Quick question

[itsnotoutthere]

One question (well there are lots actually,but) that always puzzled me with regard to the Bible.

Am i correct in thinking that Cane & Able were the sons of Adam & eve?

Please can someone explain where there wives came from.

[Grandpa Greenman]

Pagans

[Saint Macabre]

yes they were the sons of Adam and Eve, I got this info through about.com:

Ask Rabbi Simmons

Cain and Abel's Wives

Question

There is Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. In Genesis 4:17, it says that Cain lay with his wife. Where did Cain's wife come from?

Answer

The Talmud tells us that Cain and Able were both born with twin sisters, who married the other brother. The source is Rasgi - Genesis 4:1.

With blessings from Jerusalem,

Rabbi Shraga Simmons

[Bella-Angelique]

A place called Nod, east of Eden, seems to be where other people were that they knew of according to the story.

[itsnotoutthere]

So i'm right to think that we are all committing incest bluuuurggg, keep it in the family huh!

[rassy]

That's a very good question and a tough one to answer! I'm not claiming my answer is right, but from what I have learned and researched. Way back in the day, when the bible was written, women weren't mentioned alot unless they were important figures. Adam and Eve had lots of kids and we wouldn't have heard of most of the girls being born. People also lived to be abt 900 years old back then, so just imagine how many kids they could have in their lifetime! Anyhow, in essence, most likely brothers would have had to marry sisters or cousins or whatnot, to get the population going. One was also allowed to have multiple wives back then as well. (Talk about keeping it in the family!) Cain and Abel were mentioned most significantly in the bible because of the first murder, showing us how sin was spreading and that it indeed affects all of us. So I suppose initially that their wives were some sort of family members.

The fact that Nod is mentioned is quite interesting! Makes you wonder where THOSE people came from! Anyhow, if people lived almost a millenium back then, and alot of procreation was done, then I can see how other towns/family clans grew quickly. No one knows how old Cain and Abel were when they are mentioned in the bible.

Anyhow, that's my answer and I do not claim it to be correct. It's all conjecture, really. I suppose it all comes down to what you choose to believe.

[+Paranoid Android]

There's no guarantee that just because Cain and Abel were the only ones mentioned that this means they were the only two born. If you read the account, when Cain is banished, he's afraid because he will be despised wherever he goes and the people would try to kill him. Who are these people, if not for other people?

The account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (contrary to popular belief) is not in fact a story of the first two humans on Earth. God had created humans already on the sixth day of creation. All creation had been made, and then the Bible focuses in on this one special area - Eden, where God creates Adam and Eve.

That said, as I've noted in previous posts on this subject, the language of Genesis 1-11 is highly poetic, and it indicates (to me, at least) that the early chapters of this book of the Bible are not literal but figurative accounts

[Bella-Angelique]

If you read the account, when Cain is banished, he's afraid because he will be despised wherever he goes and the people would try to kill him. Who are these people, if not for other people?

Also in the bible in Genesis male and female are both called Adam, indicating a race more than a particular person. Folowing that line, they were the first of that human race and not the first humans, or if the first humans not nessesarily the only race created. Names are given to individuals to differentiate and to groups of people for the same reason.

[jagerthorn]

Well, I'm on a quick time schedule here but I'm glad I read this thread...

Adam and Eve, in the first place - were only symbols. Two represenatives for the human race. Adam represents man, and Eve represents woman. Cain and Abel were only a part of the story, in which Genesis tells us all lays out into a biblical version of evolution. Before Eve bit the apple, she was primitive and a late species of human (possibly Homo Erectus, or Homo Neanderthalisis), and when she bit the apple, she evolved into human instead of ape, and saw right and wrong (which is a trait only humans have). She clothed herself because she saw she was naked. Thus, she went from ape to human - all a theory for Evolution, in our great world called Eden.

Oh, and I almost forgot. About Cain and Abel's wives - another form of the theory I pointed out. Adam and Eve weren't the only humans there - they were the concept of man. Therefore, there were plenty of other Homo Sapiens out there for Cain and Abel to marry and mate with.

Edited October 10, 2006 by TheThirdAngel

[Preacherbill]

One question (well there are lots actually,but) that always puzzled me with regard to the Bible.

Am i correct in thinking that Cane & Able were the sons of Adam & eve?

Please can someone explain where there wives came from.

I think it is important to remember that this is more a story about morality dealing with murder than a sugestion that people practice incest. However people have been wrestling with this question probably since the story was first told.