But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. (Genesis 2:20-22)
Eve was created to be the helper of Adam, to assist him in his great work, which, thanks to the curse of Adam, is a hard, miserable task.
Eve was tempted and in turn tempted Adam with her sweet fruit; he fell, as men are wont to do when a woman’s sweet fruit is involved. Adam was a given a cruel curse for weakness, but Eve was as well.
To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16)
The first part of the curse is harsh, but simply; Adam and Eve were blessed to be fruitful and multiply, but to Eve being fruitful became a painful and deadly experience. That is the first part of her curse, to desire children with her innermost being, but to suffer, and often die, in the bearing.
Yet, the second part of the curse is less straightforward, but more interesting. The more literal translation from Hebrew is more interesting still:
…and to your man is your following and he will regulate in you,
Following and regulate as defined for this:
Following: To go, proceed or come after. Being next in order or time. Subsequent to. As the river follows the path of its banks.
Regulate: To govern or correct according to rule. Rule over a dominion. To bring order, method, or uniformity to. To compare one thing to another in the sense of a rule of measurement, often as a proverb or parable.
Eve’s curse then is to desire her husband and to follow after him.
Her purpose, woman’s purpose is to help man, her greatest desire is to follow after their husband, she yearns to be his.
He will regulate in you. Her curse is not primarily that man controls her outwardly, physically, but rather that he rules in her.
Adam controls Eve’s emotional being; to him she is devoted, for him is her greatest desire, and to follow him is her greatest pleasure and purpose.
Eve’s curse is emotional dependence on fallen man. She desires to her very core to be wholly his.
Adam has absolute rule over her inner world, whether she wills it or not.
Before the curse, she was a helper to a perfect leader. Now she is a subject to a fallen man cursed with bitter hardship. This fallen man may be cruel, he may be weak, he may foolish, he may be sinful, he may despise her, he may reject her, and he will most certainly hurt her. He will never be the perfect man, God’s own untainted image, in which she yearns with longing deep to lose herself, subsume herself.
This is the paradox of Eve’s curse: She yearns to be Adam’s as he was, but Adam as he is is fallen: sinful and weak. She sees his weakness and may rebel against him and herself to her own ruin, but however much she may rebel, she knows she is beholden to him. Her desire for fallen Adam causes her suffering for she can not be rid of it, yet he is not the perfect man he was before he fell. Rebellion against his imperfection only causes her greater suffering for her need to be Adam’s is her very core.
Woman can only find true joy and purpose in wholly devoting herself to man, yet man, being imperfect, will never truly fulfill her longing to lose herself wholly in him.
Adam’s curse is to labour brutally and unceasingly only to see it come to ruin; Eve’s curse is to suffer the whims of cursed Adam or suffer the utter desolation of being bereft of Adam.
Gentlemen,
this is John Rambo, Anti-Feminist Soldier. I am posting this on behalf of Peter-Andrew: Nolan© also now known as Joschua-Brandon: Boehm©. I am doing this because, as a young men who knows Peter well, I know he has our best interests at heart.
Gentlemen,
It is well known that five years ago, April 2008, I spent a month suicidal as I went through the process of disowning my former children. When I came out of that rather unpleasant experience I contacted other men who had been similarly affected. I realized that many men were killing themselves because of the criminal abuse of the family law courts all across the western English speaking world.
As a direct result of this experience, and my compassion for my fellow men, I made a vow in June 2008 to re-introduce the rule of law into Australia and Ireland. Naturally, at the time I made the vow I had no idea how that might be done. We call it “throw your hat over the wall”. You make the vow and “figure it out later”.
Along the way I have talked to many tens of thousands of men, perhaps as many as 100,000 men have seen at least one comment by me one way or another. What I heard from men in 2008 was that they were DESPERATE for a remedy for the crimes being committed against them in the family courts. They were DESPERATE to find a way to end the criminal effects of feminism on their lives. Because so many men told me the same thing I mistook this to mean they actually WANTED to solve the problems of the family courts and feminism. As I said. My mistake.
Through very extensive research and labour, and collaborating with the best and brightest, the remedy for both the family courts and feminism was proven on 2009-11-26. A mere 18 months after I was suicidal. The court meeting that I did on 2009-11-26 I regard as one of the finest achievements of my life. Regardless? The very men I risked my life to create a remedy for have ignored that remedy, preferring to whine, bitch, moan and complain because that is far more rewarding to them than actually solving their problems. If they solved their problems they would have nothing to whine, bitch, moan and complain about.
The remedy has now been available 2.5 times as long as it took to develop and has proved uniquely unpopular. I am hated for even talking about it. The blood of every man who kills himself due to criminal abuse in the family courts is on the hands of those perhaps 100,000+ men who have heard from me and done nothing. I did all I could. They did not. It is actually very simple.
