The judgement on Eve then follows. She will experience pain in childbirth, and though she will desire her husband, he would be her master. So far there is no record of them having children, so we cannot say that she had had painless childbirth up to this point. However, prior to this point she had been an equal partner with her husband.
We can see these two features are definitely true in life today. Childbirth is painful, and men have dominated women in most societies. An interesting question is to what extent these things should be undone when we come to Christ. The latter one is perhaps the easier. Paul teaches that in Christ there is neither male nor female (Galations 3:28) (in the sense of one being better than the other), and Peter says we are are co-heirs in Christ (1 Peter 3:7). This does not mean that men and women are not different, and may have different roles, but men are definitely not to dominate women (nor the other way around!).
In childbirth is still painful, but we should not have a fatalistic attitude, and should expect the best, not the worst.
The NLT has a footnote translation as saying “though you may desire to control your husband…”. I do not know how much credence can be given to this alternative, but it certainly describes a trait seen in real life.
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