Cain’s Wife—The Super Obvious Answer!

Cain’s Wife—The Super Obvious Answer!

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, May 5, 2025 (Donate)

In the world-famous Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, the non-Christian lawyer (Clarence Darrow) posed the question “where did Cain get his wife?” to a Christian lawyer who had taken the stand (William Jennings Bryan) to defend Christianity.

Bryan, was stumped by the question and had no answer.[1] With the world tuning into this famous trial, it sent shockwaves throughout America and the world. For years now, this same question is posed to Christians constantly and many Christians still falter trying to give an answer.

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Is it a hard question to answer? Not really—when you stand on the authority of God’s Word.

Cain’s wife was one of his sisters or possibly a close female relative, such as a niece—still a descendant of Adam and Eve. Regardless, brothers and sisters originally had to marry. All humans descend from the original couple, Adam and Eve—not some mythological alleged first wife (e.g., the Lilith myth) or some arbitrary alleged space alien or a uniquely different human race.

Early human history involved close-relative marriages, which were necessary and not morally wrong at that time—and is the obvious and logical answer.

1. Biblical Foundation

According to Genesis 4, after Cain killed Abel, he was marked and sent away. God says in verse 17, “Cain knew his wife, and she conceived.” However, the Bible does not mention where she came from. Genesis 5:4 clarifies that Adam “had other sons and daughters.” According to Josephus about 2,000 years, the Jewish legend was that Adam and Eve had 33 sons and 23 daughters.[2] Furthermore, when Cain sinned and murdered his brother, he was fearful of those who might take retaliation against him (Genesis 4:14). This is why a mark was put on him in the first place.

But this further shows that Adam and Eve had other children and there were plenty of descendants already accumulating. So, Cain had many siblings—both brothers and sisters—though most are unnamed in Scripture. He likely had many nieces and nephews by this time as well.

2. Be Fruitful And Multiply

Adam and Eve lived for centuries (Adam lived 930 years), and they had many children over that time. With such long lifespans and many offspring, the population could have grown quickly—though we can’t be certain. Nevertheless, there were plenty of descendants around for Cain to have married.

Cain goes to the land of Nod and builds a city. Some thought that there were other people in the land of Nod and Cain took a wife from those people—but this is a mistake. Nod means “land of wandering”. Thus, it was an unpopulated area. And a close analysis of the text shows no hints that Cain found a wife there but that she was already with him. 

Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son — Enoch. (Genesis 4:16-17, NKJV)

3. Minimal Genetic Problems

Bear in mind that marrying close relatives was not a problem early in history because the human gene pool was still relatively pure. Genetic mutations that cause problems in close-relative marriages today had not accumulated yet. Thus, it was both biologically safe and necessary at that point for siblings to marry to fulfill God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply.” God had not forbidden it yet—that did not occur until the time of Moses.

Prior to Moses, Abraham married his half-sister Sarah (Genesis 20:12). Moses’ father married his aunt Jochebed (Exodus 6:20; Numbers 26:59).

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4. Moral And Legal

The ban on marrying close relatives came with (Leviticus 18) as passed down through Moses. God gave this law in part because it became necessary due to the buildup of harmful mutations. Before that time, it was not considered immoral because there was no divine command against it. Our modern understanding of genetics helps us understand a subtlety of this law.

This is why modern legal systems all over the world rarely allow close intermarriage. They are influenced by biblical law.

5. Challenging Skepticism

One should reject claims that Cain’s wife was from another alleged race of people or a separate “human” group. We should also affirm that all people are descended from Adam and Eve, based on Genesis and New Testament passages like Acts 17:26 ("From one man he made all nations").

Adam is the first man (1 Corinthians 15:45-47) and Eve is the mother of all the living (Genesis 3:20). The faulty myth of Lilith being Adam’s first wife is simply that—a myth. There were no space alien races that had daughters that married Cain and Cain did not marry any human-animal hybrid or any human-angel hybrid (again another myth). 

6. The Hebrew

The Hebrew word for wife use for Cain’s “wife” is also very revealing. It is the Hebrew word for woman, that we translate as “wife”.

