Where did Cain's wife come from?

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If Adam and Eve are the parents of all humankind, did Cain marry his sister?
 
Yes, he did - of course his DNA was only one generation from perfect, hence his children had all their fingers and they lived a very very long time and had many many children.
 
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CuriousInIL:
Yes.
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Eeww.
 
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MamaGeek:
If Adam and Eve are the parents of all humankind, did Cain marry his sister?
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No. Cain did not marry his sister, because like the story of Adam and Eve, the story of Cain and Abel is Dr.-Seuss-level FICTION which teaches theology.

Cain never existed. Abel never existed. Saying that Cain and Abel were real is like saying that Spot and Puff and Dick and Jane in the old 1950s and 1960s grade school readers were real. Therefore, the problems posed by Cain’s marriage aren’t real.
 
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BibleReader:
No. Cain did not marry his sister, because like the story of Adam and Eve, the story of Cain and Abel is Dr.-Seuss-level FICTION which teaches theology.

Cain never existed. Abel never existed. Saving that Cain and Abel were real is like saying that Spot and Puff and Dick and Jane in the old 1950s and 1960s grade school readers were real. Therefore, the problems posed by Cain’s marriage aren’t real.
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…and I suspect that you have the documented evidence to back this up?
 
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mike182d:
…and I suspect that you have the documented evidence to back this up?
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Of course I do. It is obvious if you do Bible study.

The name “Cain,” or qayin in Hebrew, is ancient Hebrew humor. It means “[metal] fashioner” – “smith.” Cain’s name is the ancient Hebrew version of “Smith,” except that for those people, the significance of his name more clearly conveyed the occupation associated with his name, because unlike today there were blacksmiths everywhere, forging bronze and iron. Why was Cain called “smith”? Because he is the ancestor of Tubal-cain, the “ancestor of all who forge instruments of bronze and iron.” See Genesis 4:22. That’s the REAL reason.

The Hebrew joke is the reason Eve gives for naming Cain “smith” – she says that she calls him “Qayin” because “I have produced” [Hebrew *qaniti] a man with the help of the Lord. Genesis 4:1. Aware that “Cain” means “smith,” a titter would have run through the storyteller’s audience when they hear Eve’s misguided reason for the name.

Abel’s name is a mild Syrian language pun. It means “herdsman.” How did Eve know when Abel was born, in Genesis 4:2, that Abel would become “a keeper of flocks”? She didn’t. It’s a mild pun – a joke.

This is the story of how Mr. Smith killed Mr. Herdsman.

What theology does this story teach?

Hmmmm,. let’s see…

Mr. Smith kills the shepherd, and as a consequence of doing so he is preserved from death (!!!) (see Genesis 4:15) and settles in the East (Genesis 4:16) – the Dawn Type, or symbol, referring to the Resurrection. Cain in other words, ends up preserved from death and in Resurrection Land – Heaven!

The story is fiction foreshadowing Christ’s sacrifice to save us from death and bring us to “Resurrection Land.”
 
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BibleReader:
Of course I do. It is obvious if you do Bible study.

The name “Cain,” or qayin in Hebrew, is ancient Hebrew humor. It means “[metal] fashioner” – “smith.” Cain’s name is the ancient Hebrew version of “Smith,” except that for those people, the significance of his name more clearly conveyed the occupation associated with his name, because unlike today there were blacksmiths everywhere, forging bronze and iron. Why was Cain called “smith”?

I thought he didnt exist?

Because he is the ancestor of Tubal-cain, the “ancestor of all who forge instruments of bronze and iron.”

Agh, this gets me every time. (It confuses me) What about the Ark??

See Genesis 4:22. That’s the REAL reason.

The Hebrew joke is the reason Eve gives for naming Cain “smith” – she says that she calls him “Qayin” because “I have produced” [Hebrew *qaniti
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] a man with the help of the Lord. Genesis 4:1. Aware that “Cain” means “smith,” a titter would have run through the storyteller’s audience when they hear Eve’s misguided reason for the name.

Abel’s name is a mild Syrian language pun. It means “herdsman.” How did Eve know when Abel was born, in Genesis 4:2, that Abel would become “a keeper of flocks”? She didn’t. It’s a mild pun – a joke.

This is the story of how Mr. Smith killed Mr. Herdsman.

What theology does this story teach?

