Cain is Banished (Gn 4:14) yet finds a wife (4:17)

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matthew1624

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How is that Cain finds a wife to procreate with? I’m confused. :confused:
 
I heard Scott Hahn say that Cain probably married one of his sisters. Although stained with original sin, they were still purer than now. If i am wrong (anyone!!) please correct me.

thanks,
 
I beleive you are correct for the canite (decendants of Cain) were wicked and turned away from God and were called the children of men.
Whereas the Sethites (decendants of Seth) were at first pious God fearing men, called the children of God.
THe same held true for Noah’s son. Ham saw his fathers nakedness and he was cursed by God. In the bible seeing someone in thier nakedness means incestious acts.
I read it, I believe in Leviticus. (sorry I don’t have my bible handy)
Knowing this, I would be led to believe that Cain “slept” with his daughter.
 
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Unvrsl_Sldr:
I heard Scott Hahn say that Cain probably married one of his sisters. Although stained with original sin, they were still purer than now. If i am wrong (anyone!!) please correct me.

thanks,
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Incest is completely wrong, in all circumstances.​

I think this indicates that the story is not history, but myth. ##
 
Gottle of Geer said:
## Incest is completely wrong, in all circumstances.

I think this indicates that the story is not history, but myth. ##
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The Bible is not mythological.
How else would you explain it. Adam and Eve are our first parents. They had 3 sons. Please explain how else they were to reproduce.
 
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matthew1624:
How is that Cain finds a wife to procreate with? I’m confused. :confused:
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Hi,
I dont know, but I think about this. Adam, Abel,Seth were seed. Now when Cain was told he would be cast out he pleaded with God saying he would be killed so God in His mercy put a mark on Cain.
Genesis 4:17 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’
Now why would Enoch build a city if there were no people. Why would Cain fear being killed if there were no people. Why would God put a seal on Cain if his belief were unfounded.

I think along the lines that Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, because Adam was seed from God. Adam was special. He was the first seed of God. This does not mean that other people had not lived in existance for millions of years before hand, but not in the Garden. And I see in Revelations that the Holy Jerusalem, when it comes dowm from heaven will have gates. And it is a walled city. I believe at this point in time that people will live outside the HolyJerusalem.
Christ be with you
Walk in lovehttp://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon7.gif
edwinG
 
The children of Seth were NOT the “Sons of God” described right before the Flood. Read The Book of Enoch, or any scholarship on the subject to see what they were.

Personally I’ve already gone over my beliefs on this subject in a number of other threads, and I won’t get into it again other than to say that the whole “incest” argument doesn’t come close to explaining why Cain needed protection, nor why a city was built by Cain’s son.
 
I beleive you are correct for the canite (decendants of Cain) were evil and turned away from God and were called the children of men.

If that was so, then who were the children of women?

As for Cain’s wife, maybe there was some exception in matters of so called incest till there was enough people for God to declare incest as a sin. Go figure. :confused:
 
Cain also said that people would kill him if they saw him, which prompted God to give him the seal. My question is - what people? The only people left are Adam and Eve and it it would be very unlikely that they would kill Cain and it would be really easy for Cain to keep away from two people when there are only three people on the entire planet.

One speculative theory (and I am not backing it because I am unsure as to it’s theological validity) is that Adam was not the first homo sapiens male. The species homo sapiens already existed. He *was *however, the first homo sapiens male with a spritual soul, thus the image and likeness of God. Cain’s wife then, could have been one of those humans without a soul.

I know it sounds nutty, but I am sure I will find the truth out one day.
 
If there were people aside from Adam and Eve that God had created, then there would be some humans who werent born with original sin. Adam and Eve ARE the original two.
 
I’ve always wondered what people (and the world in general), would be like, had Adam & Eve not given-in to the temptation.

Would humans still die after x amount of years? Would we have had to work for a living? Would we not have all these mysteries regarding our faith?
 
