Did
God Cause Women to Have Pain in Child Birth?
Troy
J. Edwards
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy
sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and
thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
(Genesis 3:16)
The Context Group Version
is indicative of how many modern translations render this passage: “I will
greatly multiply your pain and your conception; in pain you shall produce sons.”
Basically, the way Genesis 3:16 is rendered in most translations, we are led to
believe that, due to Eve’s transgression, God personally punished her by
ensuring that she (and all women afterwards) would suffer pain and agony when
having babies.
The Automatic
Consequences of Sin
The idea that God personally
ensured that the woman would have pain in bearing children makes God appear to
be vindictive. God who told us that loving those who choose to do us harm is
acting as He would act (Matthew 5:43-48; Luke 6:27-36). Furthermore, He left us
an example to follow (Luke 23:33-34; 1 Peter 2:21-23). Would this same God had
behaved differently in the Garden of Eden by immediately afflicting pain upon Eve
because she wronged Him? The answer is an emphatic “No!”
A careful reading of the
passage will show us that God was not declaring what He will do to the woman as
payback or punishment for her disobedience. On the contrary, He was announcing
to her (as well as Adam), or rather, lovingly preparing her for, the
automatic consequences that she and her husband brought upon themselves due to
their sin. Keep in mind Romans 5:12:
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned:
Notice that it is not “death
by God” but death by sin. Death was released into the world, not by any
power from God, but by Adam’s sin. Since God did not originate sin then neither
is He the producer of its consequences. The punishment for sin is within the
sin itself. It is not inflicted by God but comes just as a seed automatically
brings forth a harvest (Galatians 6:5-7). As the late Bible expositor,
Alexander McLaren, said concerning Genesis 3:16:
The fatal consequences came with a rush. There is a
gulf between being tempted and sinning, but the results of the sin are closely
knit to it. They come automatically, as surely as a stream from a
fountain. (Emphasis are mine)
The power of death was
never something that was wielded by God as an instrument of punishment against
mankind. The power of death was utilized solely by Satan (Hebrews 2:14-15). By yielding
to Satan, the first couple placed themselves under his dominion along with all
of the pain commensurate with such an allegiance (Genesis 2:15-17; Romans
5:14).
We must remember that
death is not merely the cessation of bodily function. Cessation of the body is
only a symptom of death. Death is actually synonymous with “evil” and the “curse,”
therefore, entailing all the pain, sickness and misery in the world
(Deuteronomy 28:15-68; 30:15, 19). One of the symptoms of the death that Eve
placed herself under was an increase in pain during child bearing. As Stuart D.
Briscoe explained:
Despite the promise of blessing through the woman and
the process of childbearing, first there will be pain and anguish through the
same experience. Death was the consequence of sin and the first indications of
death that woman would feel would be pain in the very act of giving life. The
awful irony of sins’ consequences is that even the most blessed events are
often tainted with the odor of death.
Another Bible expositor
adds concerning Genesis 3:16, “Apparently the former penalty was to be the
natural consequence of the inroads of sin on the human body …. Sin brought
sorrow into the world, and continues to do so: the multiplication of sins
results only in the multiplication of sorrows.”
God is Not the Afflicter of
Woman’s Childbirth Pain
The phrase “I will
greatly multiply” is the Hebrew word “râbâh”. It is used twice
in the King James Version’s rendering of Genesis 3:16 as “greatly” and “multiply”.
When you read the passage in a Lexicon then it becomes obvious that the words “I
will” were added by the translators. In most cases, there is nothing wrong with
that, but in this case, it is done via a doctrinal bias since the KJV translators
(who were predominantly “Calvinistic” in their worldview) believed that God was the “first
cause” of everything that happens. Furthermore, they believed in a God that
personally punished. However, note the passage below also from Genesis:
And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the
waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the
earth. (Genesis 7:17)
The word “increased” is
also from the Hebrew word “râbâh”. This time the translators did not
add anything to it, and rightly so. The automatic consequences of constant rain
is an increase of water. Thankfully, some translations took note of this and
rendered Genesis 3:16 without adding the “I will” that is not in the original
Hebrew, thus removing the idea that God personally ensured that women would
endure pain in birthing children:
To the woman he said, Great will be your pain in
childbirth; in sorrow will your children come to birth; still your desire will
be for your husband, but he will be your master.
(Bible in Basic English)
Then the Lord said to the woman, “You will suffer
terribly when you give birth. But you will still desire your husband, and he
will rule over you.” (Contemporary English Version)
I think these
translations are more accurate based on what I see in the Hebrew (not that I am
an expert mind you, but I did look through a couple of Lexicons to draw my
conclusions). Also, some Bible paraphrases are helpful as well:
Then God said to the woman, “You shall bear children
in intense pain and suffering; yet even so, you shall welcome your husband’s
affections, and he shall be your master.” (The Living Bible)
To the woman he said, “Because my design of love has
now been replaced with fear and selfishness, having and raising children will
be very hard and filled with sorrow. Fearful, you will seek protection from
your stronger husband, but he will dominate you.” (Timothy R. Jennings Expanded
Paraphrase)
Turning to the woman, God said, “Because you have
sinned, childbearing will be painful for you. And because you desired to
control your husband, you will be subject to him.” (The Clear Word by Dr. Jack
C. Blanco)
Hence, I believe that the
passage should be understood in the sense that Adam and Eve brought this on
themselves through their sin. As God once told Israel, “O Israel, thou hast
destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help” (Hosea 13:9).
In light of the above, perhaps
the best way to paraphrase Genesis 3:16 would be, “The automatic consequences
of your sin have affected your body in such a way that your pain will be
increased when giving birth.” God is never the cause of any pain, including the
woman’s birthing pains. Rather, He is the One who saves us from the
consequences of our own rebellion, including Eve’s (1 Timothy 2:14-15). Amen.
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