Cain and Able and Cain's wife

Cain and his wife. Where did she come from? It’s a common question for folks as they read the beginning of Genesis.

Genesis 4: Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have produced　a man with the help of the LORD." 2　Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. 3　In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4　and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, 5　but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6　The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7　If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it."
8　Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let us go out to the field" b And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. 9　Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?" 10　And the LORD said, "What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! 11　And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12　When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth." 13　Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is greater than I can bear! 14　Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me." 15　Then the LORD said to him, "Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance." And the LORD put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. 16　Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
17　Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch; and he built a city, and named it Enoch after his son Enoch. (Genesis 4. 1-17 NRSV)

The Old Testament is hard to understand because many parts such as the first several chapters of Genesis were written by different authors with different agendas at different times decades apart.. An easy example would be four different authors writing about George Washington. One would write a book about his military history. Another would write about his political work. The third would write about his farming, and a forth would write about his youth. One hundred years later a committee would take all four books, tear out the pages, and put them together making adjustments and compromises to get their favorite parts into one book. Confusing huh? That’s basically how the history in the Old Testament was compiled.

The Jewish peoples in ancient times suffered at the hands of evil kings and foreign nations. Much of the history was an explanation of why bad things happened to them as God’s people. The history explained what they felt they did wrong and why God punished them. They felt God was vengeful, jealous, and angry. At the same time they believed God was a merciful God that wanted to rescue them.

Another important part to the puzzle that asks where Cain’s wife came from is that we cannot read the Old Testament from the ancient Hebrew and for those that can it is difficult to translate. Ancient Hebrew writing had no vowels, punctuation, or spaces.

Readers today do not understand that Adam means man, or humankind. When the scripture says God created man, it means humankind, all people. The creation story in chapter 1 and the second creation story in chapter 2 of Genesis are not historical fact but just as suggested, creation stories. When it says God created Adam from the ground there is a clever word play there. God created humans from the humus. As we read the creation stories if we take them literally we are unable to understand God was creating a bunch of humans so when Cain went into the world there were a lot of women to choose from and he found one and had a baby with her. Very simple huh?

Why did God reject Cain’s offering in verse 3? Cane brought an offering of fruit of the land but not the best fruit. Able brought the very best, the fat of his livestock. This lesson tells us that when we give back to God we are to give God our very best rather than half- hearted efforts. When Cain killed Able he was jealous and so perhaps this was the first religious war. Short and on a small scale perhaps. But a religious war nonetheless.

Cain went out and was the father of the nations that were a thorn in the side of the righteous nations. So all the trouble up to the time of Noah stemmed from Cain not giving the very best of his crop to the Lord. We will read in the next blog how God took care of the problem temporarily by wiping every thing out with a flood.

What was the mark of Cain? Since the story is historical fiction and symbolic the mark of Cain is symbolic. It means God’s grace extends to everyone. Even one who kills his brother. No matter what we have done we are not beyond grace and redemption.