This seems to be the favorite question of unbelievers who doubt the absolute veracity of God’s Word.
27
Sep
2026
Cain
25
Sep
2026
Genesis 4:17 – Cain & Cain’s Wife
Gen 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. 2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. 16 And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
24
Sep
2026
Genesis 4:17 – Where did Cain get his wife?
If there were only two people on Earth: Adam and Eve, then for the human race to “fill the Earth” at one point there must have been a brother and sister who would marry. This is not a perverse establishment by God since in that time there would have been no laws and problems with brother and sister marrying. This eventually changed certainly, but in the beginning there was nothing morally incorrect with that just like in the time of Abraham there was nothing wrong with his marrying his half-sister (Genesis 20:12), which marriage God blessed (Genesis 17:16), but later those kinds of marriages were restricted in the Law of Moses (Lev. 20:19).
21
Sep
2026
Genesis 4:16 – The Land Of Nod
After Cain killed Abel and was declared a “fugitive and vagabond” by God (Genesis 4:12), the Bible says that he “went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod” (4:16). It was in this land that “Cain knew his wife” (4:17), and it was here that his son, Enoch, was born.
17
Sep
2026
Genesis 4:12-13 – Was Cain a wanderer or did he build/live in a city?
According to verse 17, Cain had a wife, a son, and even began building a city. But this is not a contradiction.
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15
Sep
2026
Genesis 4:11-17 – Was Cain a “Wanderer” or a “Settler”?
After Cain killed his brother Abel, the Lord punished the first recorded murderer saying, “So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth” (Genesis 4:11-12, emp. added). Critics have accused God of error in His sentencing of Cain. According to Dennis McKinsey, Genesis 4:12 represents “one of the earliest false prophecies” in the Bible. “Instead of becoming a vagabond as was forecast, Cain took a wife, built a city, established a line of descendants and seems to have led a settled life” (McKinsey, 1995, p. 298). Skeptic Steve Wells contends Genesis 4:16-17 indicates that “Cain will settle down,” but “[t]his is not the activity one would expect from a fugitive and a vagabond” (2014, emp. added). So which is it? Did Cain become a wanderer or a settler?
12
Sep
2026
Genesis 4:2-4 Cain And Abel Offerings
2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. 4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
08
Sep
2026
Genesis 4:2-3 – Was Cain A Wanderer Or Did He Build/Live In A City?
According to verse 17, Cain had a wife, a son, and even began building a city. But this is not a contradiction. The land of Nod in verse 16, means land of wandering. Clearly then, the author did not forget that Cain was to be a vagabond and wanderer who was apparently not precluded from having a family and building a city, and the context may have been a wanderer for most of his life, having built the city only a long time later, or that his city was in a far away land, and was secluded and Cain (and his family) was a wanderer in the sense that he had to go away from everyone (and he certainly would have wandered before building the city). Whatever is the case, the text doesn’t necessitate an error, and it’s unlikely the author would have forgotten that Cain was to be a wanderer the very next verse after mentioning his having gone to the Land of Wandering (Nod), so in his contextual view (it’s unlikely verse 17 was written by a different, later author, since it serves no purpose, and he would have changed the preceding verses that say Cain was a wanderer), apparently for the author’s language and culture and what he meant by the text, building a city and having a family was not in conflict with the status of a vagabond and wanderer.
07
Sep
2026
Genesis 4:1 – Was Cain or Seth Adam’s Firstborn Son?
Even the most casual of Bible students are aware of the fact that the first son of Adam and Eve mentioned in the Bible is Cain. After noting that God banished the first couple from the garden of Eden following their sin, Genesis 4:1 indicates, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the Lord.’” The births of Abel and Seth are also mentioned in Genesis 4 (though the amount of time that lapses is unknown). One thing that Genesis 4 clearly teaches: Seth was born sometime after Cain and Abel. After Seth’s birth, Adam stated: “God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed” (4:25). Clearly, Cain had already murdered Abel by the time Seth was born.