Genesis 3:16

[angeliquemb9]

The Bible can just be fascinating.  This past Sunday, Pastor Craig was discussing Genesis 3, and he had a different interpretation for that verse than anything I'd ever seen, so I went looking:

It's apparently from the "New Living Translation":

   ¹⁶ Then he said to the woman,

  “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
      and in pain you will give birth.
   And you will desire to control your husband,
      but he will rule over you.^[a]”

Now, this included the footnote below:

Genesis 3:16 Or And though you will have desire for your husband, / he will rule over you.

For whatever reason, he went with the one translation that uses that language, where most of the rest go with the footnote language.  So, I went looking at the original Hebrew...

"Unto the woman He said 'I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and they desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

Now literally, that translates as:  Unto the woman He said "I will increase the count of womankind's pain and thy pregnancy.  In labor, thou shalt bear generations; and thy longing to thy man, and he (or possibly "that") shall rule over thee.

So, rather than a desire to dominate her husband, it turns out that womankind was cursed to be hot for her mate.  Hmm, not a bad curse, I'd say. <e