And Cain knew his wife (אִשָּׁה‎ ‘ishshah), and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son — Enoch. (Genesis 4:17, NKJV)

It is in biblical Hebrew, “ishshah”. This name for woman was given when Adam first met his woman who was directly created from his bone and flesh (a task all too easy for God!). Adam said:

And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman (ishshah), Because she was taken out of Man (ish/iysh).” (Genesis 2:23, NKJV)

Woman literally means that she was taken out of “man” or comes from “man”, who is Adam! This shows that a Hebrew speaker should automatically have recognized that Cain’s “wife” or “woman/ishshah” is a descendant of Adam/man by the very name she is called.

7. Island Isolates

Close marriages are often seen in isolates. This is when remote tribes had inhabited an area void of others or get trapped on an isolated island. The descendants are all related and close intermarriage occurred with these initial seed populations. Thus, from an anthropological perspective, close marriage is the obvious answer in small isolated groups mimicking the initial couple and their early descendants after Creation.

Sometimes, of course, it does cause genetic detriments. Starting with a pure line—as in the case of Adam and Eve—it takes longer to accumulate, unlike more modern isolate examples which can take precious few generations of inbreeding.

By the time of Moses, which is well after the population bottlenecks at the Flood and Babel, close intermarriage may have been a strong and growing genetic issue. After all, the ages of those in Moses’ day, was far less than the patriarchs just before him and those preceding the Flood. So, clearly there were genetic defects that were beginning to reign—which is expected in a sin-cursed and broken world since Genesis 3.

Conclusion

Marrying close relatives was not a problem originally and this was entirely encouraged. It was necessary for human multiplication—which was God’s command. It was not genetically dangerous at the time, and not considered morally wrong until God’s later commands. Thus, incest became a sin because God deemed it so for the times since Moses with the giving of the Law.

In short, the simple and obvious answer is that Cain married a sister—it’s possible it was a niece, but either way he a married a descendant of Adam and Eve and the human race is still purely the human race—which means we are all sinners sin need of a Savior.

 

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[1] The World’s Most Famous Court Trial, Word-for-word report form 1925, Second Reprint Edition, 1990, Bryan College, Dayton, Tennessee, p. 302.

[2] Flavius Josephus, The Antiquity of the Jews, “Concerning the Posterity of Adam, and the Ten Generations From Him to the Deluge”, Translated by William Wiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo, John E. Beardsley, 1895.

Are Mutations The Engine Of Evolution

 Are Mutations The Engine Of Evolution?

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, March 25, 2025 (Donate)

 In the evolutionary model, mutations are hailed as a dominant and primary mechanism for pond-scum-to-people evolution and provide alleged “proof” that the Bible’s history about creation is wrong. But are we to trust the ideas of imperfect, fallible men about how we came into existence, or should we believe the account of a perfect God who was an eyewitness to His creation?

Let’s look at mutations in more detail and see if they provide the information[1] necessary to support molecules-to-man evolution, or if they confirm God’s Word in Genesis and what is expected in a relatively young earth.

Darwin Statue

Mutations are primarily permanent changes in the DNA strand. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the information storage unit for all organisms, including humans as well as chimps and other animals, bacteria, extinct animals like dinosaurs, plants, and fungus.

In humans, the DNA consists of about 3 billion base pairs. The DNA is made of two strands and forms a double helix. In sexual reproduction, one set of chromosomes (large segments of DNA) comes from the mother and one set from the father. In asexual reproduction, the DNA is copied whole and then passed along when the organism splits.

The double helix is made up of four types of nitrogen bases called nucleotides. These types are guanine, cytosine, adenine and thymine. They are represented by the letters G, C, A and T. Each of these base pairs, or “letters,” is part of a code that stores information for hair color, height, eye shape, etc. The bases pair up as follows: adenine to thymine and guanine to cytosine.

