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The Book of Eden, Genesis 2-3: God Didn't Curse Eve (or Adam) or Limit Woman in Any Way
God did not curse Eve or limit woman in any way. Sadly, modern translations of Genesis 3:16 make it look like God did both. God didn't curse Adam either, but God did speak to him in a way exactly parallel to the other rebel in the Garden of Eden, the serpent-tempter. And two curses were imposed by God because of them.People have made up many myths and stories about what supposedly happened in Eden. They make it seem like God cursed the woman and that she somehow deserved it. She didn’t. They make it seem like God instituted the man’s bad behavior toward his wife. God didn’t. The Bible tells us what really happened. And this book is all about what God really said especially in Genesis 3:16. When these chapters in Genesis are rightly understood, and we gain a true view of what God really said to the woman in Genesis 3:16, many New Testament passages can be reinvestigated. They too can be cleared away of the bias we find popping up in translations of and commentary on several key passages in the New Testament that look back to Genesis 2 and 3. This book is based on the episodes of Season One of The Eden Podcast (TheEdenPodcast.com).
126 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 8, 2021
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August 16, 2024
This is a short book intended for the general population to illuminate a common mistranslation of Genesis 3:16, the problems this causes, the correct translation and meaning of the text, and the implications of this correct understanding. The book contains 8 chapters which each have a study guide at the end that could be used for a small group study, high school or adult Sunday School class, or personal study. The book is not technical and is easy to read. The implications are important and should be better understood, especially within the Christian community.
Here are notable quotes that brief summaries of ideas in each chapter or section in the book.
Forward
“People have made up many myths and stories about what supposedly happened in Eden… And this book is all about what God really said, especially in Genesis 3:16.” p7.
Preface: About this Book
“Our focus has been to communicate precisely these revealed details [in the biblical text] and to clear away the pollution that has covered over the clear meaning of the text.” p9.
Chapter 1: Genesis 3:16 has been Polluted
Just like the pollution in a river caught on fire, “there are seven key passages in the Bible that talk about women and men in the home, in the church, and in society that have caught fire from this pollution” in the translation of Genesis 3:16. p14. “The pollution is the idea that somehow, in some way, God basically cursed the woman in the Garden of Eden.” p15.
Study Guide 1: An Overview of Genesis 3:16
The study guide looks at 7 passages about women’s roles. Then it explains the problem with typical modern translations. Finally, it walks through a more accurate translation and its implications.
Chapter 2: Genesis 2:18, Equal Partners
“Sadly, mistranslations and misinterpretations of Genesis 3:16 have led to misleading and even harmful teachings from what many mistakenly think is found in the first chapters of Genesis.” p30. “The woman is ‘ezer kenegdo to the man. Thus, she is a corresponding ally or a partner equal with the man.” p36.
Study Guide 2: ‘ezer kenegdo
“This Chapter’s study guide touches on the Christian understanding of God as God-Three-in-One.” p37. There is a word study of both ‘ezer and kenegdo showing that men and women were created as “equal partners made for each other, and one together, they are to be a resourceful and satisfied pair, at home together in Eden.” p38. “The correct translation of Genesis 2:18 Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a partner equal with him.’” p41.
Chapter 3: Genesis 2:21-25, Marriage Model
“This is the ideal. To first know God and then, when it comes to marriage, to join together with another believer in God.” p47. “In marriage, two join to become one.” p49. “Genesis 2 does not contain any requirement to have children.” p49. “Conspicuously absent in Genesis 1-2 is any advice or command from God for man to exercise authority over woman.” p50.
Study Guide 3: Genesis Marriage Model
“This first marriage, and the description of marriages to come, is the ideal pattern for all men and women to follow.” p52. “Some people add to the Genesis account concerning relationships between women and men. They take what happened later on in humanity’s sinful history and project that back into the Garden of Eden, specifically with the ideas of ‘hierarchy’ and ‘authority’. p53.
