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EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored ninety-two books. Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).
Genesis 3:16 Updated American Standard Version (UASV) 16 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.”
I will surelymultiply your pain in childbearing; in painyou shall bring forthchildren: The grief, distress, and pain connected with giving birth is associated with the first sin. God revealed to Eve, after she had sinned, what the outcome would be as to childbearing. If she had continued to be faithful, God would have continued to bless her and childbearing would have been a joy, for, “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.” (Proverbs 10:22) However, now, generally speaking, the woman is an imperfect human, missing the mark of perfection (sin), and her body brings forth pain. We have to understand that many times when God says he is doing something, it is actually something that he permits to be done. Therefore, when God says that he is going to “multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain,” it really means that God is going to allow the bad results of her free will choice that she made under human perfection, as an object lesson for rejecting his sovereignty and choose to sin against her creator willfully.
While it is true that modern medicine can relieve the pain of pregnancy and childbearing, and in some cases, bring about no pain whatsoever at all by good care and preparatory methods. Nevertheless, usually, childbirth continues as a physically distressing experience.—Genesis 35:16-20; Isaiah 26:17.
Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you: The short answer is “no.” Instead, “the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth,” had been cursed by God. (Revelation 12:9; Genesis 3:14) When God said that Adam would “rule over” his wife, God was not meaning that he approved of bringing the woman under domination or control by man. (Genesis 3:16) He was merely foretelling the tragic outcome of sin on the first husband and wife.
Consequently, the abuse of women that has been so common over the past six millennia is a direct outcome of the sinful nature of humans, not of God’s will and purposes. The Bible in no way supports the idea that women must be controlled or dominated by men in order to atone for the original sin.—Romans 5:12.
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