Think of it like Morse code. Morse code is a system in which letters are represented by dashes and dots (if audible, then it is a long sound and short sound). When you combine different dots and dashes, you can spell out letters and words. Here is a copy of Morse code:

A • –	N – •	0 – – – – –
B – • • •	O – – –	1 • – – – –
C – • – •	P • – – •	2 • • – – –
D – • •	Q – – • –	3 • • • – –
E •	R • – •	4 • • • • –
F • • – •	S • • •	5 • • • • •
G – – •	T –	6 – • • • •
H • • • •	U • • –	7 – – • • •
I • •	V • • • –	8 – – – • •
J • – – –	W • – –	9 – – – – •
K – • –	X – • • –	Fullstop • – • – • –
L • – • •	Y – • – –	Comma – – • • – –
M – –	Z – – • •	Query • • – – • •

 

If someone wanted to call for help using Morse code, for instance, they would send the letters SOS (which is the international distress signal for help). Morse code for SOS is:

S is dot dot dot [• • •] or three short sounds.
O is dash dash dash [– – –] or three long sounds.
S is dot dot dot [• • •] or three short sounds.

Therefore, it would be [• • • – – – • • •] or three short sounds followed by three long sounds then followed by three short sounds again.

A mutation would be like changing a dot to a dash in Morse code. If we tried to spell SOS in Morse code, and changed the first dot to a dash, it would accidentally read:

[– • • – – – • • •]

Dash dot dot is the sequence for D, not S; so, it would now read:

D [– • •]
O [– – –]
S [• • •]

So, because of the mistake (mutation), we now read DOS, instead of SOS. If you sent this, no one would think you needed help. This mutation was significant because it did two things to your message:

1. The original word was lost.
2. The intent/meaning was lost.

The DNA strand is similar to, but much more complicated than, Morse code. It uses four letters (G, A, T, C) instead of dashes and dots to make words and phrases. And like Morse code, mutations can affect the DNA strand and cause problems for the organism. These DNA mistakes are called genetic mutations.

Theoretically, genetic mutations (that are not static or “nearly neutral”) can cause one of two things:

1. Loss of information¹
2. Gain of new information

Virtually all observed mutations are in the category of loss of information. This is different from loss or gain of function. Some mutations can cause an organism to lose genetic information and yet gain some type of function. This is rare but has happened.

These types of mutations are often called beneficial mutations. For example, if a beetle loses the information to make a wing on a windy island, the mutation is beneficial because the beetle doesn’t get blown out to sea and killed. Genetically, the mutation caused a loss of information but was helpful to the beetle. Thus, it was a beneficial mutation.

Besides mutations that cause information loss, in theory there could also be mutations that cause a gain of new information. There are only a few alleged and disputed cases of such mutations (although in the evolutionary story, there should be billions of these onward-and-upward mutations occurring regularly). Nevertheless, if a mutated DNA strand were built up with a group of base pairs that didn’t do anything, this strand wouldn’t be useful (i.e., a bunch of random DNA that doesn’t code for anything). Therefore, to be useful to an organism, a mutation that has a gain of new information must also cause a gain of new function or new ability.

Types Of Genetic Mutations

The DNA strand contains instructions on how to make proteins. Every three “letters” code for a specific amino acid, such as TGC, ATC, GAT, TAG and CTC. Many amino acids together compose a protein. For simplicity’s sake, to illustrate concepts with the DNA strand, we will use examples in English. Here is a segment illustrating DNA in three-letter words:

The car was red. The red car had one key.
The key has one eye and one tip.

Point Mutations

Point mutations are mutations where one letter changes on the DNA sequence. A point mutation in our example could cause “car” in the second sentence to be read “cat”:

The car was red. The red cat had one key.
The key has one eye and one tip.

With this point mutation, we lost the information for one word (car) as well as changed the meaning of the sentence. We did gain one word (cat), but we lost one word (car) and lost the meaning of one phrase. So, the overall result was a loss of information.

But many times, point mutations won’t produce another word. Take for instance another point mutation, which changes “car” not to “cat” but to “caa”:

The car was red. The red caa had one key.
The key has one eye and one tip.

With this point mutation, we lost the information for one word (car) as well as the meaning. We did not gain any new words, and we lost one word and lost the meaning of one phrase. So again, the overall result of this point mutation was a loss of information, but even more so this time.

