The Messianic Promise of Genesis 3:15

In a day of rampant biblical illiteracy—not in society at large, but also within church—the richness of God’s salvation as revealed in His Word has gone unnoticed and overlooked.  The popular misunderstanding that God, once wrathful and vicious, changed into a God of love and mercy between the periods of the Old and New Testaments is held even by Christians.  Another example of popular doctrinal error is the belief that the equal powers of a good God and an evil Satan are at war.  Such ignorance must be confronted.  The most effective weapon against these misconceptions is God’s Word, for it reveals that from the very beginning an omnipotent God has shown mercy and grace.

After the first chapter of Genesis presents the creation of the universe from a cosmic perspective, the second chapter takes up the story of man’s creation.  The perspective shifts from a wide-angle view of all that has been made to a more isolated and personal focus on the first humans and their home.[1]  God creates man and commands him to work and keep the garden God has provided for him (2:15).  The woman is created to help the man in his task (2:18).  So in this garden paradise, God relates intimately with the man and woman, who are in relational harmony with one another.  The man and his wife have all they need and are given everything in the garden as food, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The consequences of eating from this tree would be death (2:17). 

Chapter 3 begins the story traditionally called “The Fall.”  The serpent enters the scene tempting the woman to break the command of God and proves to be successful.  Adam also partakes (3:6).  This transgression of God’s command causes a break in the relationships that had previously been harmonious.  The man and woman no longer remain naked, but feel ashamed and cover themselves (3:7).  They also hide from God when they hear Him approach in the garden (3:8).  However, God initiates reconciliation by asking, “Where are you?” (3:9)  In the verses that follow, Adam confesses to eating the forbidden fruit, but blames his wife.  She then blames the serpent for tempting her.  From 3:14-19, God delivers the consequences for the sin of Adam and his wife. 

God addresses Adam last as He presents the consequence of the fall.  Adam is told that rather than joyfully work and keep the land, he will toil and reap fruit only by the sweat of his brow (3:17-19).  Eve learns that she will have pain in childbearing, and the relationship between her and her husband will be marked by a struggle for power (3:16).  While God cursed the ground which the man would work and frustrated the role of the woman by increasing both physical and relational pain, neither the man nor woman were directly cursed.  This cannot be said, however, of the serpent.  The serpent is “cursed above all livestock” and sentenced to crawl on his belly (3:14).  Then God says to the serpent:  “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (3:15).

Charles H. Spurgeon said of this verse, “There lie within it, as an oak lies within an acorn, all the great truths which make up the gospel of Christ.”[2]  Indeed, in both the Christian and Jewish tradition, many commentators have seen within Genesis 3:15 the first references to a promised Messiah.  For this reason it has been named the protoevangelium, or “first Gospel.”  Irenaeus wrote, “Christ completely renewed all things, both taking up the battle against our enemy and crushing him who at the beginning had led us captive in Adam, trampling on his head, as you find in Genesis that God said to the serpent…”[3]  The implications of a Messianic reading of this text are monumental.  If the promise of a triumphant Messiah appears so early in the biblical narrative, and if salvation for sinful man is from the outset connected to trust in this promise, this would surely cut deeply into the false notions that God has a rival who is His equal and that God’s character shifted from being wrathful to merciful over time.

Some commentators actually do not believe the facts support a messianic reading,[4] but a number of the objections can be overcome.  Those who come to the Bible with a strictly academic mindset and no faith in its verbal-plenary inspiration often disagree with the Judeo-Christian tradition of identifying the serpent as a satanic figure.  Robert Alters of the University of California at Berkeley, for example, thinks the verse simply shows the first split between humans and the animal kingdom.[5]  It seems odd, however, that one would disconnect a text from the tradition of its source.  Being a Jewish document, the traditional Jewish interpretation should be a voice considered in the text’s interpretation.  As the Hebrew Scriptures continued to be written, the serpent/dragon imagery continued to be developed as a representation of an evil one.  One example is Isaiah 27:1, which says, “In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.”[6]  Certainly Christians who place faith in God’s Word as revelation have an easier task when they attempt to identify the serpent.  John’s Revelation makes the meaning unarguably plain:  “And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:2).

