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)