Cain's wife
Over at Slate.com, David Plotz is blogging the Bible. I don't think the idea is very interesting, but he has this question after reading Genesis 4 that is rather intriguing.Many other readers wrote in baffled about Cain's wife. Who is she? There's no mention of any daughters of Adam and Eve (who would be Cain's sisters, anyway). So, where did Mrs. Cain come from? Anyone have a good answer?
I put the question to Mrs. Expat Teacher who is doing some reading of Genesis herself and she can't find any mention of a female, except Eve, prior to Cain's marriage.
I've never been a literalist when it comes to reading the first chapters of Genesis, so I'm not bothered by this question. I always figured that when God talks about making things in His image, He is speaking about beings that are moral and eternal, not ones with arms and legs. Anyway, today's Story of the Day on NPR has an interesting possibility.
Chimpanzees and humans shared a common ancestor millions of years ago. Then they split into two separate branches, with one leading to modern human. Biologists have always assumed that the split was clean. But new DNA evidence suggests the two populations intermingled for some time after the split.
So Cain could have walked out of the Garden an found someone (thing?) like him. A being that would have had all the physical parts to be a wife, but without the eternal, moral soul that he had. What a horrible relationship that would have been.
Anyway, what do you think? Am I crazy? Am I a blasphemer?
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posted by Expat Teacher @ 12:26 PM
