The idea that the man has authority is not only absent from Genesis 1-3, it is not found in the entire Hebrew Old Testament. But because traditional theology prescribes authority to the man, the concept has found its way into English translations.
For example, the creators of the New King James Version added the word authority to Numbers 5.19-22:
And the priest shall put her under oath, and say to the woman, "If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to uncleanness while under your husband's authority, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse. But if you have gone astray while under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you"-- then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman-- "the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh rot and your belly swell; and may this water that causes the curse go into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot." Then the woman shall say, "Amen, so be it."
The Hebrew has, “If no man has lain with you and you have not gone aside to uncleanness with another than your husband.” The priest was not trying to find out whether the woman had strayed from her husband authority, but whether she had been unfaithful.
In Jeremiah 44.19, the NKJV has a similar addition, “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands' permission?" The original has “without our men,” for the women poured the drink offerings to the idol with their husbands, not with their permission
In 1 Corinthians 11.10 the NKJV translators make a blatant gender-based decision when they place the man before the woman, although in the original the woman precedes the man.
1 Cor 11:10-12 For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.
The paraphrased Bible, The Living Bible, is even more blatant. Somehow Phoebe becomes a “dear Christian woman” instead of a deacon, Junia is renamed “Junias” – a name that doesn’t exist – and married couples get this advice:
Honor Christ by submitting to each other. You wives must submit to your husbands' leadership in the same way you submit to the Lord. For a husband is in charge of his wife in the same way Christ is in charge of his body the Church. (He gave his very life to take care of it and be its Savior!) So you wives must willingly obey your husbands in everything, just as the Church obeys Christ (Eph 5:21-24).
Obey? When did submission become equivalent to obedience?
Before you believe your English Bible – or any other translation you might read – keep in mind that translators are also theologians. Professor Alter considers explaining the text a common error in modern translations.
The unacknowledged heresy underlying most modern English translations of the Bible is the use of translations as a vehicle for explaining the Bible instead of representing it in another language, and in the most egregious instances this amounts to explaining away the Bible. This impulse may be attributed not only to a rather reduced sense of the philological enterprise but also to a feeling that the Bible, because of its canonical status, has to made accessible – indeed, transparent – to all.[1]
In their effort to make the Bible transparent, translators interpret the text at hand in accordance to what they believe the Bible says instead of remaining faithful to the original text. This is why it often seems that the Bible teaches a gender-based hierarchy. But when we return to the original, we find that it is not the case.
Alter, Robert, The Five Books of Moses, A Translation With Commentary, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2004, xix
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