Changes

== Life as recorded in the Bible ==

== Life as recorded in the Bible ==

== Cain's wife, continuing speculation ==

== "Who was Cain's wife?" ==

 

However, some interesting points to note ; a wife is related to her husband even before they marry, as all humans come from the offspring of Adam and Eve. Additionally, the law forbidding marriage between close relatives wasn't given until the time of Moses, Leviticus 18-20, 18:6 : "None of you shall approach to any that is near of king to him ,or uncover their nakedness..., 18:9, "the nakedness of thy sister, thou shalt not uncover.

When Cain was sent away by God into exile, mankind was in its second generation - anyone Cain (or any of his siblings) could marry would be his close relative.  However, the [[Law of Moses]] forbids the marriage of close relatives. Many people find this a Biblical contradiction.

The Bible is the most logical book in existence,so one need only use internal reasoning to solve this problem. There is a sense of abrogation here, God didn't command it yet, so it's ok to pursue at this point. There is some logic to this in genetics. When God created man, he was a perfect creation,therefore the genetic degradation associated with reproduction with close relatives wouldn't have been an issue until centuries after the creation.

However, this law was not given until later, at the time of Moses (Leviticus 18). Indeed, [[Abraham]] married his half-sister Sarah (Genesis 20:12). There is some logic go this in [[genetics]]:  when God created man, He called him "very good".  However, after the [[Fall of Man]], harmful genetic mutations would gradually build up and cause virtually all offspring of close relatives to be deformed because both parents would have the same mutated [[allele]]s.  For example, many Egyptian [[pharaoh]]s married their sisters and had perfectly normal offspring; the children of such incestuous unions today are almost always deformed.<ref>Rushdoony, ''The Institutes of Biblical Law''</ref>

Remember that Abram married his half sister Sara. Genesis 20:12, "indeed she is my sister, and then she became my wife", and it's fairly clear that God blessed this union, through the line of patriarchs. Therefore, the issue of Cain's wife is easily solved, in the pre-exodus period, as long as marriage was between one man and one woman for life (Genesis 1 -2), then there was no disobedience to god.

Note also that a wife is related to her husband even before they marry, as all humans come from the offspring of Adam and Eve.

== References ==

== References ==