Correction Notice: Cain's wife WAS his sister!

This post is intended to correct my erroneous interpretations from a 4/24 post:

 Debunking the incest of Cain's marriage

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Here are 5 church fathers who wrote about Cain's marriage to his sister (Genesis 4). For the shortest version, please skip to the conclusion. 

1. St Augustine (5th century) on the incest of Cain’s wife (City of God, Book XV, Chapter 16) St Augustine states plainly that Cain married his sister in this quote. “Men took their sisters for wives — an act which was as certainly dictated by necessity in those ancient days as afterwards it was condemned by the prohibitions of religion.” This is the clearest and most explicit line in the entire book.

Next, St Augustine states incest was initially permitted. He explains that sibling marriage was morally acceptable only at the beginning: “The human race had to be propagated by such unions, then allowed, now condemned.” Next, St Augustine rejects the idea of other human populations: “All men came from the one man whom God first created.” This is called St Augustine’s “monogenism” — humanity begins from a single pair, so sibling marriage was unavoidable.

• Necessity: no other humans existed
• Divine economy: God permitted it for a time
• Later prohibited: once unnecessary, incest became immoral in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20.

2. St. John Chrysostom (4th century) Position: Cain married his sister; early incest was necessary. Chrysostom writes in Homilies on Genesis that sibling marriage was as below. He emphasizes that moral law unfolds gradually in salvation history. 

• “Not yet forbidden” 
• “Permitted for the increase of mankind.”

3. St. Jerome (4th century) Position: Cain’s wife was his sister. In his work, Hebrew Questions on Genesis, he states:

• Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters
• Cain married one of them, out of necessity.
• St Jerome stresses Mosaic law later forbade incest, but it was not sinful before the law.

4. St. Ambrose (4th century) Position: Early incest was lawful by necessity as stated in his work, Paradise.

• Humanity’s beginning required sibling unions
• God permitted what later law would forbid
• St Ambrose emphasizes divine pedagogy — God teaches humanity gradually.

5. St. Ephrem the Syrian (4th century) Position: Cain married his sister; early incest was part of God’s plan for multiplication. In his Commentary on Genesis, St Ephrem writes that:

• Adam and Eve had many children
• Cain took one of his sisters as a wife
• This was “not blameworthy” at the time but has been condemned now.

Conclusion

God does not make mistakes -- everything is done through His active or passive will. In the beginning, our perfect parents were created sinless by our perfect God. No mutations existed nor could any be transmitted so as to damage breeding. Therefore, incest did not present problems in the beginning, like it does today.

Modern science demonstrates that genetic mutations occurred over time because of beastiality (Simian diseases) and other cross-exposures. However, as sins multiplied i.e. Sodom & Gomorrah; biological mutations and sexual diseases spread, damaging genes and telomeres. In Leviticus 18, God stopped incest, so ...

My apologies for being naive & thanks to gentle Joe Tevington, for providing the resources to rewrite this. If mistakes occur in the future, please alert my Substack account (see bio) so corrections are made ASAP. I will go to confession tomorrow before daily Mass -- Mea Culpa! I remain forever humbled, the Catholic Nurse :(

Resources:

Debunking the incest of Cain's marriage

Homilies on Genesis | St John Chrysostom