Point mutations can be very devastating. There is a children’s disease called Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) or simply progeria. It is linked to a single point mutation in the LMNA gene. It is a mutation that causes children’s skin to age, their head to go bald at a very early age (pre-kindergarten), their bones to develop problems usually associated with the elderly and their body size to remain very short (about one-half to two-thirds of normal height). Their body parts, including organs, age rapidly, which usually causes death at the average age of 13 years.[2] 

Not all point mutations are as devastating, yet they still result in a loss of information. According to biophysicist Lee Spetner, “All point mutations that have been studied on the molecular level turn out to reduce the genetic information and not to increase it.”[3]

Inversion Mutations

An inversion mutation is a strand of DNA in a particular segment that reverses itself. An inversion mutation would be like taking the second sentence of our example and spelling it backwards:

The car was red. Yek eno dah rac der eht.
The key has one eye and one tip.

With inversion mutations, we can lose quite a bit of information quickly. We lost several words from, and the meaning of, the second sentence. These mutations can cause serious problems to the organism. The bleeding disorder hemophilia A is caused by an inversion in the Factor VIII (F8) gene.

Insertion Mutations

An insertion mutation is a segment of DNA, whether a single base pair or an extensive length, that is inserted into the DNA strand.

For this example, let’s copy a word from the second sentence and insert it into the third sentence:

The car was red. The red car had one key.
Had the key has one eye and one tip.

This insertion really didn’t help anything. In fact, the insertion is detrimental to the third sentence in that it makes the third sentence meaningless. So, this copied word in the third sentence destroyed the combined meanings of the eight words in the third sentence. Insertions generally result in a protein that loses function.[4]

Deletion Mutations

A deletion mutation is a segment of DNA, whether a single base pair or an extensive length, that is deleted from the strand. This will be an obvious loss.

In this instance, the second sentence will be deleted.

The car was red. The key has one eye and one tip.

The entire second sentence has been lost. Thus, we have lost its meaning as well as the words that were in the sentence. Some disorders from deletion mutations are facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) and spinal muscular atrophy.[5]

Frame Shift Mutations

There are two basic types of frame shift mutations: frame shift due to an insertion and frame shift due to a deletion. These mutations can be caused by an insertion or deletion of one or more letters not divisible by three, which causes an offset in the reading of the “letters” of the DNA.

If a mutation occurs where one or more letters are inserted, then the entire sentence can be off. If a t were inserted at the beginning of the second sentence, it would read like this:

The car was red. Tth ere dca rha don eke yth
eke yha son eey ean don eti p.

Four new words were produced (two of them twice): ere, don, eke, and son. These four words were not part of the original phrase. However, we lost 14 words. Not only did we lose these words, but we also lost the meaning behind the words. We lost 14 words while gaining only four new ones.

Therefore, even though the DNA strand became longer and produced four words via a single insertion, it lost fourteen other words. The overall effect was a loss of information.

A frame shift mutation can also occur by the deletion of one or more “letters.” If the first t in the second sentence is deleted, the letters shift to the left, and we get:

The car was red. Her edc arh ado nek eyt hek
eyh aso nee yea ndo net ip.

Five new words were produced: her, ado, nee, yea, and net. However, once again, we lost fourteen words. So again, the overall effect was a loss of information, and the DNA strand became smaller due to this mutation.

Frame shift mutations are usually detrimental to the organism by causing the resulting protein to be nonfunctional.

This is just the basics of mutations at a genetic level.

What Does Evolution Teach About Mutations?

Amoeba-to-human evolution teaches that, over time, by natural causes, nonliving chemicals gave rise to a living cell. Then, this single-celled life-form gave rise to more advanced life-forms. In essence, over millions of years, increases in information caused by mutations plus natural selection developed all the life forms (with their upwards of billions of DNA base pairs) we see on earth today.

For molecules-to-man evolution to happen, there needs to be a gain in new information within the organism’s genetic material. For instance, for a single-celled organism, such as an amoeba, to evolve into something like a cow, new information (not random base pairs, but complex and ordered DNA) would need to develop over time that would code for ears, lungs, brain, legs, circulatory system, nervous system, respiratory and digestive systems, etc.

If a single-celled organism were to make a change like this, the DNA would need to mutate immense amounts of new information. Currently, an single cellular bacteria like E .coli has limited genetic information, with only 118 base pairs—compared to man, who has about 3 billion base pairs.

