What is the Hebrew word for "knew", as in 'and Adam knew Eve'?

Question

We read "knew" in an English language Bible, but what is THE Hebrew word that inspired the translators to choose "knew" instead of 'he had sex with her'?

Answer 1

english
Genesis 4:1
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

Hebrew
וְהָאָדָם, יָדַע אֶת-חַוָּה אִשְׁתּוֹ; וַתַּהַר, וַתֵּלֶד אֶת-קַיִן, וַתֹּאמֶר, קָנִיתִי אִישׁ אֶת-יְהוָה

the word you are looking for is יָדַע

the funny thing is יָדַע in modern Hebrew actualy means to know comming from the root word dass which means knowlege. You see even the Hebrew cleaned its self up or was cleaned up by somone in a latter time.

Answer 2

For the most part when the bible was translated into Greek and Latin that kind of blatance would probably have been softened to satisfy the officials on the matter, or perhaps it was when it was translated from Latin into English. Either way, the original Hebrew is less than important, since we know that sex happened either way. Talk about fertile.

Answer 3

The Hebrew word is "yada" (ידע), and it is actually the exact word for "knew", as in "he knew that something had happened". In modern Hebrew, this meaning (know like: aware of... holds a knowledge of...) is the main meaning of the word, and the sexual sense of it is used in the higher registers of the language.

Answer 4

The transliterated word for 'know' here in Hebrew is 'yada', and it has a more intimate sense of knowing than 'daath', which is more intellectual, or 'nakar' which means to discern.

There are also two senses of the word 'to know' in English, and so the saying 'to know about God, or to know God'.

If we know about something, it is intellectual and removed and abstract, whereas if we say we 'know' a person it means we have met that person and have first hand experiential knowledge of that person.

So the 'knowing' that Adam and Eve did was in the fullest sense of intimacy, and not just a momentary act of copulation.