Did God Curse Woman?

Bushnell's Complete Argument

Aliases: The Question That Exposes the Fraud, God and Satan Working Together?, The Curse That Scripture Never Pronounced, The Talmudic Import, What Common Sense Reveals

Tagline: Scripture nowhere says Eve was cursed, or women either. The teaching that God cursed Eve, and through Eve all women, comes from the Babylonian Talmud—not from the Bible. If anyone cursed Eve, it was Satan her enemy. The question that must be asked: Would God and Satan work together for the same result?

THE QUESTION

Bushnell poses the question with devastating clarity:

"Although Eve had given the evidences we have mentioned of having become one of the Household of Faith; although God had exalted her to a relation with believers equal to Abraham's; although God had put enmity between her and Satan, so that she was no longer associated with God's great enemy, yet the Bible commentary represents that God now turned and pronounced a curse, or several curses upon her."

Then the knife:

"We are sure that if anyone would curse her under such conditions, it would not be God, but Satan, her enemy. Surely God and Satan would not unite to curse."

THE ABSURDITY EXPOSED

Work through the logic:

Genesis 3:15 — God has just declared:

Eve is the progenitor of the coming destroyer of Satan
Enmity exists between Eve and Satan
Eve's seed will crush Satan's head

Genesis 3:16 (traditional reading) — God now supposedly:

Curses Eve with pain in childbearing
Curses Eve with uncontrollable desire for her husband
Curses Eve with permanent subordination to male rule

The absurdity: God first exalts Eve to the highest destiny in Scripture—bearer of the serpent-crusher—then immediately turns and punishes her with multiple curses?

Bushnell: "What could be more unnatural than for God to first repose that greatest promise of all the Bible in a person, and then in the next breath pronounce a terrible punishment upon her?"

WHO BENEFITS?

Ask: Who would want Eve cursed?

Satan would want her crippled. She has been named his enemy. Her seed will destroy him. He would want:

Her motherhood tortured
Her activities hampered
Her voice silenced
Her husband incited to dominate her

Bushnell: "With such an appointment as this to fulfill in life (and none could be nobler), what would Satan, who knew it, wish done to woman, his enemy? It is not difficult to conjecture; he would have her so crippled she could not contend with him successfully. How better could he cripple her than to incite her husband,—the one living closest to her who has strength to do it—to hamper her activities as much as possible?"

The theological trap: If the traditional reading is correct, then God did exactly what Satan would have wanted.

God and Satan working for the same result.

"Now all this, which common sense tells us Satan would most certainly wish to do, most Bible expositors tell us GOD DID. For once then, if God did so, God and Satan would be found working on the same side, for the same result. Can we imagine such a thing as this?"

SCRIPTURE NOWHERE SAYS

Search the text. Find the word "curse" in Genesis 3:

Verse 14: "And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field."

Verse 17: "And unto Adam he said... cursed is the ground for thy sake."

The serpent is cursed. The ground is cursed.

Eve is never cursed.

The word "curse" is not applied to Eve anywhere in the passage. The claim that God cursed Eve is interpretation, not text. It is reading into the passage what the apparatus needs to find there.

Bushnell: "Scripture nowhere says Eve was cursed, or women either. We do not accept as an authority that book of fables, the Talmud."

THE TALMUDIC SOURCE

Where did the curse-reading come from?

The Babylonian Talmud. Specifically, the teaching of the "Ten Curses of Eve."

From Dr. Hershon's "Genesis with a Talmudic Commentary":

"TEN CURSES WERE UTTERED AGAINST EVE:

'Greatly multiply' refers to menstruation

'Thy sorrow' in rearing children

'Thy conception'

'In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children'

'Thy desire shall be unto thy husband' [followed by language too coarse for reproduction]

'He shall rule over thee' [more foul language]

She is wrapped up like a mourner

Dares not appear in public with head uncovered

Is restricted to one husband while he may have many wives

Is confined to the house as to a prison"

Bushnell's assessment: "We will not soil our pages with all its filthy details, but one would have thought that any portion of such a document would have been considered so debased by corrupt association as to unfit it for incorporation into Bible instruction."

Yet this is the source. The "curse" reading came from rabbinic tradition, not from Scripture.

