![Antonio Ciseri, immacolata](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Antonio_Ciseri%2C_immacolata._Firenze%2C_Chiesa_del_Sacro_Cuore.jpg)
Seed of the woman or offspring of the woman is a phrase from the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...
: as a result of the
serpent
Serpent or The Serpent may refer to:
* Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes
Mythology and religion
* Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature
* Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts
* Serp ...
's temptation of
Eve
Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...
, which resulted in the
fall of man
The fall of man, the fall of Adam, or simply the Fall, is a term used in Christianity to describe the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God in Christianity, God to a state of guilty disobedience.
*
*
*
* ...
, God announces (in Genesis 3:15) that he will put an enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. In
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, this verse is known as the protoevangelium, and is interpreted as a prophecy of the coming of
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
. In
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
, the "seed of the woman" is taken as a collective reference to mankind in general.
Source text
In Genesis 3, Eve is tempted by a serpent to disobey God's orders and eat from the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil
In Judaism and Christianity, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ( he, עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע, ʿêṣ had-daʿaṯ ṭōḇ wā-rāʿ, label=Tiberian Hebrew, ) is one of two specific trees in the story of the Garden ...
. When confronted by God, she blames the serpent for her actions. God therefore curses the serpent to crawl on its belly and eat dust, and adds:
There are several different ways of translating this verse. The Latin
Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
, which is generally used as a source text for
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
bibles, has feminine rather than masculine pronouns in the latter half of the verse. Additionally, the second occurrence of the Hebrew ''shuph'' (שׁוּף), "bruise", is translated in the Vulgate as ''insidiaberis'', "lie in wait". Consequently, Catholic bibles often give a reading such as that found in the ''
Douay–Rheims Bible
The Douay–Rheims Bible (, ), also known as the Douay–Rheims Version, Rheims–Douai Bible or Douai Bible, and abbreviated as D–R, DRB, and DRV, is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by member ...
'': "... she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel".
The first ''shuph'' may also be translated as "crush" ("he shall crush thy head"). Authors such as H. C. Leupold have argued that a
zeugma is employed to give the word a different meaning when applied to the injury inflicted on the heel.
Some modern translations, such as the
English Standard Version
The English Standard Version (ESV) is an English translation of the Bible. Published in 2001 by Crossway, the ESV was "created by a team of more than 100 leading evangelical scholars and pastors." The ESV relies on recently published critic ...
, have "offspring" instead of the more literal "seed".
Judaism
In
rabbinical Judaism
Rabbinic Judaism ( he, יהדות רבנית, Yahadut Rabanit), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, or Judaism espoused by the Rabbanites, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonian ...
, the contrasting groups of "seed of the woman" and "seed of the serpent" are generally taken as plural, with the promise "he will bruise your head" applied to Adam and mankind bruising the serpent's head. There is a Jewish tradition where a messiah is said to be a remedy to the bruising of the heel of the "seed of the woman".
Although a possible
Jewish messianic interpretation of Genesis 3:15 in some schools of Judaism during the
Second Temple period
The Second Temple period in Jewish history lasted approximately 600 years (516 BCE - 70 CE), during which the Second Temple existed. It started with the return to Zion and the construction of the Second Temple, while it ended with the First Jewis ...
has been suggested by some Christian scholars, no evidence of such an interpretation has yet come to light.
Christianity
Christ
In Christianity, Genesis 3:15 is known as the protevangelium. This is a compound of two Greek words, meaning "first" and meaning "good news" or "
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
". Thus, the verse is commonly referred to as the first mention in the Bible of the "good news" of salvation. Old Testament scholar
Derek Kidner
Frank Derek Kidner (22 September 1913 – 27 November 2008) was a British Old Testament scholar, best known for writing commentaries.
Life
Kidner studied piano at the Royal College of Music, before preparing for Anglican ministry at Ridley H ...
describes the Protoevangelium as "the first glimmer of the gospel", and
Victor P. Hamilton
Victor P. Hamilton (born 26 September 1941) is a Canadian / American Old Testament scholar. He was Professor of Old Testament and Theology at Asbury University from 1971 until 2007. His retains the role of professor emeritus of Old Testament at ...
emphasises the importance of the redemptive promise included in the curse.
The reference to the "seed of the woman" is believed by Christians to be a prophecy of the
virgin birth of
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
. They believe that elsewhere in the Bible, a child is referred to as the "seed" of his father, exclusively. In fact, there are other passages when the Hebrew for seed () is used for a woman. In Genesis 16:10 an angel says to Hagar, a woman, "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude." Hagar was not a virgin, therefore one cannot conclude that the seed of a woman must refer to a virgin birth.
Jesus is called the "seed of David" at
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
1:3, and the whole nation of Israel is referred to as the "seed of Jacob" at
Jeremiah
Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning " Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish ...
33:26. For Jesus to be called the "seed of the woman", therefore, is interpreted to mean that he will have no earthly father. The phrase "seed of the woman" is sometimes counted as referring to Jesus.
