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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He also created the moon and the stars—all living things-including man. Man was alone and needed companionship, so God created woman. He called the man Adam, and the man called woman Eve. These creations lived upon the face of the earth and walked with God in the quiet of the day. The man, Adam, knew his wife, Eve, and Eve conceived and gave birth to twins, Cain and Abel. Cain took his brother's life, went off to a far land, and took a wife. Many believe in the creation story, yet, many are puzzled by the creation story. If, in the beginning, God created two people and these two people had two children, where did Cain's wife come from?
Either our present interpretation of the Bible-specifically the book of Genesis-is incomplete as to the creation story, or the translations over the years from the original Hebrew were incorrect. We find throughout our studies of ancient literature that translations often misconstrue the original intent to an extent. For years scientists, theologians, archaeologists and philosophers have proved-disproved-stalemated on the validity of the divine inspiration of certain books of the Bible. We accept the Bible as the divine word of God embracing many of the ideas into everyday life and researching the old manuscripts yet many of them written the same time as the books accepted in the Holy Bible are omitted.
To begin with, the book of Genesis has three creation stories. The first one is in chapter one and the second in chapter two and the third in chapter five. Genesis chapter one creates the earth and all other elements first and then God creates man. In Genesis chapter two God creates man first and then the other elements. Genesis chapter five speaks mainly of the creation of man.
The language of Genesis chapter five, if looked at grammatically, can give the impression that when God created man he created more then one man. Verse two of chapter five says, "Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day they were created." If God created, more than one man and woman then the explanation of Cain finding a wife would be no problem-but the Bible is unclear to the actual number of people created. Common explanation and teaching tell us that God created one male (Adam) and one female (Eve) and until Cain and Abel were born there were no other living humans on the face of the earth.
Realizing from earlier research on other Biblical topics that a great number of manuscripts at one point held the authority of inspired words of God, and then over the years deleted from the present day Bible, this look at Cain will come from the Interpreter's Bible, an exhaustive twelve-volume commentary on biblical history. According to The Interpreter's Bible, many writings received additions, changes, or totally omitted because they were not considered inspired by the "patriarchs," or simply objectionable to the scribe. One such writing is the Book of Jubilees. The author of this book gives a considerable amount of information pertaining to history and genealogy that is missing in Genesis.
The, Eschatology of the Book of Jubilees, presents additional elements of attention established within the Book of Jubilees like "an extensive use of non-canonical traditions . . . an elaborate calendrical system, . . . a land division tradition, . . . and at least two traditions about the heavenly tablets." The author also calls the Book of Jubilees "an angelic discourse.”
According to the Book of Jubilees Adam and Eve gave birth to nine sons and daughters also. Jubilees goes on to say that Cain married his sister Awam and Seth married his sister Azura. One can understand how the Book of Jubilees is objectionable in the eyes of man today, but not in the beginning of creation. At beginning of creation, there would not have been an incestuous idea. In addition, God told man and woman to be fruitful and multiply. So, if Adam and Eve were the only humans, the earth could not be replenished if they did not conceive and allow their children to mate and conceive with each other. This possibility of Cain's wife being his sister would be acceptable in today's Bible with an explanation that at the time of Cain and Able marriage within family was not a sin. This then would explain where Cain got a wife.
Therefore, if when Cain went to the land of Nod, his sister possibly being in love with him may have left with him. The land of Nod does not exist geographically; so, the name Nod could be compelled to be interpreted symbolizing a time of sleepiness, unconsciousness or conceivably an interval of wandering. Going on the hypothesis of a time of wandering this would rationalize why no account of a land called Nod is found. If, when, banished by God, Cain departed with his sister Awam and at some time knew her as his wife and she conceived a child-this possibly could be an acceptable answer.
Speculation at this time is all this author can give in answer to the primary question—where did Cain's wife come from. Realizing that many documents are not considered as inspired words of God, although, written at or about the same time as the book of Genesis leaves one to conclude that further research is necessary. We can embrace this principle as an explanation to the question, yet, still feel involved with the question. Since, the Book of Jubilees and other manuscripts dating back to the days of Moses are in existence in partial form and some in extant form more research is necessary before a conclusion of any application is considered. Therefore, based on the study at hand, Cain’s wife was most likely his sister Awam.
Resources:
Davenport, Gene L. The Eschatology of the Book of Jubilees.
Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1971.
Interpreter's Bible, the. 12 vols. Nashville: Abingdon, 1982.
New Analytical Bible, the. Iowa Falls, Iowa: World, 1973.
New Jerome Biblical Commentary, the. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice, 1990.
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