This increase of new information would need to continue in order for a heart, kidneys, etc. to develop. If a DNA strand gets larger due to a mutation, but the sequence doesn’t code for anything (e.g., it doesn’t contain information for working lungs, heart, nervous system, etc.), then the amount of DNA added is useless and would be more of a hindrance than a help.

There have been a few arguable cases of information-gaining mutations, but for evolution to be true, there would need to be billions of them. The fact is, we don’t observe this in nature, but rather, we see the opposite—organisms losing information. Organisms are changing, but the change is in the wrong direction! How can losses of information add up to a gain?

What Does The Bible Teach?

From a biblical perspective, we know that Adam and Eve had perfect DNA because God declared all that He had made “very good” (Genesis 1:31) and Deuteronomy 32:4 says every work of God is perfect. This means that God’s work of creation was perfect including the intricacies of man that He made. This goes for the original animal and plant kinds as well. They originally had perfect DNA strands with no mistakes or mutations.

However, when man sinned against God (Genesis 3), God cursed the ground and the animals, and He sentenced man to die (Genesis 2:17; 3:19). At this time, it was as if God withdrew some of His sustaining power to no longer uphold everything in a perfect state by His awesome power—we were given a taste of what life was like without God.

Since then, we would expect mutations to occur and DNA flaws to accumulate. The incredible amount of information that was originally in the DNA has been filtered out, and in many cases lost, due to mutations and natural selection.

At the time of Noah’s Flood, there was a genetic bottleneck where information was lost among many land animals and humans. The only genetic information that survived came from the representatives of the kinds of land-dwelling, air-breathing animals and humans that were on the Ark.

Over time, as people increased on the earth, God knew that mutations were rising within the human population and declared that people should no longer intermarry with close relatives (Leviticus 18).

Why did He do this? Intermarriage with close relatives results in the possibility of similar genetic mutations appearing in a child due to inheriting a common mutation from both the father and mother. If both parents inherited the same mutated gene from a common ancestor (e.g., a grandparent), this would increase the possibility of both parents passing this mutated gene along to their child.

Marrying someone who is not a close relative reduces the chances that both would have the same mutated gene. If the segment of DNA from the mother had a mutation, it would be masked by the father’s unmutated gene. If the segment of DNA from the father had a mutation, it would be masked by the mother’s unmutated gene. If the genes from both parents were mutated, then the mutation would show in the child.[6] Our all-knowing God obviously knew this would happen and gave the command in Leviticus to no longer marry close relations.

Conclusion

The biblical perspective on change within living things doesn’t require that new information be added to the genome as pond-scum-to-people evolution does. In fact, we expect to see the opposite (loss of genetic information) due to the Curse in Genesis 3. Biblically, we would expect mutations to produce defects in the genome and would not expect mutations to be adding much, if any, new information.

Observations confirm that mutations overwhelmingly cause a loss of information, not a net gain, as evolution requires.

Mutations, when properly understood, are an excellent example of science confirming the Bible. When one sees the devastating effects of mutations, one can’t help but be reminded of the Curse in Genesis 3. The accumulation of mutations from generation to generation is due to man’s sin. But those who have placed their faith in Christ, our Creator, look forward to a new heaven and earth where there will be no more pain, death or disease.

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Updated and originally published here: https://answersingenesis.org/genetics/mutations/are-mutations-part-of-the-engine-of-evolution/; used by permission.

Images from Presentation Library.

 

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[1] For a definition of information that is based on the laws of science, see Gitt, W., In the Beginning was Information, CLV, Bielefeld, Germany, 1997. 

[2] Hodge, B., One tiny flaw and 50 years lost, Creation 27(1):33, 2004. 

[3] Spetner, L., Not by Chance, p. 138, 1997. 

[4] DNA Direct website, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/wow/www.dnadirect.com/resource/genetics_101/GH_%20DNA_mutations.jsp. 

[5] Athena Diagnostics website, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/wow/www.athenadiagnostics.com/site/content/diagnostic_ed/genetics_primer/part_2.asp. 

[6] This is only true for recessive mutations like the one that causes cystic fibrosis. There are some dominant mutations that will appear in the child regardless of having a normal copy of the gene from one parent.