Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the Creation

by Martin Luther

And for myself I have often contemplated with wonder and delight the peculiar adaptation of the female body for nursing infants. How aptly, becomingly and gracefully, do even little girls carry infants in their bosom? And with what appropriate gestures do mothers dandle their infants, especially when the crying babe is to be pacified or quieted so as to be laid in the cradle? Only tell a man to do these same things and he will set about it as an elephant would attempt to dance; so awkward are his motions, if he has only to touch a babe with his finger, to say nothing about all those other offices and attentions which a mother only can perform. Whoever therefore rightly views and estimates the sacred matter of marriage will receive all these offices and services of the woman as signs and proofs of the blessing of the Lord, by which God testifies that the female sex, though thus severely punished on account of their original sin, are very dear to him and his peculiar care. Wherefore let these meditations suffice concerning the first part of the divine curse on the original sin of Eve.

The other part of the curse lies in the particulars of the marriage union. If Eve had not sinned, her childbirth would not only have been without any pain, but even her union with her husband would have been most pure and utterly free from all shame. There would have been no more shame attached to those connubial circumstances than there is in a man's taking his meal with his wife and conversing with her at the dinner-table. The bringing up of children also would have been most easy and full of pleasure. But all these blessings were lost by the sin of the fall, and in their place are endured by the woman all those too well-known evils of pain and labor in carrying the child, bringing it forth and bringing it up. Wherefore just as a graceful maiden weaves a beautiful chaplet from the flowers of the garden and bears it on her head, not only without any molestation but with the greatest pleasure and the greatest pride; so, if Eve had not sinned, she would have borne her child in her womb not only free from distress or inconvenience, but with the utmost pleasure and pride. Whereas now, in addition to all those pains of bearing the child and giving it birth, she has rendered herself subject to the power of her husband; while before she was wholly free and in no sense inferior to the man, and was an equal partaker of all the endowments bestowed by God on him.

This then is the punishment of the woman, which righteously fell upon her as the consequence of original sin, which she bears quite as unwillingly as she does those pains and troubles, righteously imposed on her flesh in child-bearing. Wherefore the rule and government of all things remain in the power of the husband whom the wife according to the command of God is bound to obey. The husband rules the house, governs the state politic, conducts wars, defends his own property, cultivates the earth, builds, plants, etc. The woman on the other hand as a nail driven into the wall sits at home. Hence it is that the Apostle Paul calls women OIKOUROUS, "keepers at home," Titus 2:5. For this same reason the ancients represented Venus sitting on a shell; because as the shell-fish always carries its shell with it, so the woman ought always to be constantly at home attending to her domestic affairs; as one deprived of the right of governing outside of her house and in public, and as one whose duty is never to go beyond her own most private and domestic concerns in the matter of government.

Had Eve therefore stood in the truth she would not only have been free from all subjection to the rule of the man, but she herself also would have been an equal partaker of government, which now belongs to men alone. Women however are generally impatient of this burden and by nature aim at the assumption of that, which by their sin they have lost; and when they can do nothing more they at least show their unwillingness to bear the yoke by a murmur of discontent. Whereas they are not competent to undertake the management of men's affairs, of teaching, ruling, etc. Of bearing children, and of feeding, nursing and bringing up their offspring they are capable. In this manner therefore was Eve punished; and all womankind endure the same curse. But, as I have before said, this very punishment is a joyful one, if you look at the hope of eternal life which springs from her Seed, out of the midst of her child-bearing pains; and if you consider also the glory of maternity or motherhood left to her.

II. V. 17. And unto Adam he said, "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life."

The husband was last in the transgression, 1 Tim. 2:14, and therefore the punishment is inflicted on him last. But the Lord threatens no punishment to the man here in generation. God makes no mention of the pains of generation in his case. Therefore the punishment of the husband lies in the fury of lust, inflamed by the poison of Satan throughout his whole body, but without the pains of the woman. His duties as husband however are laden with punishment. For, as it belongs to the man to feed, to rule, to guide and to educate his family, those duties cannot be performed by him without great trouble and distress nor without the hardest labors. The duty laid of God upon the woman is to obey her husband; but with what difficulty is this very performance of her duty obtained! I say nothing about the rule of the man over others, who are not of his immediate family and household.

Hence it was that the philosophers of old were led to wonder from what cause in nature it could possibly arise that men could govern any wild beast more easily than rule their fellowmen. This is the ground of Xenophon's complaint, when he says, "It is easier to manage any other animal than to rule man." The duties of a husband indeed are great and noble, which are to cultivate the earth and to perform any other work by which his wife and children may be supported to rule his house and family; to govern states and kingdoms; and to teach and instruct those of his own house and others also unto godliness and moral duties. All these noble duties however are always attended with their punishment of original sin. They cannot be performed without the greatest distress, of which we have examples before our eyes daily.

First of all on account of the sin of Adam himself the earth is cursed. For the expression the Latin translation renders "in thy work," in opere tuo, is in the original Hebrew BAABURECHA, "for thy sake," propter te. The Latin interpreter was deceived by the similarity of the letters. He read the Hebrew as being BAABUDECHA. For ABAD signifies "to cultivate the earth" or "to till the ground."

From this it appears how awful the calamity of sin is, seeing that even the earth, which is innocent in itself and committed no sin, is nevertheless compelled to bear sin's curse; and as the Apostle Paul expresses it, Rom. 8:20, 21, is "made subject to vanity," from which however it shall be delivered in the last day and for which also it waits in earnest expectation, verse 19. For Pliny calls the earth "a kind, gentle and indulgent mother and also a perpetual handmaid of service to mankind." And yet as the Apostle Paul here shows, this kind earth herself is compelled to bear her curse also. In the first place, because she does not bear those good things for man and beast which she would have borne had man not fallen; and in the next place, because she does bear many hurtful things, which but for man's sin she would not have borne, such as the destructive weeds, darnel, tares, nettles, thorns, thistles, etc., to which may be added, poison, noxious reptiles and other like hurtful things, brought into the creation by sin.

For my own part I entertain no doubt that before the sin of the fall the air was more pure and healthful, the water more wholesome and fructifying, and the light of the sun more bright and beautiful. So that the whole creation as it now is reminds us in every part of the curse inflicted on it, on account of the sin of the fall. Yet some remnants of the original blessing of God still rest upon it; in that being compelled as it were to do so by the hard labor of man, it still continues to produce things necessary for our use, although those very things are impeded and deformed by briers and thorns; that is, by useless and noxious trees, bushes and weeds, which the divine anger ceases not to sow among them.