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Genesis 4 · a question people ask

Where did Cain's wife come from? And who was he afraid of?

Interpretation

The text doesn't say who she was. It mentions her only in verse 17. Cain fears "whoever finds me" (verse 14), and he builds a city (verse 17). Protestants answer in different ways.

How Christians read it

Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.

A sister or other relative

Adam "became the father of other sons and daughters" (5:4). Cain married one of them or a later relative; the family grew quickly, and marriage between close relatives was only forbidden later, in the law.

Genesis 5:4 · Leviticus 18:9

Other people already existed

Some Protestants read Adam and Eve as real people chosen from among a wider human population. On this view, the people Cain feared and his wife came from outside the family Genesis follows.

Genesis 4:14 · Genesis 4:16-17

The verses

“Behold, you have driven me out today from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me.””
Genesis 4:14 · World English Bible
“Cain knew his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Enoch. He built a city, and named the city after the name of his son, Enoch.”
Genesis 4:17 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Genesis 4

Genesis 4: My brother's keeper

The word "sin" first appears in the Bible as a warning: it crouches at the door, and you are to rule over it. Cain doesn't, and the chapter follows the damage, until, after Seth's son is born, people begin to call on the LORD's name. Abel, who never speaks in Genesis, is still speaking in Hebrews.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions