Scholar explores identity of Cain's wife in Genesis

Biblical Archaeology Review published an article by Mary Joan Winn Leith examining the identity of Cain's wife, a figure mentioned only once in the Old Testament. Leith explores both traditional Jewish and Christian interpretations, which held that Cain married a daughter of Adam and Eve—in one rabbinic account, a twin sister of Abel. She then examines the question through modern scholarship, drawing on work by sociologists and anthropologists studying group identity formation in ancient societies. Leith argues that ancient Near Eastern peoples defined themselves partly by distinguishing their group from outsiders. Geography played a significant role in this worldview; distant peoples were known to exist but seemed irrelevant to those who had no contact with them. Applying this framework to the Genesis narrative, Leith suggests that the Israelite storyteller knew other men and women existed outside Eden but did not consider them relevant to his account of Adam and Eve and their descendants. The article addresses the long-standing interpretive question by contextualizing it within the ancient Near Eastern mindset that shaped biblical texts.

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Source: Biblical Archaeology Society — https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/hebrew-bible/who-was-the-wife-of-cain/