Hmmmm,. let’s see…

Mr. Smith kills the shepherd, and as a consequence of doing so he is preserved from death (!!!) (see Genesis 4:15) and settles in the East (Genesis 4:16) – the Dawn Type, or symbol, referring to the Resurrection. Cain in other words, ends up preserved from death and in Resurrection Land – Heaven!

The story is fiction foreshadowing Christ’s sacrifice to save us from death and bring us to “Resurrection Land.”
 
well, as i understand it, the church teaches that they were real. the church says that evolution is compatible with church teaching but that there was a literal adam and eve (two people who are the original ancestors of all humans) who sinned and were cast out of paradise. so, cain married his sister. bible reader, not even the magisterium says that they didn’t exist, so you are pretty bold to be so sure. divine inspiration could have caused the names.
 
It is Catholic dogmatic teaching that all of mankind are descended from exactly one couple – the people we call Adam and Eve. So any further offspring, in order to preserve the human race, would have to have been produced from their children.

I suppose it may be technically possible to reconcile a polygamous beginning with this teaching, although I’m not sure.

Are we all necessarily descendants of Adam and Eve, or are we their descendants in the sense that Adam could have fathered children with several women, or Eve with some other men?

Peace,
javelin
 
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bengal_fan:
divine inspiration could have caused the names.
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We are held to believe that the human race descended from two individuals, but not that the names they went by were “Adam” and “Eve”, or that the names or even numbers of their offspring are exactly according to the Genesis account. You’re correct that the names could have been inspired of God, but we are not bound to believe that.

So Bible Reader’s contention that the names and even stories were made up to prefigure Christ could be true (the names part almost assuredly so). But that claim does not by necessity mean that people like Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel did no exist. We simply don’t know.

All we know is that we all came from two, and it is through those original two that sin entered our lives and death took control until the necessary coming of the Christ to reconcile man with God once again.

Peace,
javelin
 
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BibleReader:
Of course I do. It is obvious if you do Bible study.

The name “Cain,” or qayin in Hebrew, is ancient Hebrew humor. It means “[metal] fashioner” – “smith.” Cain’s name is the ancient Hebrew version of “Smith,” except that for those people, the significance of his name more clearly conveyed the occupation associated with his name, because unlike today there were blacksmiths everywhere, forging bronze and iron. Why was Cain called “smith”? Because he is the ancestor of Tubal-cain, the “ancestor of all who forge instruments of bronze and iron.” See Genesis 4:22. That’s the REAL reason.

The Hebrew joke is the reason Eve gives for naming Cain “smith” – she says that she calls him “Qayin” because “I have produced” [Hebrew *qaniti
Click to expand...
] a man with the help of the Lord. Genesis 4:1. Aware that “Cain” means “smith,” a titter would have run through the storyteller’s audience when they hear Eve’s misguided reason for the name.

Abel’s name is a mild Syrian language pun. It means “herdsman.” How did Eve know when Abel was born, in Genesis 4:2, that Abel would become “a keeper of flocks”? She didn’t. It’s a mild pun – a joke.

This is the story of how Mr. Smith killed Mr. Herdsman.

What theology does this story teach?

Hmmmm,. let’s see…

Mr. Smith kills the shepherd, and as a consequence of doing so he is preserved from death (!!!) (see Genesis 4:15) and settles in the East (Genesis 4:16) – the Dawn Type, or symbol, referring to the Resurrection. Cain in other words, ends up preserved from death and in Resurrection Land – Heaven!

The story is fiction foreshadowing Christ’s sacrifice to save us from death and bring us to “Resurrection Land.”

So are you saying that all the other stories in the bible are also false. If you read the OT you will find many stories that will foreshadow Christ.
 
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BibleReader:
Of course I do. It is obvious if you do Bible study.
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So, you believe that when humans were created, there were several that just popped up at once out of nowhere? Even the theory of evolution gives some credit to the belief that the human race began with a male and female “human” that began a new species. While the names may be made up, that is not enough to warrant disregarding the whole of the story as hogwash.

It is alleged that the story of Romulus and Remus was made up, but does it follow necessarily then that the whole of the story concerning the creation of Rome is a fabrication? I’m sure at least *some *of it was true.
 
It seems to me that there was a Time story several years back in which scientist using mitrochondria proved that we were all descended from one woman. I don’t know how reliable this story was and I believe that the scientists said that the woman was a prehuman, but it was still interesting.
 
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allhers:
Dick, Jane and Spot weren’t real??:crying:
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I am completly bummed too.:crying: We need to start a thread on the depression that this news has cost us.
 
Whew! I attracted a lot of lightning!

One at a time…

Magicsilence, I’m not sure that you want an answer. The divinely-inspired author of the fictional piece we call “the Story of Cain and Abel” called Cain the fictional character “Cain” probably because bronze – one of the metals Genesis says Cain’s line forged, Genesis 4:22 – is a symbol for Christ because it is the “red” metal. I.e., just as smiths beat bronze with their hammers, Cain beat his bloodied brother Abel. Both “beat red,” so to speak.

Magicsilence, you also ask, What about the ark?

The story of Noah and the ark is also included in Genesis to TEACH THEOLOGY. I.e., God wasn’t teaching us how to survive floods. If all one ever asks about the story of Noah and the Ark is, Is it true?, then ONE HAS COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT OF THE STORY.

I, personally believe that the story is true, but the divinely inspired author of the story may not have believed that it was true, and HE (or she, right?) told the story with a nobler purpose in mind – to foreshadow Christ’s incarnation, his ascension, to foreshadow the Church, and the coming of the Paraclete with the grace of the cross.

I say that the divinely inspired author may not have believed that it was true because he has the animals marching into the ark like little soldiers “two by two,” Genesis 7:9, after he includes what appears to be an ancient nursery rhyme or child’s song in the narrative…

“Make yourself an ark of gfr,
put various compartments in it
and kfr it inside and out with kfr.”
Genesis 6:14.

It’s the ancient equivalent of…

“Moses, build me an arky arky
Moses, build me an arky arky
Cover it with pitch and tarky tarky
children of the Lord.”

Do you see the problem?

Again, I personally believe that there was a great flood, and an ark. There’s simply too much evidence of both. (I believe that a friend of mine had a piece of the ark on his bookshelf.) However, I don’t think that the divinely inspired author CARED whether it was true – instead, he wants you to learn THEOLOGY from his story!

bengal_fan, let me put it to you this way: If you never realized that Abel is a picture of Jesus, then UNTIL NOW YOU HAVE MISSED THE POINT OF THE STORY!

Javelin, the author of the Adam and Eve story really didn’t care if we are all descended from Adam and Eve, if by that you mean “in defiance of incest taboos.” The POINT of our descent is that, AS HUMANKIND, WE ARE HEIRS OF UNWORTHINESS FOR HEAVEN, SO THAT WE NEED “SAVING.”

If for you the story is principally an assurance that Cain was allowed to violate “incest taboos” and have sex with his sister, then you have COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT OF THE STORY.

MonicaC challenges, “So are you saying that all the other stories in the bible are also false. If you read the OT you will find many stories that will foreshadow Christ.”

Foreshadowing does not equal false. God is deeply clever – far, FAR more clever than you or I – and can easily arrange for historical events to foreshadow the salvation process.

For example, I believe that Absalom really died by riding a mule beneath a terebinth tree, getting his hair caught in the branches, so that he was hanging from the tree, and then being stabbed in the torso by a soldier, so that he was thereafter buried under rock. 2 Samuel 18:9-17.

However, the incident is clearly a STRIKING picture of Christ. Jesus rode an ass to His death at the time of His messianic entry, He had a crown of thorns place on His head, He hung in a “tree,” He was stabbed in the torso by a soldier, and He was buried under rock.

Nonetheless, not all typological (allegorical) stories are non-fiction, either.

There is NO INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL EVIDENCE THAT THE STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL IS ANYTHING BUT FICTION.

So, typology doesn’t require that the stopry be EITHER fiction OR non-fiction.

mike182d asks, “So, you believe that when humans were created, there were several that just popped up at once out of nowhere?”

What I personally suspect is that maybe around 30,000 to 15,000 B.C., perhaps as Cro-Magnons began to be born, God inspired them with a soul, and because these had insight (for example, they could say, “I am,” and understand what that means) they could easily recoignize one another and enthusiastically searched for such partners which God, in His wisdom, made available to them (to avoid what amounts to bestiality).

SUCH QUESTIONS ARE NOT ACTUALLY ADDRESSED BY GENESIS, HOWEVER.
 
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