©Bledstein, all rights reserved, 773-324-6956 or M-F, CST 9 am-5 pm call 1-888-313-0123.  For a printed copy of the original article with pictures and Hebrew contact Bible Review.  The following version uses phonetic transliteration and English spelling instead of Hebrew characters and scholarly transliteration. 

"Was Eve Cursed? (or Did A Woman Write Genesis?)" Adrien Bledstein, Bible Review, February 1993: 42-45.

In a recent popular book entitled The Book of J -- for a period in 1990, it was on the best-seller list -- Harold Bloom argues that the biblical author known to scholars as J was a woman. J is the name scholars give to what is probably the oldest authorial strand of the Pentateuch: J stands for the Yahwist (Jahwist in German) because this strand uses the tetragrammaton yod-hay-vov-hay, YHWH or Yahweh when speaking of the Israelite deity. The Book of J was reviewed in Bible Review by a leading Bible scholar¹ and was thereafter excoriated in a scathing full-length article by another leading Bible scholar, Richard Elliott Friedman² (p. 42).

Seething with cynicism regarding Bloom's contention that J was a woman, Friedman, who in 1987 himself suggested the possibility that J could be a woman,³ astutely points out: "If I were going to mount a full defense of the idea that this author was a woman, I would at least have come to terms with the fact that it is precisely in J that the deity imposes a curse on women that 'your desire will be to your man, and he will rule over you' (Genesis 3:16). "Would a woman write this? Surely not (pp. 42-43)."

That YHWH "imposes a curse on women" is one of the most pernicious ideas in the Western world and, if true, speaks volumes against imagining a woman narrator for the Garden of Eden story generally attributed by scholars to J (p. 43).

However, I question whether the Hebrew text supports this translation, a translation that has given rise to the assumption, commonly repeated even by experts, that YHWH curses women in a decree that men should rule over them. A closer look at the Hebrew text recommends both an alternative translation and an alternative understanding of this crucial passage that has been so damaging to women and men for millennia (p. 43).

To begin with, however, woman is not "cursed" (alef, resh, vov, resh). The serpent is "cursed" (Genesis 3:14). Though YHWH "curses" the ground when speaking to Adam, the word is not used when speaking to Eve (p. 43).

Before the sentence is quoted -- or misquoted -- by Friedman ("Your desire will be to your man, and he will rule over you." Genesis 3:16), YHWH says to the woman, "I will greatly increase your pain and your travail; in pain you will bring forth children." Isn't this a curse? If not, what is it? To answer these questions, we must ask what this sentence concerning childbirth means in the context of the story and in the cultural context in which the author was writing (pp. 43-44).

In the story, by eating the fruit the woman had hoped to become, in effect, a goddess: The crafty serpent had told the woman and the man with her, "You (plural) shall be as divine beings, knowers of good and evil" (Genesis 3:5). J plays upon stories from Egypt and Mesopotamia in which gods and goddesses are like humans -- ambitious, contentious and violent as well as loving, knowing and wise (p. 44).

Goddesses, however, unlike women, bear children easily -- after nine days of pregnancy in a Sumerian paradise myth, according to Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer (p. 44).

To an ancient audience, well aware that goddesses give birth painlessly, increased pain in childbirth would seem an especially appropriate punishment for this woman who aspired to be a goddess. The author is cleverly satirizing the human tendency to play god. Eve is appropriately punished, not cursed (p. 44).

YHWH consistently confounds humans who act on excessive expectations. A woman and man expect to be like divine beings; they become more vulnerable. The people of Babel expect to make a name for themselves and not be scattered; they are scattered. Joseph's brothers think they have put an end to his dreams; they in fact initiate the process by which his dreams are realized (p. 44).

What difference does this make? Why does it matter that the divine warning to a woman is not that she shall desire her man, but that she is desired by -- attractive to -- him? Again we must look at the cultural context. In the world of the Bible, to be desired as a woman -- or as a man by a woman -- meant, potentially, to be in danger. That is why to be beautiful or desirable or alluring is spelled out as a negative consequence of becoming like divine beings (44).

That a woman -- or a man -- who is alluring -- or attractive -- is in danger can be seen from several episodes in the J narrative as well as in the narrative known as the Court History (2 Samuel 9 - 1 Kings 2), which was probably written about the same time as the J narrative (tenth century B.C.E.). The most famous episode of the danger of attraction involves Joseph, who was desired by the wife of his master Potiphar. "Lie with me," she says. He flees and ends up in jail (Genesis 39) (p. 44).

In the end, Joseph became the prime minister of Egypt; King David's daughter Tamar was less fortunate. Like Joseph, Tamar wore a "coat of many colors" when her father sent her to perform a healing ritual for her ailing half-brother Amnon.⁵ When his beautiful sister refuses to "lie with" him, the lovesick brute proceeds to rape her. Afterward he hates her and kicks her out, leaving her desolate (2 Samuel 13:1-20). These two episodes illustrate a concern with the danger of being attractive in a world where men and women play god (p. 44).

Other examples from J and from the Court History: The "sons of gods" see beautiful "daughters of humans" and take any women they choose (Genesis 6.2); Shechem defiles Dinah (Genesis 34:1-2); Rueben beds Bilhah, his father's concubine (Genesis 35:22); David seizes Bathsheba, Uriah's wife (2 Samuel 11:2-4); Adonijah wants Abishag, David's concubine (1 Kings 2:17). In each case, disaster follows. These examples suggest that J does not envision woman flinging herself in abject desire at a man but rather is concerned with men's arrogant abuse of power with regard to exploiting another person sexually (pp. 44-45).

Near Eastern literature, apart from the Bible, is also replete with the dangers of being attractive. For example, when the divine Ishtar is aroused by seeing Gilgamesh, she tries to seduce him but he rebuffs her. She then takes her revenge, which ultimately results in the death of the hero's best friend, prompting his own futile quest for immortality (p. 45).

Thus, after imposing the punishment in the Garden of Eden story, YHWH acknowledges the woman's charm and at the same time warns her of the danger of being attractive. Some may see here what Bloom perceptively calls J's "affectionate irony" toward the woman. Genesis 3:16 can therefore be translated, "You are attractive to your man, yet he can rule over you" (p. 45).

Note that the last line parallels the last line in Genesis 4:7 that we considered in connection with the Cain and Abel story. As sin's allure is a temptation that Cain can master (but doesn't), so Eve's allure, experienced as powerful by her man, can be overcome. The danger, J's YHWH says, perhaps sadly, is that he can (not will or must) rule over her. Addressing the first woman as a responsible agent, J's YHWH points out that her sex appeal is powerful and the man has the capacity (not the license or authority) to dominate her. This explains how it is that though woman and man were created as equals in Eden, in the post-Eden, violent social world of the narrator's time, men could take advantage of their physical and political strength to dominate women, as well as other men (p. 45).

J's YHWH then neither curses women nor decrees that women be subordinate to men. Ironically, the most quoted scriptural verse that in former translations appears to impose male domination on self-sacrificing women may in fact be a mistranslation (p. 45).

Whether J (who seems to me a religious, wise person with a sense of humor) was a woman must remain conjectural. But Genesis 3:16 -- the so-called curse of women -- can no longer be used to prove that the J narrative was written by a man. This analysis affirms the possibility that, indeed, J was a woman (p. 45).

How Shifting One Letter Can Eliminate Eve's Curse

Moving a Hebrew consonant from one word to another adjacent to it can change meaning as illustrated here with a portion of a verse from Genesis 4:7 regarding Cain's sin.⁶ Read in the conventional way the words are as follows:

Two scholars translate the passage as follows:

For E.A. Speiser,⁷ a concerned YHWH warns Cain, "Sin is the demon at the door, whose urge is toward you; yet you can be his master."

For Everett Fox, ⁸ an austere YHWH admonishes Cain, "At the entrance is sin, a crouching-demon, toward you his lust -- but you can rule over him."

Because word separations are uncertain in biblical Hebrew, the last letter of "sin" may be shifted to the beginning of the word "lying down." Then the following reading is possible.

For Adrien Bledstein, who shifts the tov to the left, the passage now presents a kindly yet firm YHWH who cautions Cain lest he become a predator:

At the entry of sin you stretch out; it is attractive (tish-oo-kah ) to you; yet you can rule over it."

The Hebrew word tish-oo-kah, translated urge, lust or attractive, in the passages above, is also in Genesis 3:16 about Eve. Following are two conventional translations which condemn Eve to perpetual yearning for her husband and domination by him (the translations of tish-oo-kah are italicized).

E.A. Speiser: "Yet your urge shall be for your husband, And he shall be your master."

Everett Fox: "Toward your husband will be your lust, yet he will rule over you."