Desire or Return
women
Whereas traditionally the woman’s submission to her husband was accepted as an ordinance of creation215 that was corrupted by the fall and which can only be restored through the Christian gospel, new voices propose that Eve’s submission was an altogether new state resulting from sin.216 Alternatively, it has p 249 been proposed that the submissive role of the woman at 3:16b, whether or not viewed originally as a creation ordinance, is read as a “blessing” that insures that salvation will be accomplished by the seed of the woman.217
Second, her sin also tainted her relationship with her husband. “Desire” (tĕšûqâ) occurs but twice more (Gen 4:7; Song 7:10 [11]), and its meaning in our passage is highly disputed. It has been explained widely as sexual desire on the basis of Song 7:10 [11] and the reference to childbirth in 3:15. If so, the adversative rendering of the following clause, “yet he will rule” (as NASB, NRSV), would mean that despite her painful experience in childbirth she will still have (sexual) desires for her husband.220 In other words, the promissory blessing of procreation will persist despite any possible reluctance on her part due to the attendant pain of delivery. Others view the woman’s desire as broader, including an emotional or economic reliance on her husband. In other words, she acted independently of her husband in eating the fruit, and the consequent penalty is that she will become dependent on him. Her new desire is to be submissive to the man, and, quite naturally, he will oblige by ruling over her.221 Some have mitigated the idea of penalty by contending that Eve’s submission is a penalty only when her husband takes advantage of his position and mistreats her.222 Others argue that 3:16 is no part of the judgment; it is a description of the inherent consequences of sin wherein the headship of the man has been corrupted by sin.223
p 251 Although sexual “desire” conforms to v. 15, better is the explanation suggested by Gen 4:7b, where “desire” and “rule” [māšal] are found again in tandem: “It desires to have you, but you must master [māšal] it.”224 In chap. 4 “sin” is like an animal that when stirred up will assault Cain; it “desires” to overcome Cain, but the challenge God puts to Cain is to exercise “rule” or “mastery” over that unruly desire. If we are to take the lexical and structural similarities as intentional, we must read the verses in concert. This recommends that 3:16b also describes a struggle for mastery between the sexes. The “desire” of the woman is her attempt to control her husband, but she will fail because God has ordained that the man exercise his leadership function. The force of the defeat is obscured somewhat by the rendering “and he will rule”; the conjunction is better understood as “but he will rule.” The directive for “rule” is not given to the man, for that has already been given and is assumed (2:15, 18); rather, the issue of “rule” is found in God’s directive toward the woman, who must succumb by divine edict. Thus the Lord affirms in the oracles of judgment the creation order: the serpent is subjected to the woman, the woman to the man, and all to the Lord. “In those moments of life’s greatest blessing—marriage and children—the woman would serve most clearly the painful consequences of her rebellion from God.