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From: ta00est@unccvax.uncc.edu (elizabeth s tallant)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: no title given
Message-ID: <Mar.9.00.56.56.1991.22986@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 9 Mar 91 05:56:58 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
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Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

[In a discussion of the plausibility of early accounts in Gen,
Alan Murray mentioned the fact that Cain would have had to
marry his sister.  --clh]

As the moderator pointed out, the Bible does not give birth records of
every person born in the first couple of years of civilization.  Therefore,
it is quite possiable that Cain could have married an unrelated woman.

Yet, even if he did not, it would have been perfectly alright for Cain to
marry his sister.  He could not have married his mother because that would
have been adultery.  

The reason that Cain could have married his sister is that at that time,
God had not yet given people the law which forbade them to marry members
of their immediate family.  This law was not given until some time after
Abraham (if you will recall, Sarah was Abraham's half sister).

Scientists have explained that during times before Abraham, the gene diversity
between two individuals was greater than it is now.  Also, at that time,
there were not as many gene mutations, if any, as there are today.
Thus, at that time, a brother and sister had a very good chance of producing
a normal, happy child.

Elizabeth