Who does Cain fear after killing Abel? One questioner asks, “Cain kills Abel, then is in fear of his life, so God marks him. What other people would he have to fear other than his parents? It seems as if there are many more people on earth than his family group.”
This question comes from the events described in Genesis 4. Within the question, there is an underlying assumption. It’s important to realize Genesis 4 doesn’t give a comprehensive account of Adam and Eve’s family in chronological order. While Genesis 4 is an account of the first murder, it is not an enumeration of Adam and Eve’s family.
One thing we do know from the outset: Adam and Eve were the parents to the entire human race. Therefore, anyone who was alive on earth at the time is a relative of Cain’s and Abel’s. No doubt they would all be mad at Cain for killing Abel, so indeed Cain would fear for his life as a killer of one of his siblings.
Let’s dive into this situation further:
Adam and Eve’s Known Family
This is what we know from the Genesis 4 account. Cain was born. Then Abel was born. “Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.” Both were making offerings to God. We can assume they were at least young adults when Cain killed Abel, since the offerings were out of the fruits of their own labor.
From the lengths of the lifespans back in their time, Cain and Abel could easily have been 100+ years old. For all we know, they could have had families of their own. We have to be sure we don’t make limiting assumptions about things that are not mentioned. Truth be told, we simply don’t have any enumeration about who was alive to make Cain fear them.
How Many Kids were Born Before Cain?
The other thing we don’t know is how many other kids Adam and Eve may have had already before or after Cain and Abel were born. We’ll look more at the math involved in the ages and child-bearing in a minute to better establish of whom Cain might be afraid.
Later in the story, we’re told Eve bore Seth. Seth is seen as a replacement gift from God, since Abel was killed. We know from Genesis 5 that Adam was 130 when Seth was born. By the age of 130, Adam had at least three sons. Genesis says Adam lived 930 years and had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 5 provides the lineage of Adam through Seth to Noah. However, this is not a comprehensive family tree, because it doesn’t even mention Cain and Abel. In this chapter, we have the familial path from Adam to Seth then on to Noah. Scripture says each man, “had other sons and daughters,” so there are plenty of other children born during the 900+ year lifetimes of each of these men.
There isn’t much in the chapter to show specific chronology other than use of the word “then” to show the order of events.
Adam and Eve’s UNknown Family
It’s important to note that we do not know the precise chronology of Adam and Eve’s family from this chapter. We also do not know how many other children Eve birthed before or after the three boys.
Also, at that time people lived nearly a thousand years. Adam lived to be 930. Since Genesis tells us Adam “had other sons and daughters,” we know he had far more than the three sons who are mentioned directly.
- Cain is mentioned as the first murderer.
- Abel is the first person murdered.
- Eve considered Seth as a replacement for Abel, so Seth is mentioned.
There is also no mention of their other children’s names, but that is probably because they were just ordinary people living ordinary lives. No doubt though, they are the ones causing Cain fear though!
One last thing we need to note is that Adam and Eve were created as adults. They were presumably able to begin bearing children right away, when God told them to go forth and multiply in Genesis 1:28.
How Many Kids could Adam & Eve Have?
If you look at the number of kids a fruitful family can have in today’s lifespan, you’d find they can easily have 8-15 kids, with the current record being 87 children born to one Mr. Feodor Vassilyev in his 75 years of life! I cannot imagine how he survived that! (SHIVERS)
Given a lifespan more than ten times longer than that, a person in Biblical times before Noah could easily give birth to 10 times as many kids. We don’t have an enumeration of their family, but Adam and Eve could easily have 100+ children. If they were fruitful at Mr. Feodor’s rate, that’d be over 1,000 children for Adam in his 930 years!
In any case, we know Adam and Eve were fruitful and multiplied. They might have had a child every year or had multiple births. A woman can have a child every year, but we’ll use a conservative model assuming one child every-other-year. If we keep our estimate “conservative,” we could guess Adam could have easily had 450 kids, and quite possibly more.
For the sake of reasoning, let’s assume Eve gave birth to a child within the first year or two of hers and Adam’s creation. If she gives birth to a child every-other-year, with no twins or triplets, in the first 100 years she would have 50 children.
How the Family Grows
We do know that the murder of Abel occurred before Adam was 130 years old, since Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old. Just to pick a point in time for our estimates, we’ll hold our family growth model at the first 100 years.
When Adam & Eve’s first child was 18 years old, that child could conceive children. We’ll use the same every-other-year birthrate for the grandchildren.
By time the first 100 years of humans had lapsed, the first child could conceivably have had 40 or more children. The same goes for the second child. And their firstborn children could have had 30 or more children when the first 100 years was complete.
The third child of Adam and Eve could have 36 or more kids, the fourth child 34 or more kids, etc. And the oldest among their children could have children. SO, by time you reach the end of the first 130 years, after which we know Seth was born, there would easily be hundreds of people on earth, many of which were adults.
There would be some reduction in numbers because there would have to be pairings of siblings to generate new families. Thus, we won’t go too hog-wild in our estimates of how many people there might be on earth.
We can see from the proliferation math, that there would easily be well over 100 people on earth when Cain killed Abel. There might have been 200 or more. A big key here is that they are ALL related. No doubt they were angry about the murder, so they caused Cain fear!
Who Would Cain Fear?
At this point, we can easily see there would be many relatives on earth when Cain killed Abel. The relatives would surely be mad at Cain for killing Abel.
So, to answer the question, “What other people would he have to fear other than his parents?” it’s clear Cain would have a large number of brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews who would be angry with him.
By focusing on what we do and do not know in the Biblical account, we can come up with a plausible explanation about who would Cain fear. In God’s infinite love, we can see why God marked Cain to protect him! EVEN THOUGH Cain was a murderer, God still cared about him. Similarly, even though Adam and Eve disobeyed God, He clothed them. We are all sinners, but God cares for us ANYWAY! 😀
Although Biblical history is often confusing and has gaps, we can see God’s grace weaved throughout the scriptures. One key to an accurate interpretation is to be clear about what God does and doesn’t share in His Word.
