Who did Cain and Abel marry?

Q. Who were the wives of Cain and Abel?  Where did they come from? Was Cain's wife his SISTER?

(Submitted by: Robin)

A. The question of who was Cain's wife has been bandied about for centuries, but I go with your assessment that Cain's wife was his sister. You referred to Abel's wife, but I wonder if you meant Seth. We have no biblical record of Abel having taken a wife, or of having children, but Seth would have taken his wife as Cain did.

Mankind was, at first, only two people, Adam and Eve. They had three children whose names we know: Cain, Abel, and Seth. But in Genesis 5:4 we read,

"And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters. "

We're not told how many children Adam and Eve had altogether, but they certainly had plenty of time to raise a very large family.

Adam and Eve were created perfect in every way. Their children would also, no doubt, be born physically and genetically perfect. Therefore, Cain's wife could be one of his sisters with no problems. Likewise, many of Adam and Eve's children would have inter-married with no problems.

"None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness. " (Leviticus 18:6).

God does not condone near-relative marriages. Had God's command to Israel been given to Adam and Eve, and they and their children all obeyed it, mankind would have quickly died out. God, therefore, had to temporarily allow intra-family marriages to increase his earthly family.

By the time of the flood severe genetic weaknesses had likely set in, making close-kin marriages impractical, so after the flood God reduced the life span of mankind to seventy years. This would prevent another population explosion of the pre-flood magnitude. (Mathematicians have calculated a billion people may have died in the flood.)

One might wonder why genetic weaknesses set in. It's obvious Cain didn't care about God's law, else he would not have murdered his brother (Genesis 4:8; Exodus 20:13). If he disobeyed God in this matter, he likely disobeyed God in matters of diet (Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14), and ate whatever pleased him.

Certain animals simply are not fit for human food, and because of the nature of their flesh slowly, but certainly, break down the human system bringing on illness. Ingestion of the genetic code of such animals would obviously cause mutation of genes in the human body.

So, Robin, it would have been easy to simply say Cain's wife was his sister, but it helps to know why God allowed intra-family marriages before the flood, yet outlawed them after.