ADAM & EVE QUESTION from PATRICIA PARISE on July 12, 2002 ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE ADAM & EVE HAD TWO SONS. MY QUESTION IS THIS, AFTER CAIN MURDERED ABLE HE THEN TOOK A WIFE- - - WHERE DID SHE COME FROM? IS IT PLAUSABLE TO THINK THAT THERE WERE OTHER HUMAN LIKE FORMS NOT CREATED IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD FROM WHOM THE WIFE OF CAIN WAS SELECTED. PLEASE GIVE ME AN EXPLANATION TO A QUESTION THAT HAS PLAGUED ME FOR SOME TIME NOW.
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on July 22, 2002 Dear Mrs. Parise:
Thanks for your question. For future reference one should NEVER type a post or an email in all CAPS. It is very hard to read. Thanks.
As for your question, this is a common wonderment. The bottom line is that we do not know the details.
We do need to remember that the Genesis story of creation IS NOT a history book. It is a story that tells a religious truth and a religious message -- the God is the Creator and is a God of order.
Thus we cannot expect the story to be literally accurate in its details, nor need it be accurate. As mentioned the purpose of the story is to tell us a religious message, not a historical one.
With that said, all we can do is speculate. The Genesis story says that he created Adam and Eve first, not exclusively. That is, Adam and Eve, were the first to be ensouled. It is the ensoulment that make a person a human being made in the image of God, not one's biology. Upon their ensoulment they became Adam and Eve. God could have ensouled other beings later which formed the community where Cain found his wife, and the other children of Adam and Eve found their spouses. We need not assume that the first generations were incestuous.
But I merely speculate. Who knows?
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