For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: What became of Cain?
Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:
He was a fugitive and a vagabond.
“Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth.” (Genesis 4:11-12)
He settled down, married, had a son, and built a city.
“Then Cain left the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. 17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and Cain built a city, and named the city Enoch, after the name of his son.” (Genesis 4:16-17)
(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)
Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:
- When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction. A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time. To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
- One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible. See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions. Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do. But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
- The skeptic tries to pit Genesis 4:11-12 as affirming the claim “Cain was a fugitive and a vagabond” against Genesis 4:16-17 as affirming “Cain settled down, married, had a son, and built a city.”
- We must examine if the skeptics cited the verses properly for their claims.
- Concerning Genesis 4:11-12 as affirming the claim “Cain was a fugitive and a vagabond” I think the passage does affirm Cain will be a wanderer or as the skeptic called it, a “vagabond.” However I don’t think the verse says fugitive. Later Genesis 4:15 God tells Cain that he will marked so no one will kill him. I don’t think that make Cain a fugitive in the sense of someone that others are trying to capture and take his life. The two Hebrew words for “wander” and “drifter” are Hebrew substantival participles (that is, functioning as nouns) נָ֥ע and נָ֖ד respectively. Both terms are in a Hebrew construct we call a hendiadys. A hendiadys uses two synonymous terms to describe the same thing for the purpose of emphasis. So instead of seeing the words saying anything about a fugitive both instead refer to Cain being a wanderer.
- The skeptic was right in interpreting Genesis 4:16-17 as affirming “Cain settled down, married, had a son, and built a city.” Cain is mentioned as having a wife and verse 17 used the verb “settled” “built a city” while the wife is mentioned as having a son.
- It is important to remember when we read the early chapters that people’s lives were really long in the days before Abraham.
- For instance in the next chapter Adam is described as living up to 930 years (Genesis 5:5).
- Adam’s son Seth lived until 912 years (Genesis 5:8).
- See other individuals with their three digit age in Genesis 5:11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 30.
- Knowing this fact it is reasonable to believe that Cain lived a long time too. And if he also lived a long life then his kids and their kids getting married and having further progeny would eventually result in a bid family. After a while the population would be big enough to gather and form a city.
- Keep in mind that the rest of Genesis 4 strongly suggests Cain and his descendants were rebellious against God.
- Cain of course was a murderer of his own brother.
- Cain in Genesis 4:16 is mentioned as going East and we already seen earlier in Genesis 3 that heading East has the idea of banishment just as Adam and Eve experienced when they fell into sin.
- From Cain’s line there was a man name Lamech who Scripture record as the first individual practicing polygamy in Genesis 4:19, going against God’s created order of marriage.
- Lamech also is violent and proud of it, see Genesis 5:23-24.
- From this data we shouldn’t be surprised that when God told mankind to spread out on the world and populate all over the Earth that Cain would disobey God again by starting a city; in essence he’s committed the sin that later would get those who build the tower of Babel in trouble.
- Thus we don’t have a Bible contradiction. Cain could have been a wanderer for most of his life. Then when he had a large number of kin he build a city made up largely of his descendants’ family members. He might be wanting to build a city to compensate for being a wanderer for most of his life.
- The emphasis of Cain being a “wanderer” isn’t only about physical distance from other people as more of the idea of being an outsider socially. The first Hebrew word for wanderer in Genesis 4:12 is נָ֥ע and is used in Psalm 109:10 to refer to kids as beggars. Obviously to beg involve being around other people to do the act of beginning but still one is still an outsider.
- Thus there is no contradiction here. Seems like the skeptics need to learn from our post How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
- We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity. The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible. In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview. Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”
Great analysis. This seems to be the nub of it: “It is important to remember when we read the early chapters that people’s lives were really long in the days before Abraham.”
Thanks for all your great work on these. Blessings.
A rub that the skeptics don’t like to have rubbed in!
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Excellent work here, brother! Cain was indeed a wanderer and continually rebelling against God. Cain would have had many descendants who would have met their fate with the flood. Thank you for this great refutation!
Thank you for reading this! Praying for your sharing today! And thank you for doing so…
Thanks! I’m starting to get nervous!!
Thank you for shedding light that this allegation is baseless. The skeptic, as usual, is just after the stats, the many allegations he can put forward instead of knowing more by understanding the Bible. Cain and Nod, on a different topic, are concepts in the Tiberium series.
I think you are right the skeptics are out to have numbers of contradictions and not solid quality in their case for saying this is conclusively a contradiction. I had to look up the Tiberius series and this has to do with the game series Command and Conquer? If so that is crazy it reference the Bible in the game!
Yes, Command and Conquer is the larger game name/bigger franchise and the Tiberium series was its original. You should try an old game of Generals. I played it while news on the second Iraqi war was about to start. Red Alert is also a fun cold war era game.
Thanks for the thorough rebuttal of another one of Steve/Stephan Wells’ alleged contradictions. Once again, he employs the either/or logical fallacy. I wonder if Wells has ever been open to defending his SAB in a debate with a Bible scholar?
You know what that’s a good question I wonder if Steve Wells ever have debated a Bible scholar, when I searched on YouTube a few years ago I didn’t see much of him being interviewed let alone debating. But if you ever hear of a debate he has let me know, would love to hear it! Is it still snowing strongly where you guys are at?
With his total lack of scholarly rigor I couldn’t imagine him being receptive to a debate. No snow since Wednesday-Thursday but cold temps. How’s your Saturday shaping up?
I think the skeptic got “fugitive” since the King James said fugitive although as you pointed out this is not in the original Hebrew. Thank you for this informative rebuttal.
[…] What became of Cain? […]
Thank you for this post SlimJim! Happy early Merry Christmas!
Excellent as usual. Blessings for Christmas.
Thank you Bonnie! Are you guys doing anything for Christmas???
Yes, Christmas Eve. Hope you will be with family also.
I believe in the Bible with all my heart and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is so encouraging how you show nowhere in the Bible is there error. Any atheist reading this: repent–repent to your Father’s ways. Jesus is the reason for the season.
Love how in the end you pointed out the atheist’s self-refuting contradiction to even say the Bible is a contradiction. Always see what people do, not only what they say, to find out what they really believe. You’re absolutely right, time to stand up!
Haven’t read your blog for months but it’s refreshing to see you still keeping up tackling these contradictions and exposing the skeptics
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The whole thing was wonderful. I like the last point of how if the atheist worldview is true it wouldn’t help anyone who might need it and makes this whole attempt to show a Bible contradiction be pointless. Your post shows why we really need to respond to these attacks with a good look at the context and using logic. One “contradiction” at a time. I haven’t seen your list yet and hope you complete your mission.
I can’t help but to notice the skeptics have gone the way of Cain with lies and spiritual murder in opposition of the Gospel
Bible contradictions are the worst fake news ever since the consequences is eternal
Awesome answer brother! The guy running the skeptic website must be getting a little desperate. I saw some of your other responses to the skeptics. Thank you again Jim for a great teaching outline.
👍
Thanks
The Skeptic Annotated Bible seems like a place where the insane sits on the board for the asylum. Their bias and ax to grind is obvious and substance of logically analyzing the Bible is suspect.
Great post! I used to read the skeptics Bible shortly before being saved. I am so thankful for Christian apologists like William Lane Craig. Thanks for taking the initiative to give a comprehensive answer to the skeptics question on Cain. It’s essential in today’s more secularized culture. Blessings!
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