Cheryl Schatz

gengwall,
You said:

Now, I understand what you are saying. You have no proof that Eve committed sin outside the garden and therefore “desire” can’t be a sin. The “Eve was sinless” argument is an argument from silence, but I am inclined to believe that where scripture is silent, it is actually saying something.

It isn’t just that Scripture is silent on what happened after the garden as far as Eve and sin, but also that where we would expect God to condemn, He doesn’t. God doesn’t condemn Eve as if she has a rebellious sin nature and He doesn’t kick her out as if she is in rebellion and is a threat to eat from the tree of life. If there is no condemnation, no rebellion mentioned, no kicking out of the garden and no evidence of a rebellious nature in the future, then God is making a distinction between the man the woman in the past motives and the future actions.

But that still leaves the dilemma of Adam’s “rule”. There is no second witness to this charge, yet we know it is true. So either it is an exception to the second witness requirement, or we are not seeing the second witness. I am curious to hear your thoughts on that.

The word for “rule” means to take dominion over. Anyone who takes dominion over something that God hasn’t given into their hand is usurping God’s rulership and is asserting a man-centered lordship. This is ultimately a rejection of God’s sole right to rule humans. Comps have almost universally seen this verse as a sinful action in the male. John Piper writes as a member of CBMW and he calls the actions of the man as “in like manner” to that of the woman. Here he writes: http://www.cbmw.org/Resources/Sermons/Manhood-and-Womanhood-Conflict-and-Confusion-After-the-Fall

When 4:7 says that sin is crouching at the door of Cain’s heart (like a lion, Genesis 49:9) and that it’s desire is for him, it means that sin wants to overpower him. It wants to defeat him and subdue him and make him the slave of sin.

Now when we go back to 3:16 we should probably see the same meaning in the sinful desire of woman. When it says, “Your desire shall be for your husband,” it means that when sin has the upper hand in woman she will desire to overpower or subdue or exploit man. And when sin has the upper hand in man he will respond in like manner and with his strength subdue her, or rule over her.

So “desire” and “rule” to CBMW mean the same thing. To them “desire” and “rule” are taking the upper hand, desire to “overpower”, desire to subdue and a desire to exploit.

It would have been apparent if God had said that same thing to them both. For example just as God used the same Hebrew word for “toil” for both of them to describe both of their hard work that they would have to endure, God could have said that Eve would desire to rule the man but that his strength would out-match her and he would then rule over her. But God does not use the same words. “Desire” and “rule” are not the same thing unless there is something negative added to “desire” to make it evil.