Who Was Cain’s Wife? Does This Contradict the Creation Story?

Since Cain and Abel were Adam and Eve’s first two children, how could Cain have found a wife? Where did Cain’s wife come from? Does this conflict with the story of Creation? What in the Bible can help us to solve this seemingly contradiction?

Did Jesus Believe in Creation or Evolution?

Does Jesus believe in evolution? The Bible clearly indicates that Jesus believed in the creation story because there are many Scriptures that say that “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3 and also Eph 3:9, Cols 1:16-17, Rev 14:7, etc.). Surely He believes that the Word of God is without error because Jesus mentioned the flood of Noah as He said in Matthew 24:37 “As in the days of Noah, so shall also be the coming of the Son of Man be.” Jesus also believed the story of Jonah and the great fish as He said in Matthew 12:39 that “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

There is no doubt that Jesus believed in the creation because He said in Matthew 19:4-5, “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” Jesus is referring to Genesis 1:27 when God made Adam from the dust of the ground and also Eve. Since God created or made them male and female, and they were given names, then this disputes the claims of evolution. Even by an evolutionistic standard and deist view of God (deists believe in a hands-off, observing-only God), God made them and Eve “became his [Adam’s] wife.” When a name is ascribed to Adam and Eve, we must conclude that they did not evolve over eons of time from a single-celled amoeba because he “made them male and female”, “at the beginning.” A single-celled amoeba is neither male nor female but asexual. Jesus quoted Genesis 1:27 and so He must believe in the literal creation account. There is no way to interpret this metaphorically but only literally since it is repeated in Genesis 5:1-2, “When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.” Not one thing is said about or even hinted that there was a long period of time or that they evolved however, this does not necessarily mean that the earth is only 6,000 years old.

With the enormous life spans of humans, there would be a sufficient population of humans for which Cain could find a wife.

Genesis Life Spans

There is a clear indication that after the flood of Noah, the multiple century life spans of humans ended. The only reason we live so long today is due to medical science and improved healthcare. Contrary to evolution, where life spans should supposedly get longer and the specie gets stronger, human life spans have been devolving. We could call it a devolution and it is due to the effects of sin. The Psalmist gives the average age of humans as “seventy years–or eighty, if we have the strength” (Psalm 90:10). Before the flood, the life span of humans was drastically longer. These shorter life spans are due to the cumulative effects of sin, sin being the wages or what is paid to humans as a result of our sins and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). When Adam and Eve were created, they were perfect until the day that they sinned. We must assume that if they had not sinned, they would have had eternal, physical life because they had no genetic flaws, there was no disease, no health problems, no need for doctors or hospitals…there was no sin and so the human specimen was about as perfect as there could have possibly been (Gen 3:22). Adam lived a very long life and did not die until he was 930 years old (Gen 5:3).

In Adam’s life span, he had many more children and his sons became fathers and “the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years and then he died” (Gen 5:26-27). Life spans were enormous at the beginning of the human species as Genesis 5:28-32 shows, “When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.” After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died. After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.” Even Noah lived to be 950 years old (Gen 9:29).

Where Did Cain’s Wife Come From?

Cain and Abel were Adam and Eve’s first two children but they had many, many more children. Since at the time life spans covered multiple centuries, this meant that Adam and Eve had many children and these children grew and spread out and had many children of their own. There is every indication that by the time Cain was able to take a wife, there must have been dozens, perhaps even a hundred or more of people living on the earth. Besides, “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen 1:28). Too key verses are mentioned: “Be fruitful and increase in number” and also they were to “fill the earth.” Since there was limited space and resources where Adam and Eve lived and the fact that they had many children, they must have spread.

After Cain murdered his brother Abel, God sent him away and he ended up living east of Eden (Gen 4:16). This is where Cain met and married his wife and they bore a child named Enoch (Gen 4:17). At this same location, Cain built a city and we can assume that if he built an entire city, there must have been many other people living there already or at least nearby. Therefore, by the time Cain was an adult and was sent away by God, Adam and Eve must have had many other children and by simple addition and then multiplication, there could have been at least hundreds of descendants already having been spread out and multiplied around the areas of Eden. There is no doubt that Cain married a relative of his parents Adam and Eve but since Adam and Eve were blessed by God and they were fruitful and multiplied and their descendants spread out over the earth, there was no difficulty in Cain finding a wife at all. With life spans of over 900 years for the first human beings, this easily gave adequate time for multiple children and these dozens of generations of the children of Adam and Eve to have their children’s children who had children and so on. These children had children who became Adam and Eve’s grand children, great grandchildren, and on and on.

The conclusion is that Jesus did not believe in evolution but in creation and that after the creation of humans, they multiplied at a great rate. And with the enormous life spans of humans, there would be a sufficient population of humans for which Cain could find a wife. Jesus believed in the account of Noah and the flood, He believed in the story of Jonah and the great fish, He believed in Adam and Eve being created and Jesus believed in the creation of all things. Since Jesus is God of very God and God can not lie, then it must be true. As the Scriptures say:

“That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Heb 6:18).

“In the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior” (Titus 1:2-3).

“God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind” (Num 23:19a).

Since the Bible is the Word of God and it says that Cain found himself a wife, I believe it because God is not a man “that He should lie.”