Question: I always love asking people where they think Cain’s wife came from.
Answer: Yeah, Cain goes on to build a city, so it seems pretty clear that there are more people around than just Adam and Eve, and the Bible is content with not explaining how this is. This is because, in part, the creation story has much to teach us theologically and is not interested in telling us the literal history of how God actually made the world. God can make the world through scientific means like evolution if he desires. What’s important about the creation story is that we know that God is the creator of all things, we exist out of his desire, we are to cultivate the earth, we are made in his image, and he has put an order in place for the world to thrive.
There are many proposals about what to do with the confusion here that range from supernatural to natural to in-between. Here are a few ideas.
1. Adam and Eve were made supernaturally and then their family continued to interbreed in some way.
2. Adam and Even evolved scientifically by God’s design and then God selected/empowered them to be the beings made in his image.
3. Adam and Eve are symbolic of humanity and not literal.
4. Humans evolved into existence, and God selected Adam and Eve out of them and placed them in his holy temple of Eden as priests.
5. Humanity naturally evolved outside of the garden, but God created two humans supernaturally within his garden and the two groups eventually collided.
Ultimately the Bible doesn’t care to explain this, nor is it concerned with the fact that other humans exist. If the Bible writers could deal with that ambiguity, maybe we can too since the answer ultimately doesn’t have anything to do with our salvation.
Jamin Bradley 
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