Prior to 1952 every English Bible agreed on Line 1 of Genesis 3:16. They all showed that God took action in two ways joined with an “and.” They showed that God promised to multiply (1) “sorrowful toil” and (2) “conception.” This was bad news and good news. Here’s what the King James Version said:
“I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.” KJV
The bad news was that the woman would be impacted by God’s curse on the ground because of the man. She would experience “sorrowful toil,” as he would as well, when they did fieldwork with their hands. The good news was that the woman’s offspring would crush the head of her attacker. The protevangelium that was first announced in God’s words to the serpent tempter God confirmed to her personally with the promise of “conception.”
But starting in 1954, English versions covered over the news of these two things with a new and different thing. This was only bad news in that it conveyed the idea of a painful curse on Eve and all her daughters.
The Revised Standard Version said God struck woman with one bad thing:
“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing” RSV
Sad news. Most every English translation that has appeared in the following decades has adopted the way the RSV delivered only bad news to the woman, even though this was not what the original Hebrew words said and not what virtually all earlier English translations had said.
Apart from the NKJV they all get wrong Line 1 of Genesis 3:16. Pick a favorite translation and go read the verse. You’ll be disappointed. What they do with this verse is harmful because God didn’t curse Eve (or Adam) or limit woman in any way!
It is high time to “true” the verse of Genesis 3:16. But we need help to do so! You can help by becoming a donor member of the Tru316 Foundation. Your pledge will help us educate translators so that they can bring their translations back in line with the Hebrew words in Line 1 of Genesis 3:16 and beyond.
Click here and make a difference today! http://www.Tru316.com/member