Chapter 4: Genesis 3:1-13, The Attack
“The Bible says the Tempter in the garden was the serpent. That is why God cursed the serpent Tempter. And that is one of the reasons why, when we look for a curse on the woman in the Hebrew text, we find none.” p56. “Satan … tempted both the woman and the man.” p57. The Hebrew text is plural. “The man was right there listening to all he said.” p57. “Twice in the New Testament we read that she was deceived. Not so for the man.” p57. “Instead, the man disobediently did a new evil deed. He blamed both God and the woman as being responsible for the evil he himself had done!” p58. “She answers God with no deflection or defiance. She answers God with no accusation. She spoke in a very different way from the man. She was deceived no longer. … In her new wisdom, she recognized evil and said, ‘The serpent deceived me and I ate.” p59.
Study Guide 4: Two Responses
“The woman became a second-degree offender when she ate of the forbidden fruit. She did not sin on purpose. She ate only after being deceived. However, the man became a first-degree offender. He sinned on purpose.” p62.
Chapter 5: Genesis 3:14-15, The Woman’s Enemy
“When questioned by God the man hides the fact that he has listened to the voice of the serpent. Then the man outrageously accuses God, and the woman, as having caused his actions. So, both the serpent tempter and the man act rebelliously.” p67. “God curses the body of the serpent. What was the body like before?” We can’t say. But we know what serpents are like today.” p70. I suppose we can’t say what this particular serpent’s body was like but the fossil record shows us how serpents have evolved over time, losing their legs millions of years prior to the appearance of modern humans. I think it’s a stretch to concord the curse of the individual serpent in Genesis 3 with the change of the bodies of all serpents. “God says I will ‘put enmity.’ … God confirms the woman as the enemy combatant of Satan.” p70.
Study Guide 5: First of Two Curses
“That striking pattern [of six parallel points in God’s speech to the serpent and the man] is totally absent in God’s words to the woman.” p71. “God tells Satan that the result of his ongoing war with the woman will be his defeat. Then, as God turns to the woman God confirms to her … the good news that she will have … offspring.” p76.
Chapter 6: Genesis 3:15-17, The Hidden Patterns
“Many people think God cursed the woman in some way and even perversely reordered relations between men and women in Genesis 3:16.” p78. “These two chapters [Genesis 2 and 3] are put together using a seven-part pattern that is a chiasm.” p78. “A significant word pattern, a linchpin pattern, centered in the four words of Line 1 of Genesis 3:16 linked the words in this verse to the words in the verse after and the one before it.” p80. “Missing the presence of this linchpin construction contributes to the mistranslation and misunderstanding of this very important verse.
Study Guide 6: Uncovered Pattern
This study illuminates the chiastic structure in Genesis 2 and 3 with an additional linchpin pattern in Genesis 3:15-17 and how to rightly understand it.
Chapter 7: Genesis 3:16, The 11 True Words
“God does not change the woman’s body as he speaks to her in Eden. Yet modern translations make it appear that God somehow zaps the woman, changing childbirth into a bad thing.” p93. “When God introduces her to the sorrowful toil or ‘itsabon she will experience outside Eden God is not telling her about something reserved for her and not the man. The man will experience this exact same sorrowful toil or ‘itsabon because it is something God will do to the ground because of him!” p95. “Line 1 of 3:16 does not refer to pain in childbirth. It doesn’t refer to childbirth at all.” p96. “In the environment outside Eden … she will give birth with a mortal body subject to difficulty and even death.” p97. “The two Hebrew words in Line 3 [of Genesis 3:16] say simply: your-desire (is) to-your-husband. … She has not turned against her husband. She still desires him.” p100. “The man’s heart is very different. God tells the woman, ‘He will rule (the verb is mashal) over you.’” p100. “He [God] does not say it is his will for it [man ‘lording it over’ woman] to happen. These words are descriptive, not prescriptive. God does not give a command to the man to go and rule over the woman in Line 4 of 3:16. God is not even speaking to the man in 3:16.” p101. “The man was going to usurp God’s place in ruling over her and he was going to rule over her himself.” p101.
Study Guide 7: The 11 Hebrew Words
The reader looks at the bad news and good news given to the woman, how the heart motivations of each were different, and the way life would be outside the Garden of Eden.
Chapter 8: Genesis 3:17-20, God Judges Adam
“The man takes the intent and actions of Satan and makes them his own as he too rebels against God!” p110. “God makes six points in addressing the serpent. And then god uses those same six points and much of the same exact wording, even to the repetition of sounds when he addresses the man. … God warns the woman in Genesis 3:16 that the man has changed. … God told her that her heart hadn’t changed – she still desired him – but that the man would rule over her taking God’s proper place in ruling over her.” p110. “God gave this one name to both the woman and the man at creation, [Adam]. … In keeping with God’s name for both of them, we could refer to them as ‘Mr. and Mrs. Adam’”. P111. “The man dubs the woman like he dubbed the animals. [He] stunningly treats her like the animals who were beneath him. Here is the sinful start of what many label as patriarchy.” p112. “The grace of God is a marvel! Neither human is cursed – neither the woman who sinned after being deceived – nor the man who sinned willfully in the first degree.” p113.
Study Guide 8: Judgment on Adam
This guide looks in detail at what life held in store before Satan’s attack. Then it identifies the changes in the man and his relationships.
A Final Word … and Next Steps
Here the author recognizes professors and mentors, students and team members, and churches. It also points to more research and resources on this topic as well as New Testament passages on men and women that need to be reconsidered in light of this corrected understanding of Genesis 2-3. Finally, the book urges the reader to take action and advocate for better translations of the key verses, especially Genesis 3:16.
I think the information and message within this book are very important and need to be more widely understood, especially in the Christian community. The author presents compelling evidence that Genesis 3:16 has been mistranslated and misunderstood which has led to a number of faulty beliefs about the roles of women in marriage, the church, and society. Instead, it should be translated as:
To the woman he said,
“I will greatly multiply your-sorrowful-toil and-your-conception:
with-effort you-will-give-birth-to-children.
Your affection is for your husband
but he will rule over you.”
I encourage you to read the book to understand why. God does not curse Eve (or Adam) or limit woman in any way. It’s a very short and easy-to-read book with many direct references to scripture and it would make a great small group study too. I highly recommend it.
Here are notable quotes that brief summaries of ideas in each chapter or section in the book.
Forward
“People have made up many myths and stories about what supposedly happened in Eden… And this book is all about what God really said, especially in Genesis 3:16.” p7.
Preface: About this Book
“Our focus has been to communicate precisely these revealed details [in the biblical text] and to clear away the pollution that has covered over the clear meaning of the text.” p9.
Chapter 1: Genesis 3:16 has been Polluted
Just like the pollution in a river caught on fire, “there are seven key passages in the Bible that talk about women and men in the home, in the church, and in society that have caught fire from this pollution” in the translation of Genesis 3:16. p14. “The pollution is the idea that somehow, in some way, God basically cursed the woman in the Garden of Eden.” p15.
Study Guide 1: An Overview of Genesis 3:16
The study guide looks at 7 passages about women’s roles. Then it explains the problem with typical modern translations. Finally, it walks through a more accurate translation and its implications.
Chapter 2: Genesis 2:18, Equal Partners
“Sadly, mistranslations and misinterpretations of Genesis 3:16 have led to misleading and even harmful teachings from what many mistakenly think is found in the first chapters of Genesis.” p30. “The woman is ‘ezer kenegdo to the man. Thus, she is a corresponding ally or a partner equal with the man.” p36.
Study Guide 2: ‘ezer kenegdo
“This Chapter’s study guide touches on the Christian understanding of God as God-Three-in-One.” p37. There is a word study of both ‘ezer and kenegdo showing that men and women were created as “equal partners made for each other, and one together, they are to be a resourceful and satisfied pair, at home together in Eden.” p38. “The correct translation of Genesis 2:18 Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a partner equal with him.’” p41.
Chapter 3: Genesis 2:21-25, Marriage Model
“This is the ideal. To first know God and then, when it comes to marriage, to join together with another believer in God.” p47. “In marriage, two join to become one.” p49. “Genesis 2 does not contain any requirement to have children.” p49. “Conspicuously absent in Genesis 1-2 is any advice or command from God for man to exercise authority over woman.” p50.
Study Guide 3: Genesis Marriage Model
“This first marriage, and the description of marriages to come, is the ideal pattern for all men and women to follow.” p52. “Some people add to the Genesis account concerning relationships between women and men. They take what happened later on in humanity’s sinful history and project that back into the Garden of Eden, specifically with the ideas of ‘hierarchy’ and ‘authority’. p53.
Chapter 4: Genesis 3:1-13, The Attack
“The Bible says the Tempter in the garden was the serpent. That is why God cursed the serpent Tempter. And that is one of the reasons why, when we look for a curse on the woman in the Hebrew text, we find none.” p56. “Satan … tempted both the woman and the man.” p57. The Hebrew text is plural. “The man was right there listening to all he said.” p57. “Twice in the New Testament we read that she was deceived. Not so for the man.” p57. “Instead, the man disobediently did a new evil deed. He blamed both God and the woman as being responsible for the evil he himself had done!” p58. “She answers God with no deflection or defiance. She answers God with no accusation. She spoke in a very different way from the man. She was deceived no longer. … In her new wisdom, she recognized evil and said, ‘The serpent deceived me and I ate.” p59.
Study Guide 4: Two Responses
“The woman became a second-degree offender when she ate of the forbidden fruit. She did not sin on purpose. She ate only after being deceived. However, the man became a first-degree offender. He sinned on purpose.” p62.
Chapter 5: Genesis 3:14-15, The Woman’s Enemy
“When questioned by God the man hides the fact that he has listened to the voice of the serpent. Then the man outrageously accuses God, and the woman, as having caused his actions. So, both the serpent tempter and the man act rebelliously.” p67. “God curses the body of the serpent. What was the body like before?” We can’t say. But we know what serpents are like today.” p70. I suppose we can’t say what this particular serpent’s body was like but the fossil record shows us how serpents have evolved over time, losing their legs millions of years prior to the appearance of modern humans. I think it’s a stretch to concord the curse of the individual serpent in Genesis 3 with the change of the bodies of all serpents. “God says I will ‘put enmity.’ … God confirms the woman as the enemy combatant of Satan.” p70.
Study Guide 5: First of Two Curses
“That striking pattern [of six parallel points in God’s speech to the serpent and the man] is totally absent in God’s words to the woman.” p71. “God tells Satan that the result of his ongoing war with the woman will be his defeat. Then, as God turns to the woman God confirms to her … the good news that she will have … offspring.” p76.
Chapter 6: Genesis 3:15-17, The Hidden Patterns
“Many people think God cursed the woman in some way and even perversely reordered relations between men and women in Genesis 3:16.” p78. “These two chapters [Genesis 2 and 3] are put together using a seven-part pattern that is a chiasm.” p78. “A significant word pattern, a linchpin pattern, centered in the four words of Line 1 of Genesis 3:16 linked the words in this verse to the words in the verse after and the one before it.” p80. “Missing the presence of this linchpin construction contributes to the mistranslation and misunderstanding of this very important verse.
Study Guide 6: Uncovered Pattern
This study illuminates the chiastic structure in Genesis 2 and 3 with an additional linchpin pattern in Genesis 3:15-17 and how to rightly understand it.
Chapter 7: Genesis 3:16, The 11 True Words
“God does not change the woman’s body as he speaks to her in Eden. Yet modern translations make it appear that God somehow zaps the woman, changing childbirth into a bad thing.” p93. “When God introduces her to the sorrowful toil or ‘itsabon she will experience outside Eden God is not telling her about something reserved for her and not the man. The man will experience this exact same sorrowful toil or ‘itsabon because it is something God will do to the ground because of him!” p95. “Line 1 of 3:16 does not refer to pain in childbirth. It doesn’t refer to childbirth at all.” p96. “In the environment outside Eden … she will give birth with a mortal body subject to difficulty and even death.” p97. “The two Hebrew words in Line 3 [of Genesis 3:16] say simply: your-desire (is) to-your-husband. … She has not turned against her husband. She still desires him.” p100. “The man’s heart is very different. God tells the woman, ‘He will rule (the verb is mashal) over you.’” p100. “He [God] does not say it is his will for it [man ‘lording it over’ woman] to happen. These words are descriptive, not prescriptive. God does not give a command to the man to go and rule over the woman in Line 4 of 3:16. God is not even speaking to the man in 3:16.” p101. “The man was going to usurp God’s place in ruling over her and he was going to rule over her himself.” p101.
Study Guide 7: The 11 Hebrew Words
The reader looks at the bad news and good news given to the woman, how the heart motivations of each were different, and the way life would be outside the Garden of Eden.
Chapter 8: Genesis 3:17-20, God Judges Adam
“The man takes the intent and actions of Satan and makes them his own as he too rebels against God!” p110. “God makes six points in addressing the serpent. And then god uses those same six points and much of the same exact wording, even to the repetition of sounds when he addresses the man. … God warns the woman in Genesis 3:16 that the man has changed. … God told her that her heart hadn’t changed – she still desired him – but that the man would rule over her taking God’s proper place in ruling over her.” p110. “God gave this one name to both the woman and the man at creation, [Adam]. … In keeping with God’s name for both of them, we could refer to them as ‘Mr. and Mrs. Adam’”. P111. “The man dubs the woman like he dubbed the animals. [He] stunningly treats her like the animals who were beneath him. Here is the sinful start of what many label as patriarchy.” p112. “The grace of God is a marvel! Neither human is cursed – neither the woman who sinned after being deceived – nor the man who sinned willfully in the first degree.” p113.
Study Guide 8: Judgment on Adam
This guide looks in detail at what life held in store before Satan’s attack. Then it identifies the changes in the man and his relationships.
A Final Word … and Next Steps
Here the author recognizes professors and mentors, students and team members, and churches. It also points to more research and resources on this topic as well as New Testament passages on men and women that need to be reconsidered in light of this corrected understanding of Genesis 2-3. Finally, the book urges the reader to take action and advocate for better translations of the key verses, especially Genesis 3:16.
I think the information and message within this book are very important and need to be more widely understood, especially in the Christian community. The author presents compelling evidence that Genesis 3:16 has been mistranslated and misunderstood which has led to a number of faulty beliefs about the roles of women in marriage, the church, and society. Instead, it should be translated as:
To the woman he said,
“I will greatly multiply your-sorrowful-toil and-your-conception:
with-effort you-will-give-birth-to-children.
Your affection is for your husband
but he will rule over you.”
I encourage you to read the book to understand why. God does not curse Eve (or Adam) or limit woman in any way. It’s a very short and easy-to-read book with many direct references to scripture and it would make a great small group study too. I highly recommend it.
May 15, 2021
Mind blowing! This book will open your eyes to Satan has deceived the church about Eve, Adam, and the first sin!
Too often we blame all of man's woes on Eve. This book clearly explains the true source of our cursed earth, patriarchy, and the who is the true enemy of woman!
Too often we blame all of man's woes on Eve. This book clearly explains the true source of our cursed earth, patriarchy, and the who is the true enemy of woman!
