Atheists, Christians, Anybody...can someone explain to be how Cain and his wife started all this?

Question

Adam and Eve had Cain and Able. Able is dead and Cain took a wife. Assuming it was his sister...what happened next?

They had children so the next generation were siblings to each other.
as they fruitfully multiplied, they had to mate with each other, right? Another generation of brother and sister that were husband and wife.

Then they had children that were siblings and had children with each other. When and where did the sibling mating system stop?

Cain had no living brother, therefore there were no cousins.
I could even see if cousins mated and this was the explanation of how the world got plentified, as this would dilute the gene pool over time.

As it stands in the OT, it seems that every generation was a product of brother ans sister.
Why doesn't the Bible speak of this?

It seems that God would have had to create life in more that 1 spot.

What do you think about this?

Thx.

Answer 1

Cain did have other siblings. After Abel's death, Cain's brother, Seth was born. And more.

Genesis 5:4 = "After Adam became the father of Seth, he lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters."



Sibling inbreeding stopped after the Exodus from Egypt.

Leviticus 18:9 = "‘Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere."

Actually, the whole chapter is a list of family relatives to not have sexual relations with.



Was Cain's wife a sibling? I've never been clear on that. It could work either way. The Bible does not specify that Cain was tabooed, left for Nod & married later that afternoon. It only specifies the sequence of events & for all we know, there could have been a 100 year gap in the sequence. (They did live for hundreds of years back then.) Or she could have been from a different blood line. This is what I have thought, but have no written evidence on the matter. It's only my own theory that the Bible is not about the entire world history but just the history of the Israelite "world." Either way, it makes no significant faith change for me.

Answer 2

According to the story, Cain took his wife in the Land of Nod. This is a totally separate place than the Garden of Eden. And, the Bible never explains it, either. The truth of the matter is that much of Genesis was plagiarized from earlier religions and the story of the people of the Land of Nod is also from another religion - they just left out the details when they included mention of it in the Bible.



When I have challenged Christians about this, they have typically responded that either Adam and Eve parented the Land of Nod over their extremely long lifespans, or that God created other people besides Adam and Eve and the Bible just doesn't talk about the other people God created. Of course, they cannot ever come to agreement about it even among themselves; because, the Bible just doesn't say anything about it.

Answer 3

Just another plot hole in a creation myth, thought up before anyone understood genetics.



I can almost guarantee that some fundie will excuse it by saying that before the Fall, there was no incest because people were perfect or some crap like that.

Answer 4

Charles Darwin married his cousin Emma Wedgwood.



Charles' grandfather Josiah Wedgwood set up home with his third cousin Sarah Wedgwood.



Their daughter, Susannah, chose Robert Darwin, Charles's father. Charles's uncle - Emma's father - had nine offspring, four of whom married cousins.

Answer 5

Even in evolution, incest is rampant. Look up the numbers of people from which all Native Americans are derived, for example. And they aren't alone.



Incest is "gross" to us, but it happens, whether you're religious or not.

Answer 6

Incest was necessary at first till we grew so far apart from having the family bred out of us over the years that it was no longer incest. Sorry that was kinda horribly worded, it's late and I'm tired but you know what I mean.

Answer 7

Cain never lived.

Answer 8

If I told you the bible is a load of crap,would it all make sense?