Katharine Bushnell, Genesis 3:16, and the Meaning of Teshuqa

If you aren’t familiar with Katharine Bushnell, she lived from 1855 to 1946 and spent much of her life in service to women in great need. A PDF timeline of her life gives an overview of her great love for women in prostitution and other horrific circumstances.

Katharine Bushnell and God’s Word to Women

A devout Christian with a strong commitment to the Scriptures, Bushnell wrote an extensive study into the meaning of the Scriptures as it relates to women.  These were organized into lessons and eventually were called God’s Word to Women. Her purpose in writing this in-depth study was:

The object of these lessons is at least three-fold:

(1) To point out to women the fallacies in the “Scriptural” argument for the supremacy of the male sex.

(2) To show the true position of women in the economy of God.

(3) To show women their need of knowing the Bible in its original tongues, in order the better to equip themselves to disprove these fallacies, and also to show that such a knowledge of the Bible would have great influence for good on the progress of the Church and womanhood.

Genesis 3:16 and the Meaning of Teshuqa

As shown in Teshuqa and the meaning of Genesis 3:16, Bushnell looked at the translation of Genesis 3:16 in “God’s Warning to Eve.” Bushnell also created a detailed chart (PDF) that demonstrates how the translation of this verse changed over time thus also significantly changing the meaning from the original. Bushnell believed that the proper and original intent of the verse is:

The correct rendering of the next phrase of Genesis 3:16 is this: “Thou art turning away to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee,”—not as it has been rendered, “Thy desire shall be to thy husband.”

Incredibly rich food for thought available online at God’s Word to Women. Here is one more quote to ponder.

 SEX BIAS INFLUENCES TRANSLATORS.

616.  It is well known that when a man gets lost on the prairie, he begins to go round in a circle; it is suggested that one side (the right, generally), being stronger than the other, he pulls unconsciously with greater strength upon the corresponding guiding rein of his horse. Just so does the translator; he pulls unconsciously on the strong side of preconception or self-interest. This may not be intended, but it is none the less inevitable to the uninspired hand. For this reason, neither class nor sex should have an exclusive right to set forth the meaning of the original text…  What wonder that all versions, having for all time been made by men, should disclose the fact that, on the woman question, they all travel more or less in a circle, in accordance with sex bias, hindering the freedom and progress of women, since (in times past more than at present), the self interest of man led him to suppose that woman served God best as his own undeveloped subordinate?