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Genesis 3:16 (New International Version)
To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
Genesis 3:16 is known as the curse of Eve and therefore the curse of women. Here we receive the punishment of having more pain during childbirth as well as the desire for our husbands and the statement of him ruling over us. This has been used for several different explanations. When we think of desire, we think of lust or sex. Therefore, many have translated this as something sexual. Also the explanation that he will rule over us to back up claims that women are lesser, yet is that really what is going on here?
The first word to discuss in this verse is “Your desire will be for your husband.” A Italian Dominican monk named Pagnino translated the word to mean “lust” and basically, everyone has just followed in his footsteps. Yet, the word that is used doesn’t mean lust. Then Jerome’s Latin Vulgate produced around 382 A.D. states that “thou shalt be under the power of a husband, and he will rule over thee.” Yet this isn’t correct either.
The Hebrew word used is teshuqa, which appears in other places as “turning away” or “turning to,” so instead of the word desire being used, the word turning should be used instead. So we need to get rid of the idea that women are lusting after there husbands and instead see it as Eve turned away from God and placed her dependency on Adam.
Now we need to look at the second part “and he will rule over you.” First, we need to remember that this isn’t a command from God, but this is a curse. Basically, this verse is telling us a prophecy of what will happen when Eve turned away from God, she is cursed to be ruled over by men. Looking at the past, this is a prophecy that has turned out to be true.
Therefore, to properly look towards this, we need to see that first, Eve turned away from God. She decided to go with man and leave the garden (for it was only man who has to leave). By turning from God and towards Adam, God stated a prophecy that man would rule over women, which happened. Yet when Christ came along, he banished this and Paul states in Galatians that we are all one with Christ.
