By Hank Hanegraaff
One of the most common objections to the Genesis account of creation concerns the reference to Cain’s wife in Genesis 4:17. Unless God supernaturally created a wife for Cain as He had for Adam, Cain would have had to engage in incest with one of his sisters.
First, we should note that Adam lived almost a thousand years (Genesis 5:5) and fulfilled God’s charge to “be fruitful and increase in number” (Genesis 1:28). Thus, while Scripture does not tell us where Cain got his wife, the logical implication is that he married either a sister or a niece.
Furthermore, because genetic imperfections accumulated gradually over time, there was no prohibition against what we call incest in the earliest stages of human civilization. The Levitical law against incestuous relationships was given by God thousands of years after Cain at the time of Moses. Thus, familial relationships were preserved and birth defects were prevented (Leviticus 18:6, 9).
Finally, the speculation that God may have created a wife for Cain as He had for Adam is completely ad hoc. The consistent teaching of Scripture is that “from one man [God] made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him; though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26–27).
Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch.
Genesis 4:17 NKJV
For further study, see Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982).
***Note the preceding text is adapted from The Complete Bible Answer Book: Collector’s Edition: Revised and Expanded (2024). To receive for your partnering gift please click here. ***