Another objection to a Messianic interpretation of Genesis 3:15 is based on the possible understandings of the word “seed.”  Some have concluded that this word cannot be used to personally refer to a specific individual, but only conveys a more general idea of “posterity.”  Motyer, however, demonstrates that this point “is simply not true” by listing a number of texts that use the term as anticipating a single, coming seed.[7]  One must admit that in the isolated context of Genesis 3 an amount of ambiguity exists concerning the meaning of “seed.”  But as the story of the Hebrew people develops through the rest of the book of Genesis and even throughout the Old Testament, one finds increasing clarity in understanding Genesis 3:15.  As the story of the human family follows from one generation to the next, the enmity between two distinct types of people is a recurring theme.  Those who trust God are opposed to those who are generally hostile to Him.[8]  T. D. Alexander notes, “Within the overall context of Genesis the ‘seed of the woman’ refers to those who are righteous, whereas the ‘seed of the serpent’ denotes those who are wicked.”[9]  This verse, then, contains a promise that good will triumph over evil.

However, a messianic reading requires that the “seed” point to a specific, coming Redeemer.  Evidence for such a reading is provided in the latter portion of the verse.  The writer employs the singular possessive suffix on the Hebrew word “heel.”[10]  Thus “his heel” lends itself to understanding the singular masculine pronoun in the phrase “he will crush your head.”  The Jewish community some three hundred years before Jesus understood the “seed” in this way, as reflected in the Septuagint’s rendering of this verse.  Here, again, the masculine, singular personal pronoun is used to modify “seed.”[11]  The most powerful evidence for understanding “seed” to refer to a coming Messiah is found when these Old Testament promises are linked and then viewed through the lens of the New Testament.  The structure of Genesis clearly supports understanding a break, both in style and focus, between Genesis 1-11 and Genesis 12-50.[12]  At the outset of this second section, God makes promises to Abram concerning his “seed,” revealing that it will be through Abram’s line that the promised One would come.  Speaking about this text, Paul writes in Galatians 3:16, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings [plural “seed”],’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring [singular “seed”],’ who is Christ.”

It is important to note that many commentators believe the ambiguity that naturally comes with the use of a collective singular term such as “seed” is intentional and helpful in understanding what is later revealed about God’s plan for redemption.  The enmity of Genesis 3:15 describes an ongoing battle between two lines within the human race and a coming battle between a particular human and a particular enemy.  Thus a tension grows between the singular and plural fulfillments of the verse.  As the promise is developed, the singular and plural lines run parallel.  For example, in Genesis 22:17, God says to Abraham, "I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.  And your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies."The first usage of "seed" in this verse clearly refers to a number of blessed offspring in Abraham’s line.  The second occurrence refers to a coming One who will overcome the opposing line of the serpent.  In subsequent texts more examples of singular-plural tension can be found.  The collective nation of Israel is referred to as the firstborn son [singular] of God (Exodus 4:22).  When Israel gets a king, his faithfulness inevitably sways (or represents?) the faithfulness of the nation as a whole.  After Isaiah introduces a Servant of the Lord [singular] who will appear on the scene (Isaiah 42:1), he refers to Israel [plural, referring the whole nation of people] as the servant (Isaiah 44:1).  Ultimately this tension is resolved as God reveals that He intends to save sinful humanity [plural] by identification with a representative Messiah [singular]:  “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed… by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:4-5, 11).

The battle pictured between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman also lends itself to messianic interpretation.  God spoke to the serpent, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  Kaiser points out that while the same verb is used for each action (bruise/crush), “the contrast between crushing the head and crushing the heel is the difference between a mortal blow to the skull and a slight injury to the victor."  Old Testament pictures of this battle abound:  Jael crushed Sisera’s head with a tent peg (Judges 5:26); a woman crushed Abimelech’s head with a millstone (Judges 9:53); David’s stone struck Goliath in the forehead, crushing his skull (1 Samuel 17:49).  Yet these stories seem to prompt greater anticipation of victory because none of these is final.  Isaiah speaks of the coming Messiah as one who will put an end, once and for all, to the enmity between the seed.  The chosen Servant of the Lord will “faithfully bring forth justice” (Isaiah 42:3).  Also, “He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted” (Isaiah 52:13).  In the process of claiming this victory, however, God will allow His heel to be bruised by the very enemy who is promised defeat:  “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10).

