Where DID Cain get his wife?

So not to long after Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden they have that long awaited and dreamt about sexual contact…it must have been driving Adam crazy seeing Eve all naked while they were in God’s good graces and keeping the gardening up and all. I wonder how long they were both running around naked? The Book of Jubilees (late 2^nd. Century BCE) says Adam and Eve were kicked out about 8 years after being created. (Jubilees 3:33)

Anyway, after they were kicked out, they had the worlds first human sex and not long after Eve delivered a baby boy …Cain. Then she got pregnant again and had Abel. Now the Bible doesn’t say how long after the great ‘Kick Out’ she gave birth, but it seems like it was shortly after their expulsion.

Now, some time later…again Bible doesn’t say, but it was probably after Abel was at least 16-18 years old, after all he was the chief sheep-herder for the only 4 inhabitants of the earth.

So at some point when Able was young, after all God was visiting them for the first time, Cain got insanely mad at Abel, because he was smarter than Cain, and he killed his younger brother. We all kinda know what happened next. God confronted Cain and Cain asks God if he was his brother’s keeper…and so on. So Cain was kicked out of the clan of Adam and Eve the gardeners.

He leaves Eden (after packing up his other suit and toiletries), and lo and behold, he marries his wife.

Now we have all probably thought of this discrepancy at some point, and there is a whole line of apocryphal texts that have attempted to solve this problem by writing new Scripture, and claiming that he had sisters that were not mentioned at the time. Some have gone so far as to come up with the sisters names. Trouble with these documents is they seem to have all been written looong after the Pentateuch was written or transcribed or redacted (700 to 400BCE). So one should maybe not put to much stock in them.

Three people left on earth; Adam, Eve, and Cain. The official Protestant and Catholic Churches and the many sects, that seems to keep growing in number all the time, deny that the Apocrypha is true. Cain takes a wife.

After Cain and Able; Adam and Eve, the progenitors of the whole human race have no more children until Adam (and I assume Eve) is 130. Then they (Adam and Eve) have Seth. Then they have more sons, and finally…daughters.

While Adam and Eve are waiting until they are 130 years old to have more children…Cain takes a wife, and builds a city.

So to recap; Adam and Eve have Cain and Abel right after leaving Eden, where they had spent 8 years. Cain kills Abel. Only 3 people left on Earth. No more children for about a hundred or so years, but Cain takes a wife and builds a city.

Do you suppose Eve visited her grandchildren before Seth was born? Maybe skinned a few rabbits to provide clothing for the little ones?

Something is missing here. If you are purporting to write the history of the human race, as given to you by divine revelation from God, you really need to have your stories make more sense.

We know that the people of the time were very intelligent, after all the Egyptians had already built a civilization and were contemplating building the Pyramids :-), and the people of Babylonia were building cities (and Plains Indians of the Southwestern US were chasing and killing Mammoths).

You would think the scribes could put together a more believable and internally consistent story. Or, God would know his people were not dummies and tell them the true story.

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Thoughts on Creationist Theology

If you dig deep enough in Creationist or Young Earth Creation (YEC) theology, there are very large discrepancies and large leaps of “faith” :-} are required for acceptance. I have recently been looking into their world-view, and I find it both fascinating and mind-boggling. They are quietly wedging their way into secular institutes and using razzle-dazzle and quasi-scientific language to fool lots of people. They keep trying to intrude into science classes in public schools and generally making nuisances of themselves.

Below are just some random things. I haven’t tied them together much; just some notes I am keeping and trying to absorb and eventually string together in a sensible manner.

Early Bronze Age (c. 3500-2000 BC)
Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000-1600 BC)
Late Bronze Age (c. 1600-1100 BC)

Early Iron Age (c. 1200-900 BC)

The Noachian Flood that happened somewhere around 2400 to 2300 BCE, demonstrated no affect on the line of metal workers descended from Cain. Lamech, sixth in line from Cain, fathered Jubal and Jabal by his first wife Adah. Jubal was the originator of string and wind music. Jabal was described as the father of “Bronze and Iron” metalworking–although there was No Iron working in his day. They must have been living in Anatolia at the time; as that is where the first evidence of metalworking comes from. Lamech fathered Tubal-Cain by his second wife Zillah. Tubal-Cain is the man held responsible for making/living in tents, and animal husbandry. Lamech, by the way, was the Bible’s first Polygamist.

Side bar: Were Adam and Eve living in caves after their eviction from Eden? I’ve heard rumors of the “Cave of Treasures.”

The complete line of the progeny of Cain was wiped-out in the flood, no survivors.

Now after the flood, Noah and his wife, and his three sons and their wife’s dispersed to the four corners of the world and begat humankind all over again. So what we have at, let’s say 2300 BCE, are 8 people traveling to China, Europe, Asia, Africa, Egypt-(yeah, I know :-}), Australia, South America, Central America, and North America.

None of these people that were doing the dispersing and begating were schooled in the metal working skills (Which is a VERY highly skilled activity), however Noah knew how to make wine, so maybe he went to France.

If you happen to be a Young Earth Creationist (This would include most evangelical sects, Institute for Creation Research (ICR), the “answersingenesis” people, Discovery Institute, etc., you have to work in an ice age sometime after the Flood and before Abram (Abraham) c. 2020 BCE. Personally I don’t think it can be done, and neither does anyone else in the real world, and there is NO physical evidence for such a thing. Beware though; these groups just mentioned above are telling The “BIG LIE.” They are taking a page from Hitler that goes like this: If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.

I’m wondering how the YEC’s are taking the research that is showing ALL of humanity comes out of Africa; will they just ignore it?

I know there are some who pick and choose what they will believe. Some are thinking that the first six days of creation were “ages” or “eons” and after Adam was created, 24-hour days.

Huummm…