Sons of God: Where Did Cain Get His Wife?

By Pastor Doug Batchelor

One of the most popular questions skeptics enjoy posing about the Bible is, “Where did Cain’s wife come from?”

But this is just an example of where you just need to keep reading to get the answer. Genesis 5:4 tells us that Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters. If you lived 930 years, like Adam, and if you were healthy, fertile, and reproductive for only 20 percent of your life, you would still have around 200 childbearing years. With God’s command to be fruitful and multiply, no doubt Adam’ and Eve’s progeny became quite numerous.

Considering the near perfect vitality and health experienced by the first generations … well, they probably had throngs of children. So Cain undoubtedly took one of his many sisters as his wife. At this point in Bible history, when man’s genetic vitality was at its peak, there was nothing forbidding the practice. Abraham married his half-sister (Genesis 20:2). Isaac married his cousin. It was not until the time of Moses that marrying a sister was forbidden, likely because of the greater risk of genetic weakness and health complications with the offspring (Deuteronomy 27:22).

Comments

When you post, you agree to the terms and conditions of our comments policy.

If you have a Bible question for Pastor Doug Batchelor or the Amazing Facts Bible answer team, please submit it by clicking here. Due to staff size, we are unable to answer Bible questions posted in the comments.
To help maintain a Christian environment, we closely moderate all comments.

  1. Please be patient. We strive to approve comments the day they are made, but please allow at least 24 hours for your comment to appear. Comments made on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday may not be approved until the following Monday.

  2. Comments that include name-calling, profanity, harassment, ridicule, etc. will be automatically deleted and the invitation to participate revoked.

  3. Comments containing URLs outside the family of Amazing Facts websites will not be approved.

  4. Comments containing telephone numbers or email addresses will not be approved.

  5. Comments off topic may be deleted.

  6. Please do not comment in languages other than English.

Please note: Approved comments do not constitute an endorsement by the ministry of Amazing Facts or by Pastor Doug Batchelor. This website allows dissenting comments and beliefs, but our comment sections are not a forum for ongoing debate.