The New Testament refers to the promise of Genesis 3:15 when it speaks of Jesus as the Messiah who has secured victory for His people, the Church.  In Galatians 4:4, Paul uses the “seed of a woman” language of the protoevangelium as he writes, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman…”  He also said, “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:24-25).  The very heel that was wounded is the heel that will crush the serpent’s head:  “[The Father] raised [Christ] from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church…” In the closing of his letter to the church at Rome, Paul writes, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20).  (Ephesians 1:20-22).  Thus the victory of Christ is also the victory of the Church. 

The promise, when first spoken by God, was encouragement to Adam.  For he went on to name his wife Eve—that is, Life-giver—though he knew the consequences of sin are death (Genesis 3:20).  These words should also be encouragement to believers today.  Just as God provided an innocent covering to the fallen Adam and Eve when they placed faith in this first messianic promise (Genesis 3:21), so He provides the covering of Christ’s righteousness to all who trust in Jesus as the Messiah.  And though we who are seed of the woman, born again by the will of God, continue to find ourselves in a battle against the forces that oppose godliness, we have this promise that the serpent will be crushed.  Let us sing with the saints of old:

Tis by thy blood, immortal Lamb,

Thine armies tread the tempter down;

Tis by thy word and powerful name,

They gain the battle and renown.

Rejoice ye heavens; let every star

Shine with new glories ‘round the sky;

Saints, while ye sing the heavenly war

,Raise your Deliverer’s name on high.[14] 

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[1] Tremper Longman III, Immanuel in Our Place (
Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2001), 3.

[2] C. H. Spurgeon, "Christ the Conqueror of Satan," 1876, sermon no. 1326 manuscript, Spurgeon's Sermons, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons22.ii.html. (accessed April 5, 2006).

[3] Andrew Louth, Genesis I-XI, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, ed. Thomas C. Oden, vol. OT 1 (Downers Grove, Illionois: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 90.

[4] Sherrill G. Stevens, Genesis, Layman's Bible Book Commentary, vol. 1 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1978), 31.

[5] Robert Alter, Genesis: Translation and Commentary (New York: Norton, 1996), 13.

[6] Other examples of serpent imagery can be found in Amos 9:3 and Job 26:13.

[7] Alec Motyer, Look to the Rock (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel, 1996), 35, 193.

[8] T.D. Alexander, The Servant King (Vancouver, British Columbia: Regent College Publishing, 1998), 18.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Walter C. Kaiser, The Messiah in the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1995), 39.

[11] Ibid., 40.

[12] J. I. Packer, "Hermeneutics and Genesis 1-11," Southwestern Journal of Theology 44, no. 1 (Fall 2001): 12-13.

[13] Kaiser, 41.

[14] Spurgeon.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

T.D. Alexander. The Servant King.
Vancouver, British Columbia: Regent College Publishing, 1998.

Robert Alter. Genesis: Translation and Commentary.
New York: Norton, 1996.

Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. The Messiah in the Old Testament.
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1995.

Andrew Louth. Genesis I-XI. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, ed. Thomas C. Oden, vol. OT 1.
Downers Grove, Illionois: InterVarsity Press, 2001.

Tremper Longman III, Immanuel in Our Place. (
Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2001).

Alec Motyer. Look to the Rock.
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel, 1996.

J. I. Packer. "Hermeneutics and Genesis 1-11." Southwestern Journal of Theology 44, no. 1 (Fall 2001): 4-21.

C. H. Spurgeon. "Christ the Conqueror of Satan." 1876. Sermon No. 1326 manuscript. Spurgeon's Sermons. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons22.ii.html. (accessed April 5,2006).

Sherrill G. Stevens. Genesis. Layman's Bible Book Commentary, vol. 1.
Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1978.

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~ by jakeporter on May 9, 2006.