The Bible was not written in one specific year or in a single location. The Bible is a collection of writings, and the earliest ones were set down nearly 3500 years ago. So let’s start at the beginning of this fascinating story.

The first five books of the Bible are attributed to Moses and are commonly called the Pentateuch (literally “five scrolls”).

Moses lived between 1500 and 1300 BC, though he recounts events in the first eleven chapters of the Bible that occurred long before his time (such as the creation and the flood).

These earliest accounts were handed on from generation to generation in songs, narratives, and poetry.

In those early societies there was no writing as yet and people passed on these oral accounts with great detail and accuracy.

The earliest writing began when symbols were scratched or pressed on clay tablets. The Egyptians refined this technique and developed an early form of writing known as hieroglyphics. The Bible tells us that Moses was “educated in all the learning of the Egyptians”, so he would have been familiar with the major writing systems of his time. We also read that God gave Moses “two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God”(Exodus 31:18). All this leads to the conclusion that the earliest writings in the Bible were set down around 1400 BC.

The writings of the thirty or so other contributors to the Old Testament span a thousand years! They recount the times and messages from Moses’ successor, Joshua, to the last of the Old Testament prophets, Malachi, who wrote his little tract around 450 BC.

Then there is a 500-year period when no writings were contributed to the Bible. This is the period between the testaments, when Alexander the Great conquered much of the world and when the Greek language was introduced to the Hebrews. Indeed, they began to use Greek so much that the Hebrew language was replaced by Greek and by another language, Aramaic, which was spoken all over that area of the world at that time.

The New Testament was written during a much shorter period, i.e. during the last half of the first century AD.

It was the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, which ignited the flame that produced the New Testament, as the new faith swept across the Near East and then westward to Greece and on to Rome.
Half of the New Testament books were contributed by one man, the Apostle Paul, in the epistles he sent to groups of new Christians and to his assistants Timothy and Titus.
The Bible closes with a majestic book of visions and dramatic views of the future. It was penned by the aged Apostle John around 95 AD and describes the new heaven and the new earth when God’s kingdom will embrace the universe and all rebellion and death will be a thing of the past.
In looking at all these dates, the important thing to remember is that when the Bible was written is not as important as what was written. However, the when is important also as we sense how God’s presence persisted through the centuries and gave us “in the fullness of time” the full-orbed revelation of salvation and hope through his son Jesus Christ.

Let someone just tell me who Cain married and "the people" God said He was going to protect Cain from

darioNaharis:
Let someone just tell me who Cain married and "the people" God said He was going to protect Cain from

If it was an Islamic topic you would be made to confess your faith in Islam before commenting

chrisxxx:

If it was an Islamic topic you would be made to confess your faith in Islam before commenting

I'm a christian. That's just one question I've been unable to trace or come close to an answer

darioNaharis:
Let someone just tell me who Cain married and "the people" God said He was going to protect Cain from

Where Did Cain Get His Wife?

Let us see who are mentioned in the Scriptures to be on the earth around Cain’s time.

Gen 1:1-2 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” NIV

Gen 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” NIV

Gen 3:1 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" NIV (We know that the serpent refers to the devil. See Rev. 12:9)

The main characters are all mentioned here: God, the creator, Adam and Eve, and the devil, the evil one who usurped Adam’s authority of our planet.

Now there are also the following characters:

Gen 4:1-2 “Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.” NIV

Two of the descendants from Adam and Eve were Cain and Abel. The count seems full, but is it?

Right after Cain’s punishment by God he moves to the land of Nod and the first thing mentioned in the Bible that Cain does is Gen 4:17 “Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch.” NIV

Where does that wife come from? When did the wedding take place? Is she an alien from outer space? Not at all.

We need to remember that often times in the Bible genealogies mention only the men, not the women. In the New Testament we see some women being included in genealogies, but not in the Old Testament. Read through Genesis and you will notice that only some of Eve’s sons are mentioned, but never is there a mention of a daughter being born to her, although she had daughters, which is conformed in the following two texts:

Gen 3:20 “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.” NIV

And

Gen 5:4 “After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.” NIV

Cain must have married his sister, as there was no one else on our planet, except God and the devil. The people inhabiting our planet in Cain’s life were all immediate and secondary descendants from Adam and Eve.

Now one may ask if this (Cain marrying his sister) isn’t incest.

If our civilization were to be raised out of one single pair (Adam and Eve), it would be unavoidable of such closely related marriages.

The notion of incest seems to evolve as the consequences of sin seem to expand through the world. At first, incest was referred to sexual relationships between parents and children. Later on, it was extended to relationships among siblings.

By the time the Pentateuch was written, the laws covered all kinds of incest (see Lev 18:7-17; 20:11-12,14,17,20-21; Deut 22:30; 27:20,22,23), covering incest with a dad, a mom, a stepdad, a stepmom, a brother, a sister, a half brother, a half sister, a grandson, a granddaughter, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, an uncle, an aunt or a brother’s wife.

Note though that before Moses’ time, Abraham married his half sister (Gen 20:12 “Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife.”); Amram (Moses’ dad) married his father’s sister (his aunt) named Jochebed (Ex 6:21 “Amram married his father's sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses”. NIV) and it was never reported as incest. Close inbreeding in Ancient times was without any serious or genetic damage. However, today genetic damages are quite high. Could it be the effect of us not having to the tree of life (see Gen 3:22-24; Rev. 22:2) , as well as the degenerative consequences of sin?