"And
Cain knew his wife; and she conceived,
and bare Enoch: and he builded a city ...." (Genesis 4:17)
This question is often
asked by people wanting a serious answer. However, many merely use it
as a way
of discrediting the Bible. If they can do this, they think this lets
them off
the hook by avoiding God and Jesus Christ the creator. As many
Christians are
unable to give an answer to this question, the world thinks that the
Bible
can't be defended. However, as always we "Study to show thyself
approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word
of truth."
(2 Timothy 2:15). Let's
start at the beginning.
Was Adam a real person?
Absolutely. The Bible even
gives a list of his descendants. If Adam wasn't a real person then
neither were
all his descendants. There was one man created in the beginning and God
made
him from the "dust of the earth". (Genesis
2:7)
But how do we know for
sure?
Was the
first man called Adam? The Bible says so "And so it is written, The
first
man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit." (1 Cor 15:45).
Who is this 'quickening spirit'?
It's Jesus Christ. The
Bible says "For since by man
came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in
Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1Cor 15:21-22)
Where did Eve come from?Just as
the Bible says, "And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall
upon
Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up
the flesh
instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from
man, made he
a woman, and brought her unto the man." (Genesis
2:21-22). Eve was
the first woman and she was made from Adam. All people that have ever
lived
have descended from Adam and Eve who were two real people. The Bible
says
"And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all
living." (Gen 3:20)
How many children did Adam
and Eve have?
The Bible says that Adam
and Eve had sons and daughters. "And the days of Adam after he had
begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and
daughters:" (Genesis 5:4). The
Bible only names three in
particular - Cain, Abel and Seth. Before Seth was born, many could have
been
born in the space of one hundred and thirty years (Genesis 5:3)
So Cain had brothers and sisters?
Yes. Adam and Eve had male
and female offspring. The Bible doesn't tell us how many though.
Considering
the fact that Adam lived to 930 years old, it could be suggested that
he had
quite a considerable number of children.
So did Cain marry his
sister?
Absolutely. Back then,
someone had to marry his sister (or sister marry her brother) in order
for
children to be born.
Did Cain go to the
land of Nod to get his wife?
No. This argument is put up
by people trying to prove that there was another race of people in the
land of
Nod that hadn't descended from Adam and Eve. Looking at what the Bible
actually
says we see that "And 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 bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name
of the
city, after the name of his son, Enoch."God doesn't say that he went to
the land Nod, found a wife there and then she conceived. From the
context, we
see that Cain was married before he killed Abel and certainly was
before he
went to the land of Nod.
The Lord places a curse on Cain
Confronted with the fact
that he was the first killer in history, God's anger and wrath against
Cain is
more than he can bear. In prolonging the sentence, God forbids any-one
to kill
him for his crime. Before killing Abel, many more children of Adam and
Eve
could have been born and spread out over the land. The Bible states
"And
in the process of time ...." (Genesis 4:3)
pointing to this fact.
Isn't God against
marrying your sister?
Absolutely!
But God's law
forbidding marriage between close relatives wasn't until the law was
given to
Moses at Mt Sinai 2,500 years later (Leviticus 18-20). Many people
reject the
fact that Cain married his sister, by appealing to today's law that
forbids
intermarriage between brother and sister. However, pure reason will
tell us
that this had to be the case.
People object to Cain marrying his sister
Put
it this way, if you the reader
are married, you have actually married a relative of yours. Distant
relative?
Yes, but still a relative. If all people are descended from Adam and
Eve, then
all people on the earth today are somehow 'related' to each other.
We
need to remember that Abraham
did marry his half-sister with God's blessing and consent (Genesis 20:12).
Why does God forbid brother and sister
marriage today?
If
brothers and sisters marry today,
they run an abnormally high risk of giving birth to deformed babies.
Science
has proved that the closer the parents are related, the more their
babies will
likely be deformed.
Adam
and Eve had a pure 'gene pool' Back
then, Adam and Eve and
their descendants were at minimal risk of giving birth to deformed
children.
When God created Adam and Eve, he made them biologically and
genetically pure.
What
happened?
As a
result of Adam and Eve disobeying God,
man has
brought many sicknesses and diseases upon himself, and over time, his
genes
have been damaged. Now, as a result, should a brother and sister marry,
there
is the distinct likelihood that a defect and deformity will be
magnified in the
offspring. You can often see this first hand in some country towns
where the
"Robertsons" have intermarried with the "Johnsons" and this
has been going on for decades. The gene pool becomes too concentrated.
The
current world view
Today
people look at the
account in Genesis through their own secular world-view. Naturally,
they don’t
see the changes that have come about as the result of sin. As stated,
there are
very good reasons today against cousins marrying and so current
marriage laws
are superimposed upon the Genesis account in order to discredit God's
word.
You
can believe the King James
Bible
A good motto when studying the Bible is "What does it say?" not "What does it mean?" Unless the context makes it clearly otherwise, you can take the Bible literally.
Harley Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
Australian
Bible Ministries, PO Box 5058,
Mt. Gravatt East 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com
