1. Genesis 4:1 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What does it mean that Adam “knew” Eve?

Genesis 4:1 (ESV)

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.”

This does not mean know with your mind (only), but with your heart. It indicates a familiarity with each other. The Hebrew word has depth. By choosing this word for sexual intercourse, the Bible wants to teach us that sexual intercourse gives physical expression to the loving knowledge from the heart, as befits a man and his wife. Knowing each other’s heart, loving knowledge, finds physical expression in sexual intercourse.