The mechanism for men to free themselves now is the Mens Business Association. The MBA provides individual based services to get men out of the control grid. Such services may well save the mans life from suicide. Going forward? It is necessary to create second economy outside the control of any government entity. Why criminals in governments can dominate and control men via the economy they will continue to do so. There is no reason for them to stop. The MBA is the proposal of a second economy outside the control of the government. This is a NECESSARY ingredient for men to live in freedom.
Only a small percentage of men will want to live in freedom. Those men who want to live in freedom? You are invited to watch a short update on how we are going in our efforts to get the second economy going. Naturally? The second economy will grow just as quickly or slowly as men join in and contribute to it. Those who want to “stick with the government run economies”? You are welcome to do so. I wish you luck with that because you are going to need it.
best regards
your brother peter
A great take.
Curious also is that when God comes for his afternoon stroll he calls Adam and asks Adam what they have done. Or more specifically, what he allowed to happen.
More on the curse of Eve. Have a look at the NLT translation alongside another Jewish translation:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%204&version=NLT;CJB
NLT:
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.[c]”
Complete Jewish Bible:
16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pain in childbirth. You will bring forth children in pain. Your desire will be toward your husband, but he will rule over you.”
Further, (now this is from an article I read a while back and cannot find it again – hedge hedge.)
Genesis 4:7 uses the same word for the desire that Eve would feel towards Adam, but in this case it is sin’s desire to control man, “but you can rule over it”
@Bernard
http://guzik.biblecommenter.com/commentaries/0103.htm
“2. (16) God’s curse upon the woman.
To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
d. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you: The idea is to contrast the woman’s desire and the husband’s rule over her. This speaks of an inherent challenge in embracing the husband’s role as leader of the home and family.
i. This same word for desire is used in Genesis 4:7 of the desire of sin to master over Cain. Because of the curse, Eve would have to fight a desire to master her husband, a desire that works against God’s ordained order for the home.
ii. The principle of Adam’s headship as a husband was established before the fall (see Genesis 2:18 and 2:22). Now the curse on Eve makes it much harder for her to submit and flow with God’s institution of male headship in the home.
iii. “As a result of the fall, man no longer rules easily; he must fight from his headship. Sin has corrupted both the willing submission of the wife and the loving headship of the husband. The woman’s desire is to control her husband (to usurp his divinely appointed headship), and he must master her, if he can. So the rule of love founded in paradise is replaced by struggle, tyranny and domination.” (Susan T. Foh, cited in Boice)”
And also:
http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/otesources/01-genesis/text/articles-books/foh-womansdesire-wtj.pdf
An interesting bit of perspective on this (well at least Adam’s part of things):
Check out the latter half (especially near the end) of this thread
Brilliant post.
Thanks for putting it out there.
Why my answer to Bernard didn’t appear?
It went to the spam box, maybe?
@ Licorne: It went to spam. I put it up. It’s a good analysis of the passage.
@ Bernard: I’ve heard the control translation, but had not come across a good source for it.
Same here Northerner. I’ve heard it before, but it is always nice to have a link to the actual scholarly work.
There are so many mysteries surrounding Genesis 3. One that floored me was Eve’s weakness ‘Hypergamy’. She had the perfect man but when in the presence of a slightly superior manifestation ‘The Serpent’ she mated with the superior man. Only a blind person would not see how Genesis 3 is saturated with sexual inuendo. Also, ‘The shit test’. “Because you listened to the voice of your wife…..” The same thing happened to Abraham “Because you listened to the words of your wife (Sarah). Two of the biggest conflicts that affected the world happened because men listened to their wives. Husbands have to stand their ground. Wives need to shak husbands grounds. I know I’ll get lots of poop from other commenters and I welcome it.
‘Eve’s curse is emotional dependence on fallen man. She desires to her very core to be wholly his.’
I beg to differ. Eve’s curse is emotional dependence on her Fomer Man. The Perftect Adam not the fallen one. All women dream of meeting the ‘Perfect Man’. It is hard wired in them.
When Eve gave birth to Cain she said: “I’ve gotten ‘A Man’ from the Lord” Why did she say that? Adam was not man nuff for her. Did she hope that Cain would became the Perfect Man that Adam used to be?
How many mothers don’t try to change their boys to become unlike their fathers?
I have longed to find a blog that would hit Genesis 3 head on and FreeNortherner is by far the only one who has triggered my curiosity and drawn my attention. Thanks for an awesome explanation.
@ javier: I’m glad you liked my explanation. Lessen: Be careful about listening to your wife.
“Lessen: Be careful about listening to you wife” Can you offer some insight into these words, Please? I would appreciate it.
http://www.godsprophecyofsatansfinaldeceit.com
I am author of the book A WOMAN’S NATION …OR SATAN’S DECEIT
Buy the book and understand THE REAL problem….
I will look for it. Thank you!