Thursday, December 19, 2019

Kevin S. Chen on Genesis 3:15



I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your offspring and hers; They shall strike at your head, And you shall strike at their heel." (Gen 3:15 1985 JPS Tanakh)

Commenting on how this prophecy is about a singular person, not a group of people, Kevin S. Chen wrote:

A corporate understanding of the “seed of the woman,” whether referring to the human race in general, Israel, or the righteous does not fit the reality of humanity as a whole being helplessly mired in sin (Gen 6:5; 8:21; Deut 31:21) and subject to a divine sentence (Gen 5:5-29; Ps 90:3, 7-9). Whereas the serpent’s initial victory was also a victory for sin and death (see Gen 3:19, 22; 4:7), neither the human race, Israel, nor the righteous in and of themselves show any signs whatsoever of being able to conquer any of these three foes. Rather, the Lord himself will slay the serpent (Is 27:1), put away sin (Mic 7:19; Ps 103:12), and vanquish death (Is 25:1; Hos 13:14). Moreover, there is nothing in the Old Testament that links any of these groups to being struck on the heel by the serpent while simultaneously defeating him. Even if Romans 16:20 is considered, it is still the Lord who crushes Satan under the feet of his people. A close parallel is that of faithless Israel being fatally bitten by snakes in Numbers 21:4-9, which only reinforces their need to be saved by the Lord from the same three enemies (Deut 8:15; Jer 8:17 . . .Equating the woman’s seed simply with Israel or the righteous is appealing because it fits with the development of the theme of seed in the Pentateuch that narrows it to this specific line (Gen 12:7; 24:60; 28:13-14), often related to conflict with the wicked (e.g., Abel in Gen 4:1-12; Israel in Ex 1:7-14). But this specific line cannot simply represent the righteous (in contrast with the wicked seed of the serpent) because of the mixed character of not only Jacob (and the nation of Israel) but also key figures such as Noah (Gen 9:20-21) and Abraham (Gen 12:11-13;16:1-4; 20:2). Nevertheless, there is another way to explain this feature of the Pentateuch. Although this narrowing does at points relate to Israel’s role in the Abrahamic covenant (e.g., Gen 15:13-16) and the Lord’s faithfulness to this covenant, at other points and with respect to Genesis 3:15 it relates to the Messiah coming from Israel’s line to save both his own nation and all the nations of the world (Is 49:56). In order for this to happen (Num 22:12; 24:17), it was necessary at least for Israel to be preserved, which naturally included foretastes of eschatological victory (e.g., the exodus). However, Israel’s limited victories over enemies never achieved final victory Thus the conflict in Genesis 3:15 makes the most sense if it concerns an individual seed of the woman, the serpent, and all who follow the serpent, be they demons or humans. Incidentally, if Jacob is taken as a paradigm, then the righteous people of God are not innately righteous but delivered out of a former life of following in the serpent’s pattern (Jn 5;24; Col 1:13). This resembles Abram being called out of “Ur of the Chaldeans” (Gen 15:7), that is, Babel/Babylon (Gen 11:9; Is 13:19). Just as Abraham would become “father of a multitude of nations” (Gen 17:4-5), so Jacob would become a “congregation of peoples” (Gen 28:3; 48:4; 49:10). If the preceding arguments hold, then Israel and the righteous are not the focus of Genesis 3:15, even though they are aligned with the seed of the woman and share in his conflict with the serpent and its seed. They can also be linked to the conflict between the serpent and Eve because she is “the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20).

There are good reasons for understanding Genesis 3:15 as the first direct prophecy of the Messiah in the Pentateuch and the Old Testament. As such, it selectively combines important Messianic themes, such as enmity with the serpent, the promise of seed, the key role of a woman, the crushing of the serpent’s head, and the crushing of his own heel. (Kevin S. Chen, The Messianic Vision of the Pentateuch [Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP, 2019], 47, 49-50

On the early Christian (Messianic) interpretation of Gen 3:15, see:

Dominic J. Unger, The First-Gospel Genesis 3:15 (New York: The Franciscan Institute, 1954)