I was reading another thread on Adam and Eve and a question popped into my head.

Take Genesis 3:16
Genesis 3:16: To the woman he said,"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.Your desire will be for your husband,and he will rule over you." New International Version


16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. King James Version

16 Unto the woman He said: 'I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy travail; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.' Torah




I've looked up several translations and they are all basically the same. Eve's punishment for eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree. Right?
Eve and all future women bear this curse, correct?


The question I have is if this curse is for women, then why do female animals suffer pain in childbirth? The bible clearly says woman, meaning female humans. What did female animals do to deserve this curse? The bible does not say all female creatures. It says woman.

I'm very curious to hear opinions about this. It's one of those questions that probably will never get answered, but still, it's interesting.

I have an answer:

It's one of the billions of inconsistencies and logical absurdities in the bible.

Well you could fist start to wonder why the animals were cast out from the Garden of Eden in the first place.
What did they do wrong?

Maybe all the male and female animals got the same punishment as humans because of the foolish snake/serpent.
Maybe we are all in this together and have to share the evil deeds we have done.

Perhaps, you haven't considered.....that the Bible is a stupid book that only a total idiot would take seriously. Go pick up a few comic books and read those. Not only will they make more sense and be more believable, but you'll probably learn more from them too.

of the dozens of litters our family cats have had, i don't recall the mother screaming out in pain at the deliverys.

of the 10 or so calf births i was attending while at the Dairy Farm,
i never heard a cow groan/moan/travail in pain...
the closest to a painful childbirth with a cow was the breech calf ,which sadly was already dead in the cows womb.


i've endlessly heard of the shot in the spine that most women accept to relieve the pain at delivery... ? how does that technological/medical achievement fit into the bible curse ?

This is a reply to the independentjournal

Have you ever watched a dog or cat give birth? I'm assuming those aren't screams of joy coming from their mouths.

I had a stray cat deliver tail first and it was painful for me to watch. It was obvious the cat was in severe pain.

I would guess you don't think animals feel pain period? I didn't start this thread out to be snarky, I am genuinely curious, but you chose to reply with a crappy attitude. Why so defensive?

[edit on 18-12-2008 by Clark W. Griswold]

What's more interesting to me is that the verse says he will *increase* the women's suffering.

SO... He intended children to be born in the Garden, but this did not happen before the Fall.

And childbirth would have been at least somewhat painful.

Why can't the "intelligent" people cease being so condesending to people of faith. People far more brilliant than anyone on this forum lived with fervent faith in the words of scripture. Truly discerning individuals would grant an alotment for the possibility is scriptural truth, although terse and difficult there are significant proofs to the validity of at least the old testament accounts.

It said "greatly increase" the pain. That means there was pain before. So the animals may feel some pain but not near as much as human females.