May 15, 2021
This book explains so much about what really happened in Genesis, and where a lot of erroneous gender "theology" comes from.
May 18, 2021
This eye-opening book should be read by every person that has read Genesis.
February 16, 2024
This is a really fascinating study of Genesis 1-3—how God made women and men equals from the beginning, the fact that God did NOT curse either woman or man, how the man willfully rebelled and sided with the serpent, how God shows that He sees a difference between being deceived and willfully rebelling….
I highly recommend it. BUT I have to knock it down because there are points where the author assumes you know what he’s talking about, and if I hadn’t listened to the True 3:16 podcast first, I would not. If this is all new to you, I would recommend listening to the corresponding episodes of the podcast as you go through the workbook.
Also, if you have questions, the author is easy to find on Facebook and eager to answer questions!
I highly recommend it. BUT I have to knock it down because there are points where the author assumes you know what he’s talking about, and if I hadn’t listened to the True 3:16 podcast first, I would not. If this is all new to you, I would recommend listening to the corresponding episodes of the podcast as you go through the workbook.
Also, if you have questions, the author is easy to find on Facebook and eager to answer questions!
August 10, 2023
A liberating view of Eve! This book shows how theologians have subordinated women due to their misinterpretations of the Genesis story of Adam and Eve. While both Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they had different levels of disobedience. Since Satan attacked and deceived the woman, God does not curse the woman and does not curse anything because of her. This book presents the same ideas as The Eden Podcast, with added illustrations and exercises. It addresses patriarchal views of Genesis but does not acknowledge other egalitarian scholarship. It could benefit from better editing to clarify subtitles, remove repeated words, get an ISBN and add citations of biblical translations or sources.
August 3, 2022
Such a wonderful dive into the actual Hebrew, verbs, prepositions, chiasms, etc.
I would love to hear/read what other Biblical scholars think on this and why our English translations do such a poor job with the text.
My only critique is that he doesn’t recognise that the word snake/serpent is not meaning the literal animal. Instead, that word means Seraphim, the job that Satan had. If the author recognised this in the text it would actually drive home his point even more that Eve was truly deceived and her heart was not the same as Adam’s.
I would love to hear/read what other Biblical scholars think on this and why our English translations do such a poor job with the text.
My only critique is that he doesn’t recognise that the word snake/serpent is not meaning the literal animal. Instead, that word means Seraphim, the job that Satan had. If the author recognised this in the text it would actually drive home his point even more that Eve was truly deceived and her heart was not the same as Adam’s.
February 16, 2023
I give this book 5 stars for the information/scholarly research & 0 stars for quality of writing.
This book desperately needs an editor! Everything about the tone & style & outline screams self-published. I would love to share this book with pastors and others who just can't wrap their heads around God's truth, but it reads like an extended blog post and not a professionally-edited book and they will discount the message because of the messenger.
I agree with Bruce's points but I really wish this book were better written!
This book desperately needs an editor! Everything about the tone & style & outline screams self-published. I would love to share this book with pastors and others who just can't wrap their heads around God's truth, but it reads like an extended blog post and not a professionally-edited book and they will discount the message because of the messenger.
I agree with Bruce's points but I really wish this book were better written!
June 10, 2022
unexpectedly great
I loved the authors objectivity and scholarship. I loved understanding more about Genesis two and three utilizing an intensive study of ancient Hebrew, not just the language but its pattern and significance through pattern. I wish I could say that I had discovered this book but I am delighted that I listened to my daughter in love and read it for myself. What a great read.
I loved the authors objectivity and scholarship. I loved understanding more about Genesis two and three utilizing an intensive study of ancient Hebrew, not just the language but its pattern and significance through pattern. I wish I could say that I had discovered this book but I am delighted that I listened to my daughter in love and read it for myself. What a great read.
December 1, 2023
Many good and useful ideas
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews