Where Did Cain Find a Wife?

Genesis 4:13-17 And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch.

Last night at our Bible Study and Fellowship at church, a new member asked if God created Adam & Eve only or where there others also. He based this question on questions that someone had proposed to him: “Who were these people that upon finding Cain, would kill him?” & “Where did Cain find a wife?” Strangely, the question had the group scratching their heads for a minute. I’ve heard the question before, and it was answered that Cain married a relative for his wife. It was assumed that Cain & Abel were the only children of Adam & Eve, but that is not the fact. Genesis 5:4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. On top of that, Adam lived to be 930 years old. I think about the population of the United States of America when it was first birthed as a nation (2.5 million people) and what that population is just 234 years later (310 million people). People lived so long in the beginning due to pure blood lines, earth environmental factors, and God’s providence, that generations overlapped each other to the point that Adam’s great, great, great, great, great, great Grandson knew him. Just look at the chart below. Timeline of Year of Birth and Death of Pre-Flood Patriarchs in Genesis 5:

-------------0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
-------------....................
Adam ------xxxxxxxxxx (930)
Seth ---------xxxxxxxxx (912)
Enosh ---------xxxxxxxxxx (905)
Kenan -----------xxxxxxxxxx (910)
Mahalalel ---------xxxxxxxxxx (895)
Jared ---------------xxxxxxxxxxx (962)
Enoch ----------------xxxx (365)
Methuselah ------------xxxxxxxxxx (969)
Lamech -----------------xxxxxxxx (777)
Noah ---------------------xxxxxxxxxxx (950)

Amazing, but its is not hard to see that by Adam and Eve having other sons and daughters, who each gave birth to many other sons and daughters, who also gave birth to many more sons & daughters, et cetera, and so on, that it is not hard to see that there were plenty of relatives around, both for Cain to be afraid of and to find a wife from. If our country can gain 307.5 million in population in 234 years, why couldn’t our first ancestor’s numbers exponentially grow also. The sad part to me is that in just nine generations, the world turned their backs on their Creator and God had to destroy the world and start again with Noah and his family. Genesis 6:5-6 “The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” By John 3:16, the Lord Jesus tells us of God’s love, mercy & grace and plan of Salvation from sin and death to eternal life,with a restored "right" relationship with God through the atoning sacrifice of His only Son Jesus. How far we have fallen from the Garden of Eden, but look at how far our loving, heavenly Father has come to redeem us and make us His children; children of God and Children of Heaven. May we give all the glory of God for the great gift of Christ, and forever praise His holy name. Amen.

Rejoicing in Christ, Brian