GENESIS 3:15

After cursing the snake in Genesis 3:14 by making him crawl on the ground, God then says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring (“seed”) and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

There have been two basic ways scholars have taken these words over the years, which can be summarized under two different titles, both rather scholarly words which need a little definition.

Etiology – the investigation or attribution of the cause or reason for something, often expressed in terms of historical or mythical explanation.

The very name of this first book in the Bible, Genesis or “beginning,” is an indication that one reason for its writing, especially the earlier chapters, is to explain the origin of the physical and spiritual world we experience today. Thus, in Genesis 1 we are given a stylized account of the creation of the physical world; the next chapter demonstrates the great love God had for humanity and the responsibility we were given to carefully tend what He had given us; and Genesis 3 shows how mankind failed miserably and rebelled against God's authority, resulting in expulsion from His presence and the perfect world He had intended for us.

Closer at hand to the verse in question, Genesis 3:14 appears to be an etiological explanation for why snakes slither on the ground to move. Interestingly, ancient Jewish seals picture snakes with sets of wings. Was the snake perhaps punished by having his wings removed? Alternatively and more likely, fossils from Australia have provided our first evidence that snakes had hind legs. It is interesting that in the description of the new heaven and new earth in Isaiah 65, it says that “the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent – its food shall be dust!” Alternatively, the curse may have been a figurative one on Satan himself, stating that he would never rise in the world to the position he desired. Remember the passage in Revelation 12 where the dragon/serpent was thrown down to earth from the heights of heaven.

If we look at the other curses in Genesis 3:14-19, they can be viewed as explanations for other puzzling phenomena in our world today such as the hatred and fear of snakes by most women (15a), the increased pain during human childbirth compared to most other mammals (v. 16a), the eternal love-hate relations between the sexes (16b), the difficulty in growing food (17-19a), and eventual death (19b). Note the presence of the word “dust” at both the start and conclusion of these curses.

Protoevangelium – (1) another name for the apocryphal 2^nd century writing also called the Gospel of James; (2) an account which shows us that God always had the plan of salvation in mind, and informed us of His plan as soon as sin entered the world. It is only this second definition which is of interest to us here.

Genesis 3:15 is probably the first prophecy of the Savior coming as a human being; “offspring” can be singular or plural, but here it is singular, best translated by the word “he.” The Hebrew verb in this verse can mean crush or snap at according to context. So one way of translating these words to the snake is “He will crush your head and you will snap at his heel.” Satan may harass Christ, but Christ will conquer him. Many commentators take this to be the primary message of this verse:

    Ellison: This verse is the “germinal pronouncement of the gospel. The long conflict between those who are the children of God and the children of the evil one, which is one of the main themes of the OT, is here foretold. Not until the Virgin Birth could the full implication of the promise be understood (cf. Isa 7:14).”

    Kline: “Since this verse elaborates the declaration just made of Satan's doom, the point of the contrast between the wounding of head and heel is that the first is fatal, and the second is not. Clearly, however, the redemptive victory would involve suffering.”

    Beale: “The promise in Genesis 3:15 of the seed of the woman who would decisively defeat the serpent likely entails also an implicit reversal of his work that introduced death. It might not be unexpected that the reversal toward life might mirror the inaugurated and consummative aspect of the death.”

One point quite germane to understanding this verse entails a discussion of the grammar of the sentence. Thus, R.A. Martin observes that only in this verse, of the 103 times in Genesis where the Hebrew masculine pronoun is used, did the 3^rd century B.C. producers of the Greek Septuagint come up with a translation in which the pronoun “he” (masculine) did not agree in gender with that of the noun to which it was referring (“seed,” neuter).

From this observation, Kaiser concludes that “the divine intention deliberately wished to designate the collective notion which included a personal unity in a single person who was to obtain victory for the the whole group he represented.” This is why Eve, in Genesis 4:1, says mistakenly, “I have gotten a man, even the LORD” (not, according to Kaiser, “with the help of the LORD” as commonly translated).

Wenham's View – He critiques both of the above views. Concerning the etiological interpretation, Wenham states, “On the face of it, the saying looks like mere etiology. It is an explanation of why men try to kill snakes, and why snakes try to bite men...On the other hand, it must be remembered that this is a curse on the serpent, not on mankind, and something less than a draw would be expected...Once admitted that the serpent symbolizes sin, death, and the power of evil, it becomes much more likely that the curse envisages a long struggle between good and evil, with mankind eventually triumphing.”

In terms of the messianic view, he comments, “The NT also alludes to this passage, understanding it in a broadly messianic sense (Rom 16:20; Heb 2:14; Rev 12), and it may be that the term 'Son of Man' as a title for Jesus and the term 'woman' for Mary (John 2:4; 19:20) also reflects this passage...While a messianic interpretation may be justified in the light of subsequent revelation.., it would perhaps be wrong to suggest that this was the narrator's own understanding. Probably he just looked for mankind eventually to defeat the serpent's seed, the powers of evil.”

Conclusion

There are good reasons, as seen above, for rejecting the merely etiological viewpoint of this verse. So the weight of evidence, including the passage's understanding by early Christians and Jews alike, indicates a messianic interpretation instead. And although Wenham brings up the perennial question of whether or not the inspired authors of the OT truly understood all the implications of what they were saying and writing, note that he ignores the grammatical evidence pointing, even back in the OT text, to the fulfillment of this prophecy through a single man, not by humanity as a whole.