THE IMPORT INTO CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

The pathway:

The Babylonian Talmud (compiled ~500 AD) teaches the "Ten Curses of Eve"
Jewish scholars develop the meaning of teshuqah as "lust" in this context
Aquila (140 AD), a proselyte to Judaism, translates under rabbinic influence
Jerome (382 AD) studies Hebrew under Jewish rabbis in Palestine
Pagnino (1528 AD) renders teshuqah as libido following Talmudic tradition
Coverdale (1535) and King James (1611) follow Pagnino
Every English Bible since has followed the corrupted rendering

Bushnell: "The teaching of the Babylonian Talmud, in the 'ten curses of Eve,' and in parts of it unfit for quotation, has since 1528 been allowed to settle the meaning of an obscure word in Genesis 3:16, as 'desire'—and that against all the testimony of the most ancient versions of Scripture."

THE REWARD FOR ADAM

Consider what the curse-reading implies about Adam:

Adam accused God of unwisdom: "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree."

Adam sheltered Satan from blame.

He blamed God and Eve, not the Serpent.

Adam sinned.

If the curse-reading is correct: Adam is rewarded for this with:

Government over women
Power to dictate how much suffering his wife endures
Sexual authority over her body

Bushnell's outrage: "And has God so honored man for all time as to give him this, which often amounts to the power of life and death over a fellow creature, forsooth because Adam accused God of unwisdom and sheltered Satan from blame?"

Who rewards betrayal of God? Satan.

"We know very well who, if anyone, will reward man thus, if only we will exercise common sense,—the one whom Adam favored, Satan. If God and Satan both award man thus, here again we find for a third time these two working together for the same result."

THE ATONEMENT QUESTION

The curse-reading creates a theological crisis:

If women are still being punished for Eve's sin, then:

Christ's atonement is insufficient
The curse continues despite redemption
Women cannot claim "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law"

Bushnell as Christian woman: "Our own spiritual experience as women, and the witness of the Spirit in our hearts, testify: 'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.' As Christian women, we refuse to address ourselves to the task of working out Eve's 'curse' for sin, if indeed she ever had one. We will not deny the faith; we will not discount the sufficiency of the atonement."

The curse-reading denies the Gospel.

THE SAPPERS' AND MINERS' WORK

Bushnell's declaration:

"Since theology points no other way for women through this chapter in Genesis but into a 'curse,' we must do some sappers' and miners' work, and hew a hermeneutical and exegetical road for ourselves."

The work:

Return to the Hebrew consonants
Examine the ancient versions
Test the translation for coherence
Apply the misfit-all-around principle

The result: Genesis 3:16 is warning, not curse. God is telling Eve what Satan will do, not what God is doing to her.

THE REGENERATIVE RETCON

Traditional (corrupted): "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."

Restored (Bushnell): "A snare hath increased thy sorrow and thy sighing; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy turning shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

The difference:

"I will greatly multiply" becomes "A snare hath increased" (consonants HRB ARB allow both readings; vowels determine meaning)
"Thy desire" becomes "Thy turning" (21 out of 28 ancient renderings support "turning")
Curse becomes prophecy/warning
God punishing becomes Satan hunting

God warns Eve: Satan now lies in wait. Your turning from God to your husband will result in his rule over you. This is consequence, not command.

THE STAKES

What is at stake in this question:

If God cursed woman:

God and Satan work for the same result
The atonement doesn't cover women
Male domination is divine design
Women's suffering is divine punishment
The Gospel is partial

If God warned woman:

Satan is the enemy, not God
The atonement is complete
Male domination is fallen consequence
Women's suffering is Satan's attack
The Gospel is whole

The curse-reading requires God and Satan to be allies. The warning-reading keeps them properly opposed.

FIELD MARKERS

The wound: The teaching that God curses women for Eve's sin. The blighting hand laid on woman's self-respect, self-confidence, spiritual activity. The cloak furnished for sensuality and cruelty.

The apparatus: Talmudic "ten curses" imported into Christian theology. Scripture made to say what it never said. God made the author of what Satan designed.

The confession: Scripture nowhere says Eve was cursed. The curse-reading comes from rabbinic tradition. The result makes God and Satan allies. Common sense reveals the fraud.

The restoration: Bushnell's sappers' and miners' work. Return to consonants. Test for coherence. Discover the warning within the supposed curse. Restore God to His proper character as Eve's defender, not her punisher.