Who was Cain's wife?

The Bible does not specifically inform us who Cain's wife was (Gen. 4:17). The Book of Genesis was written by Moses to convince the Israelites to follow him into the Promised Land, not to inform its readers of every single fact about the beginning of Creation. There are many things Moses left out of the Creation historical narrative, such as a list of the names of all the original animals (Gen. 2:19-20). Another fact Moses left out were the names of all Adam and Eve's daughters and other sons. Adam's family could have been rather large, after all, he lived for 930 years (Gen. 5:5).

Some other facts to consider: (1) Cain and Abel were both farmers (Gen. 4:1-2) and brought offerings to the Lord (Gen. 4:3-5), so more than likely Adam and Eve could have had some unrecorded daughters by the time we get to Genesis 4:17; (2) we don't know how old Cain was when he murdered Abel (Gen. 4:8), so other relatives could easily have existed at the time of Abel's death (see #3); (3) Cain was rightfully scared for his life after he murdered his brother (Gen. 4:14-15), indicating that there were already some other living relatives upon the earth; (4) Adam and Eve had other children (Gen. 5:4); and (5) all other people and nations descended from Adam and Eve; all people are from "one man" (Acts 17:26; cf. Gen. 1:26-27; 2:4-8, 18, 21-22; 5:2; cf. Hos. 6:7; Matt. 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-9; Luke 3:23-38; Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 11:8; 15:21-22, 45-49; 1 Tim. 2:12-14; Jude 1:14), so no other race existed in which Cain could have married into.

So, when we examine the preponderance of all the evidence, Cain married one of his own relatives (Gen. 4:17).

Related Links: