Where Did Cain Get His Wife?

It’s the question that stumped William Jennings Bryan on the witness stand in 1925. The question Carl Sagan used to send his fictional heroine away from the faith of her childhood. The question that’s been repeated in lecture halls, courtrooms, and late-night dorm-room debates for over a century — as if it were the one crack that could bring the whole book down.

It isn't.

This short essay traces the question back to its origin — and discovers that the “gotcha” is younger than you’d think, and the answer older than the objection. Written for skeptics willing to look twice, and for believers who’ve never been given a straight answer.