Please give directions as to what you want me to do now.

Thank you,
Sinai
 
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Originally posted by Sinai


This is one of those topics we can probably discuss and debate as long as we wish without ever coming up with an authoritative and satisfying answer. Since Cain was outside the line of promise, the Bible apparently did not consider this issue important enough to tell us the answer. We are therefore left to our speculations.

The responses generally given tend to fall into two groups: (1) those that think Cain married a relative (i.e., a sister, niece, or other descendent of Adam and/or Eve), and (2) those that think he married a non-relative (i.e., someone not related to Adam and Eve. Sure, that’s an oversimplification, it’s patently obvious, and it pretty well takes in the entire realm of possibilities of Biblical choices.

At first glance, it would appear that only the first of those possibilities could be consistent with what the Bible says. After all, doesn’t the Bible say that Adam and Eve were the first people on Earth? Therefore, they and their children would comprise all of mankind, wouldn’t they?

Although we would be justified in reaching that conclusion from a literal reading of our English versions of the Bible, that is not necessarily what the Bible says. The original Hebrew text and passages from the Talmud (the collection of writings constituting the Jewish civil and religious law) and from ancient Jewish commentators indicate that the Bible does not close the door on the possibility that there were other people—including men before Adam—but that Adam was the first human being to be created with an eternal soul.

Hebrew has two words for soul--nefesh and neshama--and both come into play in the first two chapters of Genesis. When Genesis 1:21 tells us that “God created…every animal,” it signifies that all animals (humans included) are infused with the nefesh or soul of animal life. When humans are mentioned a few verses later (Genesis 1:27 and 2:7), the text tells of a further creation, which distinguishes humans from lower animals: The third “creation” mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis is of our eternal and immortal soul, our neshama (the first two “creations” were of the universe and of life).

The closing of Genesis 2:7 has a subtlety lost in the English. It is usually translated as: “…and [God] breathed into his nostrils the neshama of life and the adam became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). The Hebrew text actually states: “…and the adam became to a living soul.” Nahmanides, seven hundred years ago, wrote that the “to” (the Hebrew letter lamed prefixed to the word “soul” in the verse) is superfluous from a grammatical stance and so must be there to teach something. Lamed, he noted, indicates a change in form and may have been placed there to describe mankind as progressing through stages of mineral, plant, fish, and animal. Finally, upon receiving the neshama, that creature which had already been formed became a human. He concludes his extensive commentary on the implications of this lamed as “it may be that the verse is stating that [prior to receiving the neshama] it was a completely living being and [by the neshama] it was transformed into another man.”
Did you catch that? According to Nahmanides, who is the major kabalistic commentator on the Bible, the biblical text has told us that before the neshama there was something like a man that was not quite a human.

Note that Nahmanides’ writings preceded discoveries of modern paleontology by hundreds of years---and the Bible said it three thousand years before discoveries of modern science.

WOW!

this is some serios guidance! :clap:

the bible and qur'an both support evolution, yet most christians and muslim reject evolution outright!

so do you believe in evolution

peace and blessings
assalamu- alaikum
shalom
 
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Originally posted by Josephus
This is why I don't want other people answering questions in here. :)

Answers in Genesis is a site I will not allow as a source for my answers. They may be correct, but I want people to think for themselves and not be told what to believe. Thanks for posting the link though DaBM, but this is my forum. :)

I thought this was God's forum?&nbsp; That's pretty self-righteous of you.
 
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Sinai

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Originally posted by ansarthemystic:
WOW!

this is some serios guidance! :clap:

the bible and qur'an both support evolution, yet most christians and muslim reject evolution outright!

so do you believe in evolution

peace and blessings
assalamu- alaikum
shalom

I don't go along with the parts of the theory of evolution that claim that life started by chance, and that random mutations account for the development of life on our planet. Those are the portions that are contrary to both biblical teaching and to the scientific and mathematic evidence.
 
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