Adam and Eve apparently stay in the same general vicinity after their expulsion from Eden. Why leave a good thing? After all, the gold of that land is good. Further, familiar surroundings create their own sense of security. It is at this time that Adam and Eve have two sons. The first son, Cain, and later Abel. Cain, in a fit of temper over God’s not accepting his (Cain’s) offering, Cain kills his brother, Abel. It is to be observed here that God did not forsake Adam and Eve, because He has continued communication with them and their sons. God has just spent time trying to reason with Cain concerning Cain’s anger and jealousy. Gen. 4: 4 – 7.
When Cain slays his brother, God steps in and again talks to Cain, but this time it is to tell him, “Cursed are you from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from your hand; when you till the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto you its strength; a fugitive and a wanderer shall you be in the earth.”
Cain has a most intriguing reply to this. He says, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me out this day from the face of the ground: and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth; and it will come to pass that WHOSOEVER finds me will slay me.” God makes an equally intriguing reply saying, “WHOSOEVER slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” Then God appoints a sign for Cain, “Lest any finding him should smite him.” (He did not make him black!)
Who might “WHOSOEVER” be? Certainly, if Adam and Eve had other children prior to Cain and Abel, (which the bible does not indicate) these offspring would have known that they were related to Cain. They would have been brothers and sisters. Further, these “WHOSOEVER’s” not only don’t know Cain, but they need a sign to distinguish Cain as cursed of God, and not to be touched.
The Bible only speaks of Adam and Eve as having sons and daughters after their third son, Seth; but none before or in between Cain, Abel, and Seth. This is interesting because Cain somehow acquires a wife as he leaves the area he has been inhabiting. Did she come from among the “whosoever’s” that Cain feared so much? Notice that it is “whosoever” and not “whatsoever”. Cain is not expressing his fear of wild beasts harming him. He is afraid of humans. Equally, God recognizes Cain’s fear of these humans by marking Cain so no one will harm him. And isn’t it interesting that God recognizes this mysterious entity as people?
Cain’s wife is even more of an enigma if we stay consistent with the scripture when it says that God is the same today, yesterday and always. (Heb. 13:8) Some things He does not change, and His abhorrence of incest and carnality with animals are two such things. Listen to his command in Lev. 18 6 ff, “None of you shall approach to any that are near to kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am Jehovah. The nakedness of thy father, even the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness. The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or the daughter of thy mother, whether born at home or abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover.” This was known as a taboo even before the Mosaic Law established it. Gen. 9:22-27 relates the story of Noah’s youngest son coming upon his father as he slept nude in a drunken stupor, and Noah cursed him for it.
Reading the entire chapter of Leviticus shows the extent to which God forbids incest, so does it make sense that God would start the world this way? Does it further make sense that the God and Creator of the universe would not know when he placed mankind on earth that through incest comes insanity and a diminishing of the species, not a strengthening of it? And yet, we are to blindly accept the dogma that all the races, blood types, and populace came from two people: Adam and Eve.
Now let’s view it from the position that God had created other men and women, as it appears clearly portrayed in Genesis 1 and 2. Suddenly, Cain’s protest that “whosoever” is out there will kill him makes sense. Cain knew the hostility of those who had suffered as a result of the disobedience of his father. God acknowledges this complaint as valid, and appoints a sign so that Cain will be readily recognized once he has left the safe haven of his own territory.
Cain leaves his homeland and takes up residence in the land of Nod. It seems reasonable to assume that his wife came from Nod, which was on the east of Eden. It is in the land of Nod that Cain first is intimate with his wife, and they have a son they name Enoch.
Enoch does something incredible if only Adam and Eve are in existence, and even more incredible considering they don’t even live in the same area as Adam and Eve. Enoch builds a city and names it after himself. This is a truly futile undertaking, not to mention the absurdity of it, if there are no other people to take advantage of this metropolis. Surely God has given us the answers to these and so many other questions if we just look closely and methodically at his word.
Gen. 4:20 says that Cain’s offspring, his great-great-great grandson, Lemach, has a son from his wife, Adah, whom they name Jabal. This Jabal was the father of those who dwell in tents and have cattle. His brother, Jubal, was the father of those who handle the harp and pipe. Lamech’s other wife, Zillah, has a son named Tubal-Cain, who was the forger of every kind of cutting instrument of brass and iron.
Science makes two interesting statements about this. “There is much archaeological evidence that the people living in the region (from Palestine and Jordan to Turkey and Iran) – the Tigress-Euphrates region – some ten thousand to twelve thousand years ago were able to manage a semi-sedentary way of life, deriving part of their food from harvesting the abundant wild grains.” (5) “In Turkey, at a place called Cayonu Tepesi, the archaeologists Halet Cambel and Rober Braidwood uncovered a village dating from at least 7000 B.C. in which there are remains of stone architecture; signs of a primitive form of wheat; bones of domesticated dogs, sheep, pigs and probably goats; and the most interesting of all, some objects made of copper that the excavators report as the oldest known examples of metal use.” (Cambel and Braidwood, 1907) (6)
Could Tubal-Cain have learned to forge metal from the ancestors of his mother, a non-Jew, and the art passed from generation to generation?
