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This Monkey Business Was Not For Cain

by Dr. Henderson Ward  
8/05/2015 / Christian Living


If you want a clear and proper understanding of the Bible, then it is vital that you rid your mind of the rubbish dumped there by the hordes whose only objective is to obfuscate and mislead.

It is unfortunately true that much of the rubbish dumped in our minds is as a result of unwise choices in reading material, and TV programmes that are spiritually toxic, and listening to radio programmes that undermine and pour scorn on tenets of our faith.

The rubbish dumped in our minds may not be dumped in one huge load, rather it may have been done over time in small, sometimes imperceptible, secretions but the end result is that we have corrupt minds more inclined to accept foolishness as truth.

Paul spoke of this dangerous, but real, tendency when he wrote to Timothy and said, "...men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith." (2 Timothy 3:8)

Believers who are serious about keeping their minds free of rubbish do not feast on such literature as, for example, The Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter books, and books by atheist writers such as Richard Dawkins and Noam Chomsky. If you imbibe toxic literature, especially the kind that is irreligious and abominable, then it is not surprising that your ability to understand and richly endorse all scripture is enfeebled.

The world, and here I mean all unsaved humanity, their products, systems and mores that are opposed to God, takes delight in muddying the waters of understanding of Scripture because it suits their agenda to do so. They exaggerate every minute perceived error, embellish every single thing on which Scripture is silent so as to sully the whole and try to swamp essential truths by a tsunami of hypotheticals and conjecture.

All of this comes into play as they outdo themselves in asserting that Cain married a monkey, since no other explanation, they say, is possible. But the truth shows that Cain, and the early descendents of humanity, were not in the monkey business.

The scripture that they quote, but do not understand, reads thus:

"And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch." (Genesis 4:16-17)

Presumably you should have no problem with the geography, i.e. that Cain left the Garden of Eden, where he resided, and travelled to and settled in the land of Nod. The specific geographical area of Nod has never been identified but it was a real place, now lost, as so many others, in antiquity. (Earlier civilisations on earth left no written or archeological records so we can't be specific about their history, and often we refer to the situation as pre-history).

The main focus here, and concern, is with, "And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived" and the question arises. Whom did he marry?

Let us remember that the Bible has a way, at times, of truncating history and putting things in a way that calls for a deeper understanding, i.e you CANNOT take it as read for it will mislead you and does not make sense. Historians generally refer to this as lacuna, and a couple of examples should suffice.

Example 1: The Bible says, "Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts: half of the people followed TIBNI the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed Omri. But the people who followed Omri prevailed against the people who followed TIBNI the son of Ginath: so TIBNI died, and Omri reigned." (1 Kings 16:21-22)

Remember Tibni was a king and the reference above is the only reference in the whole Bible to this man. This is his complete Bio. You don't know his mother, his wife, if he had children, what acts of evil he did, how old was he when he was made king and how old was he when he died, etc. This is a typical truncated version of Tibni's history and biography.

Example 2: The most classic truncated version of a person's history and biography has to do with one of the most enigmatic persons in the whole Bible. Here is how the Bible puts it:

"For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him." (Hebrews 7:1)

This Melchisedec was so very important that time and again Jesus Christ was referred to like this: "So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." (Hebrews 5:5-6)

Yet we know NOTHING about Melchisedec other than he was a priest, king of Salem and Abraham paid him tithes. This is a typical truncated version of Melchisedec's history and biography. Melchisedec, at the very least, must have been born somewhere, had parents and died at some age, but none of that is documented.

It is not hard to provide other examples of truncated histories and biographies; but I don't think it is necessary to do so for a proper understanding.

The scripture quoted, Genesis 4:16-17, is a typical truncated version of Cain's history.

Here is what we know.

When Cain married, it has been generally accepted, that he did so approximately 160 years after he left Eden. (Cain did not marry as soon as he set foot in Nod.)

During that period of 160 years Adam had many girl children, "And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters." (Genesis 5:4)

Seth also had sons and daughters, "And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters." (Genesis 5:7)

Let us remember that it was okay to marry your sister, or your niece during this period of innocence because there was no law against it. The law prohibiting such sex/marriages was given by God and enacted by Moses some 2,000 years later (Leviticus 18:9).

Therefore Cain could have married one of his sisters or one of his nieces and that would have been in keeping with the traditions of the time.

Purely as an aside: Jews have long believed that Cain and Abel had a spat because each wanted to marry their prettiest sister (who was the twin to Cain). Cain was peeved because the prettiest sister preferred Abel, and so, when God also preferred Abel's offering to that of Cain, then Cain's wrath boiled over, and he slew Abel when he had the opportunity.

Enough said.

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Dr. Henderson Ward received his Doctor of Divinity in theology, with distinction, from Masters International School of Divinity, USA, where he is currently a post-doctoral fellow. Dr. Ward's career involved pastoring, evangelism, and teaching. Copyright 2017

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