Meaning of "desire" in Gen. 3:16

Lester Busald

I was reading in Genesis chapter 3 and when I came to verse 16 I was wondering what is really meant by the word desire.  I am using the NASB 95 update.

For one I don't know why the Greek came up since it should be hebrew.  Two others came up as hebrew but they are different than the greek.  It seems the hebrew is a longing for, to be with her husband, but the greek seems to intimate that she is thinking evil of her husband.

Any insights on this please.

When I looked up the info on this I came up with this:

Greek

AFFECT kakoo

κακόω
, 2559), from kakos, "evil, to treat badly, to hurt," also means "to make evil affected, to embitter," Acts 14:2. See evil, harm, hurt. Note: Zeloo, akin to zeo, "to boil" (Eng., "zeal"), means (a) "to be jealous," Acts 7:9; 17:5; "to envy," 1 Cor. 13:4; "to covet," Jas. 4:2; in a good sense ("jealous over"), in 2 Cor. 11:2; (b) "to desire earnestly," 1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1, 39; "to take a warm interest in, to seek zealously," Gal. 4:17-18, kjv, "zealously affect," "to be zealously affected." The rv corrects this to "zealously seek," etc. See covet, desire, envy, jealous, zealous.¶


VCEDONTW
 


 


תשׁוקה
tšwqh urge
 

 
†[תְּשׁוּקָה S⁸⁶⁶⁹ TWOT^2352a GK⁹⁵⁹²] n.f. longing;—of woman for man, אֶל־אִישֵׁךְ תְּשׁוּקָתֵךְ Gn 3:16 (J); of man for woman, אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְאֵלַי תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ Ct 7:11; of beast to devour, fig. אֵלֶיךָ תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ Gn 4:7 (J). (G ἀποστροφή Gn, ἐπιστροφή, Ct whence Nes^{Marg. 6} proposes תְּשׁוּבָתֵךְ
Gn 3:16, which Ball ^Hpt reads in all; but how explain the unusual and striking word in MT?).


BDB
Strong’s Hebrew #8669 8669תְּשׁוּקָה [tâshuwqah /tesh·oo·kaw/] n f. From 7783 in the original sense of stretching out after; TWOT 2352a; GK 9592; Three occurrences; AV translates as "desire" three times. 1 desire, longing, craving. 1a of man for woman. 1b of woman for man. 1c of beast to devour.

Thanks,  Les
 
 

Rosie Perera

For one I don't know why the Greek came up since it should be hebrew

That would be because the Septuagint, which was the early Christians' first Bible, was written in Greek. It was a translation of the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament). Greek was the common tongue at the time of the first century church, even though the people who initially made it up were mostly Jews by birth. They were Greek-speaking Jews, because of the Hellenization of the Middle East under Alexander the Great.

As for the meaning of this word תְּשׁוּקָה, it can apparently mean different things, and different translators have wrestled with which translation is most fitting in that context. There is surely no consensus about it. I recall people giving arguments for it meaning several different things (natural/sexual desire; or a broken kind of desire, i.e., emotional dependency; or a desire to rule over and usurp his authority). It is the source of divisions between egalitarian and complementarian interpretations of Scripture, both of which have done deep and thorough and faithful scholarship and yet hold fast to their differing positions. So it's not going to be resolved by figuring out a simple answer as to "what that word means." However you can learn more about some of the considerations in how it has been translated by looking at scholarly and critical commentaries on Genesis which will address this issue. You might also want to try a Bible Word Study on that word and look at other uses of it throughout Genesis and the Old Testament in general. The Learn to Use Biblical [Greek and] Hebrew with Logos videos will give you some great help on how to do this.