Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. The ancient rabbis teach that Adam and Eve had upwards of 25 sets of twins, so there would certainly be no need for incestual unions to continue after the first generation of their offspring.Įditor's Note: To submit a faith question to Catholic Exchange, email Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange becomes the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. However, because Adam and Eve were created directly by God, this was not a major concern for children procreated through the intermarriage of their first-generation sons and daughters the gene pool had not been impaired as it would be in successive generations. These diseases and defects are more likely to be passed on via procreation within incestual unions. 1091.2).Īs a result of original sin, disease and other defects began to plague man, culminating in death. Because of these concerns, there developed proscriptions against incest in both the Bible and modern Church Canon Law (cf. Beyond the first generation, there arise concerns regarding incestual birth defects and also inbreeding that will impair, not foster, family ties and the covenantal expansion of the family of God. taffy927x2 and 2 more users found this answer helpful. So when Cain was sent away, he took one of his sisters and had children with her. They had other sons and daughters as well. They had no choice of spouse except their siblings. Explanation: Adam and Eve had more than Cain and Abel. That is to assume that Adam and Eve had a great number of children and that Cain married one of them. and Eve (Genesis 4:1), Cain and his brother Abel (Genesis 4:8) then how could Cain have had a wife The Bible mentions in Genesis 5:4 that Adam and Eve had. I have only seen only one reasonable explanation which does not require bending the biblical text. The typical response is, “How could God sanction incest, even if only for a limited time?” The short answer is that, unlike fornication and adultery, there is nothing morally wrong with intermarriage within the first generation of offspring for Adam and Eve. Where did Cain’s wife come from in Genesis 4 This is a fairly common question. 5:19-20 and Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. Many Questions There are many difficulties that arise with this statement since Genesis only records two children of Adam and Eve to this point-Cain and Abel. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son - Enoch (Genesis 4:17). And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and born Enoch. Paul says, “in came into the world through one man” (Rom. The Bible says that after he killed his brother Abel, Cain married a wife. Original sin is passed on to all human beings from our first parents, Adam and Eve. This is also logically inferred from the Church’s doctrine on original sin. The testimony of the ancient rabbis is that Cain and Abel married their sisters.