Identification of the "seed of the woman" with Jesus goes back at least as far as
Irenaeus
Irenaeus (; grc-gre, Εἰρηναῖος ''Eirēnaios''; c. 130 – c. 202 AD) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the dev ...
(180 AD), who (along with several other
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...
) regarded this verse as "the first messianic prophecy in the Old Testament".
Serapion, the Bishop of Thmuis, wrote the following:
Among those who follow a Christological interpretation of the verse, the bruising of the serpent's head is taken to refer primarily to the final defeat of
Satan
Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...
, while the bruising of the heel of the seed of the woman is taken to refer to the
crucifixion
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...
of Christ.
Louis Berkhof
Louis Berkhof (October 13, 1873 – May 18, 1957) was a Dutch-American Reformed theologian whose works on systematic theology have been influential in seminaries and Bible colleges in the United States, Canada, Korea and with individual Christians ...
, for example, wrote: "The death of Christ, who is in a preeminent sense the seed of the woman, will mean the defeat of Satan."
A tradition found in some old eastern Christian sources (including
the ''Kitab al-Magall'' and the ''
Cave of Treasures
The ''Cave of Treasures'' (Syriac ''M'drāth Gazzē'', Arabic ''Maghārat al-Kunūz'', Ge'ez ''Baʿāta Mazāgebet'' Tigrinya መዝገብ ገዛ ) sometimes referred to simply as ''The Treasure'', is an apocryphal and pseudoepigraphical work, th ...
'') holds that the serpent's head was crushed at
Golgotha, described as a skull-shaped hill at the centre of the Earth, where
Shem
Shem (; he, שֵׁם ''Šēm''; ar, سَام, Sām) ''Sḗm''; Ge'ez: ሴም, ''Sēm'' was one of the sons of Noah in the book of Genesis and in the book of Chronicles, and the Quran.
The children of Shem were Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, L ...
and
Melchizedek
In the Bible, Melchizedek (, hbo, , malkī-ṣeḏeq, "king of righteousness" or "my king is righteousness"), also transliterated Melchisedech or Malki Tzedek, was the king of Salem and priest of (often translated as "most high God"). He is f ...
had placed the body of Adam.
In Romans 16:20, there is perhaps the clearest reference to the Protoevangelium in the New Testament, "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen." Here, the seed of the woman is identified as "the God of peace", and yet the Church is identified as the feet that will bruise Satan's head.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
, in his ''Lectures on Romans'', also identifies the seed of the woman with "the word of God in the church".
Mary
Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
often understand the "woman" of Genesis 3:15 to refer primarily to the
Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...
, rather than Eve. The text in Genesis is also seen as connecting to the sign the Lord gives to King Achaz through
Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." The English ''
Douay–Rheims Bible
The Douay–Rheims Bible (, ), also known as the Douay–Rheims Version, Rheims–Douai Bible or Douai Bible, and abbreviated as D–R, DRB, and DRV, is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by member ...
'' 1609 onwards has "she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel". This reading was supported in the Bull ''
Ineffabilis Deus
( for, , Latin, Ineffable God) is an apostolic constitution by Pope Pius IX.[''Ineffabilis Deus''](_blank) '' of December 1854 and is defended by
Anthony Maas
Anthony John Maas (1859–1927) was a noted Catholic exegete, or writer of critical interpretation of scripture.
Biography
Anthony Maas was born in Bainkhausen, Province of Westphalia, Prussia on August 23, 1858. He was educated at public and pri ...
in the 1912 ''
Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...
''.
Having interpreted the seed of the serpent as a reference to the followers of Satan, Maas also writes:
The
Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission explains the controversy:
Modern Catholic bibles often refrain from using feminine pronouns in this verse. The revised Latin version,
Nova Vulgata
The ''Nova Vulgata'' (complete title: ''Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio'', ; abr. ''NV''), also called the Neo-Vulgate, is the official Classical Latin translation of the original-language texts of the Bible published by the Holy See. It ...
, authorised by the Vatican, has the masculine instead of ; the
New Jerusalem Bible has "it
he seedwill bruise your head"; and the
New American Bible has "they", explaining in a footnote that "offspring" is a collective noun, referring to "all the descendants of the woman".
Many scholars connect Jesus’ usage of the word “woman” to call Mary instead of calling her "mother" as a confirmation of Mary being the "Woman" described in Genesis 3:15. Mary was often seen as the "
New Eve
The New Eve (Latin: ''Nova Eva'') is a devotional title for Mary mother of Jesus. It is perhaps the most ancient doctrinal title given to Mary in the Early Church. Since the apostolic age, both Eastern and Western Church fathers have expressed thi ...
," who crushed the serpent's head at the Annunciation by obeying the
Angel Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብር ...
when he said she would bear the
Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...
(Luke 1:38).
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
* {{Cite book
, last1 = DeMoss
, first1 = Matthew S.
, last2 = Miller
, first2 = J. Edward
, title = Zondervan Dictionary of Bible and Theology Words
, publisher = Zondervan
, year = 2009
, url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2_Xt5hHAPo4C&pg=PT111
Bereshit (parashah)
Biblical phrases
Book of Genesis
Christian soteriology
Christian terminology
Christology
Mariology