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Genesis 3 says Eve will desire her husband and he will rule over her, but the Greek Septuagint changes this to say she will return or find refuge with him. Jubilees uses similar language, suggesting both were influenced by a common tradition.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 3:16
Hebrew Bible
15 And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you.” 17 But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed the voice of52 your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ the ground is cursed because of you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Genesis 3:16
Septuagint
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, he shall watch against your head, and you shall watch against his heel. 16 And to the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pains and your groanings; in pain you shall bring forth children, and your return shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you. 17 And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and eaten of the tree concerning which I charged you of it only not to eat, cursed is the ground in your labors, in pain shall you eat of it all the days of your life.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Jubilees 3:24
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
23 And God cursed the serpent, and was angry with it for ever... And He was angry with the woman, because she listened to the voice of the serpent, and ate; 24 and He said to her: 'I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your pains: in sorrow you shall bring forth children, and your return shall be to your husband, and he will rule over you.' 25 And to Adam also he said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat of it, cursed be the ground for your sake: thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you, and you shall eat your bread in the sweat of your face, till you return to the earth from where you were taken; for earth you are, and to earth you shall return.'
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... God sentences Eve to bear children in sadness (i.e. in pain, Genesis 3:16), adding: Your place of refuge will be with your husband, clearly representing 'And to your husband is your return,' the understanding of Genesis 3:16 reflected in the Septuagint and other Second Temple sources. This seems to represent a different text-form, with 'your return' in place of MT’s 'your urge' ..."
James L. Kugel, A Walk through Jubilees: Studies in the Book of Jubilees and the World of Its Creation (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 41.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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