My hypothesis has always been that Adam and Eve had alot of children, incest was probable in the very beginning, but by the time the story of Cain and Able were told, there were already many people in existance…and yet…enough to make a city? Wow! Why is it that these things are such a mystery I wonder? I really don’t have the answers. The above is the best I could come up with.-Mfaustina1

I really do wish we understood these things better as it would make it so much easier to talk with unbelievers who question the same things! :confused:
 
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Mfaustina1:
My hypothesis has always been that Adam and Eve had alot of children, incest was probable in the very beginning, but by the time the story of Cain and Able were told, there were already many people in existance…and yet…enough to make a city?
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Actually, there would be quite a few people relatively quickly. If we assume a child every two or three years, half of whom are girls and they start having children at about age twenty (I’m keeping my numbers conservative), and you project Adam’s longevity onto everyone else:

After about 300 years there are well over a Billion people on the earth.

I’m not saying this is all necessarily true, but a large population is mathematically possible.
 
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Hudsonite:
The Bible is not mythological.
How else would you explain it. Adam and Eve are our first parents. They had 3 sons. Please explain how else they were to reproduce.
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They are wholly fictitious, so they did not reproduce.​

This whole question is only a problem if one insists on taking a non-historical story as, in some sense, history.

What sort of God allows incest ?
How is thart compatible with the character of God as ethical ?

That very question should be enough to get people wondering if it makes sense to treat this story as history.

The story also relies here and there on the assumption that Hebrew is the earliest language - as in the personal names. But this is completely wrong for a start.

To insist this is an historical account - i.e. an account of something that happened, with characters called Adam & Eve, who had sons of those names born in that order, and so on - creates needless problems for the inspiration of Scripture, by making it look ridiculous. 😦

There is a lot of mythology in the Bible - particularly in the wisdom literature and the other poetic texts. I don’t think we are required to believe in the existence of Leviathan as an amphibian known to biology 🙂 The Bible uses, refers to, or includes mythology for all sorts of reasons. ##
 
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BenRosa:
I’ve always wondered what people (and the world in general), would be like, had Adam & Eve not given-in to the temptation.

Would humans still die after x amount of years? Would we have had to work for a living? Would we not have all these mysteries regarding our faith?
Click to expand...
I had the same thought myself. Just think…if Adam and Eve never ate the fruit, evil would never exist. What a unique and safe world it would be… 😉
 
The problem with the incest argument is that it’s not genetically viable. The whole “incest is bad” aspect doesn’t even need to enter into it. Based on everything we know about genetics, the human race would have been degenerate beyond the ability to reproduce within only a few generations of such incestuous mating. Unless one believes that the early humans lived under a wholly different set of biological laws than we do today, one can’t accept that Adam and Eve’s children procreated through incest.

This doesn’t even touch on the “absolutely fact” reading of the Flood story.
 
It is amazing that no matter how big a loser a guy is, there is always some woman who is willing to marry him.

In Cain’s case, the woman could have been a sister, niece, great niece, great great niece, etc. People lived a long time back then.
 
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matthew1624:
How is that Cain finds a wife to procreate with? I’m confused. :confused:
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Adam and Eve were special animals, created with an immortal soul. Their children (and subsequent generations) enjoyed the gift of an immortal soul. However, their children’s spouses may not have been special animals with immortal souls.

‘Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”’ Gen 1:26.

I do not think this means God has two eyes, two ears and a mouth. Rather, WE are special because we have immortal souls (like God). Adam and Eve were different from nearby animals with this special “image and likeness” of having an immortal soul. But physically, they may have been no different from some of the other animals.
 
I think I get this now…ok bear with me…

Adam definately was the FIRST human and Eve was the first woman. Adam got the privledge to name Eve which gave him, for lack of abetter word, power over the woman: just like Adam got to name all the creatures. There is meaning in this. This is why a wife is to be submissive to her husband and to obey him. (yes, I am a woman and I believe this)
Next case:
Adam and Eve lived something like 800 years(no bible handy) nowhere in the bible does it say that Cain and Abel were thier first born. For all we know Cain and Abel and than Seth could have been born 600 years after creation! SO with that in mind there would be others. Maybe God chose to reveal the lines of Cain and Seth to show the bad line of Cain and the good line of Seth because than came Noah, a rightious man.
What do you think of that analogy? :cool:
 
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