“Adam had relations with his wife”
And Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. (Genesis 4:1 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A clinical statement, or in older Bibles the odd phrase 'Adam knew Eve.'
The cultural key
Older translations famously read 'Adam knew his wife,' and modern ones render the sense as 'had relations with,' but both translate the same Hebrew verb: yada, 'to know.' Throughout the Old Testament, 'to know' one's spouse is the standard, dignified euphemism for sexual union, and the choice of word is telling: Hebrew frames the most intimate act not as mere physical contact but as a profound personal knowing, one person truly knowing another. The same verb describes knowing God. So the idiom quietly links sexual intimacy to the deepest kind of relational knowledge. A modern reader either finds 'had relations' clinical or finds the older 'knew' baffling; the Hebrew behind both treats marital union as an act of intimate knowing.
Recovered meaning
The Hebrew says Adam 'knew' his wife, using 'to know' as the tender euphemism for sexual union. Hebrew frames intimacy as deep personal knowing, the same verb used for knowing God, not as a merely physical act.