Question: Where did Cain get his wife? (Genesis 4:17) 1. There two possibilities: a. That he married a sister. Gen. 5:4: Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters. b. That he married the offspring of one of his brothers or sisters. 1) v. 14 seems to indicate that by the time Cain killed Able that other offspring had been born. (If not, then he was just concerned about the time when others would be born on down the road.) 2. One option is sometimes proposed that is not possible: that God created other people besides Adam and Eve, and thus that Cain married a woman who was not of Adam and Eve's family. a. The Bible makes it plain that Eve was the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20). b. Adam is referred to as the "first man." (1 Cor. 15:45). "If Adam was the first man, and Eve was the mother of all, then it is clear that there were "other peoples" for Cain to marry. The population of the Earth came directly through the lineage of Adam and Eve" (Apol.Press.IV.12). Cf. Acts 17:26: "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation." 3. Some object that this would be incestuous. a. Of necessity, when the earth began to be populated, close- kin marriages were required. A quick glance at Gen. 4-6 shows that the people multiplied quickly. So the time was realized very soon that marriages of close kin were not necessary. b. Secondly, "no harmful genetic traits had emerged at this point which could have been expressed in the children of closely related partners. However, after many generations, and especially after the Flood, solar and cosmic radiation, chemical and viral mutagens and replication errors, led to the multiplication of genetic disorders." (ibid) c. By the time of the law of Moses, Marriages of close kin were forbidden (Lev. 18).