read with critical discrimination, so that in their
teachings, we may retain the things consistent with the truth, but
condemn and refute all fictions of their own making.

252. If Cain was not married when he slew his brother, it is still
more wonderful that after such a wicked deed he obtained a wife at
all; and certainly that damsel was worthy the highest praise who
married such a man. For how could the maiden rejoice in a marriage
with her brother who was a murderer, accursed and excommunicated? She,
on her part, no doubt supplicated her father, and expostulated with
him and asked how he could give her, an innocent one, in marriage to a
man thus accursed, and force her into banishment with him. Nay, the
very example of her brother's murder must have naturally filled her
with terror, lest the crime which her husband committed on his brother
he might also dare to commit on her, his sister and his wife.

253. In bringing about this marriage, Adam obviously had to exercise
marvelous eloquence. It was for him to convince his daughter that the
father's command was not to be disobeyed, and that while Cain,
curse-ridden, would have to bear the penalty of his sin, God would
still preserve and bless her, the innocent one.

Nor do I entertain the least doubt that God conferred many personal
blessings upon Cain, down the whole line of his posterity, for the
sake of his wife, who, from motives of faith toward God and of
obedience toward her parents, had married her murderous brother.

As Christ was the minister of the circumcision for the truth of God,
to establish the certainty of the promise made unto the Jewish
fathers; and as, in the absence of a promise, he was the minister of
the Gentiles, because of the mercy of God, (Rom 15, 8-9), so the like
uncovenanted mercy was shown also to the posterity of Cain. These two
opinions have been expressed concerning the marriage of Cain, but
which is the truth I know not. If Cain was married after he committed
the murder, his wife is most certainly worthy of all praise and of all
fame, who could thus yield to the authority of her parents, and suffer
herself to be joined in marriage with an accursed murderer.

254. To myself, the first opinion appears to be much nearer the truth,
that he murdered his brother after his marriage with his sister;
because we have so clear a testimony in the text concerning the
division of the inheritance. And in that case, the necessity lay on
the wife