JTF.ORG Forum
Torah and Jewish Idea => Torah and Jewish Idea => Topic started by: Christian Zionist on February 06, 2007, 12:46:51 AM
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Where did Cain get his wife?
Genesis 4:17
1. (Gen. 4:17) - "Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. 17And Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son,"
We see in the Bible in Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve were cursed and sent out of the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 4, Cain kills Abel. In Genesis 4:17 above we see that Cain had relations with his wife. Where did he get his wife? The answer is simple. Cain married one of his sisters.
Genesis 5:4 says, "Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters." We see that Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters. The genetic lineage of Adam and Eve was perfect so marrying a sister wasn't going to cause birth defects. It wasn't until much later, during the time of Moses, that incest was forbidden as the genetic pool became less and less able to stand interbreeding.
"‘No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD," (Lev. 18:6).
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Actually there are at least two views in Judaism on this. The most obvious one is that they married sisters like you said since usually the bible does not menchan daughters but only sons. Incest was forbidden before the bible was given as well (remember Sodom and Gemmorah) but it is possible that for Cain it was permitted since there was no one else to marry. The second view is in the Medrish and says that they were Lilith's daughters since the Medrish claims that Lilith was really Adam's first wife although this is not said in the bible.
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Cain didn't necessarily marry his own bloodline; Ha'Shem may well have created many other human beings after creating Adam & Eve.
It is not written that He did create others, but neither it is written that He did not create many others when and as He saw fit.