Who Did Cain Marry?

Question:

Who did Cain marry?

Answer:

Since Eve is the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20), it is likely that Cain married his sister.

But that's incest!

Yes, but that is a small issue compared to Cain murdering his brother because he (Cain) wanted to invent his own method of worship (Genesis 4).

Cain murdered his brother. There is no reason to expect that Cain became a righteous man. His character very likely remained the same, with an increase in hostility to God for giving him a consequence. Would he be likely to avoid incest? No, he wasn't righteous to begin with.

Question:

As punishment for killing Abel, God says Cain will be a fugitive and a vagabond (Genesis 4:12). Yet in just a few verses (Genesis 4:16-17) we see Cain will settle down, marry, have a son and build a city. This is not exactly the activity one would expect from a fugitive and a vagabond. Is this a contradiction?

Answer:

First of all a fugitive is someone who could face execution if caught. So Cain complained about the punishment and cut a deal for slightly less than what God had originally decreed which is the reason God set a mark on Cain. The mark and the release from the harsher penalty was a plus for Cain.

A wife for Cain? What does it take to have a wife? Only someone who is willing to say yes to marriage. What does it take to father a child? Only someone who is willing to say yes to sex. Unfortunately we have fugitives today who build cities (in Afghanistan, for example). In the time of Cain it was even easier.

Question:

Why would God allow Cain to marry?

Answer:

God would allow Cain to marry so that Seth, the next son of Adam and his wife, would not have to participate in the same type of incest Cain participated in.

-- wilyelder

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