3.4.5. Crushing Satan under Your Feet (Rom 16:20)
Most interpreters acknowledge an allusion to Genesis 3:15 in Romans
16:20, although the language of Paul’s promise is not the same as the language
in Genesis 3:15. The LXX rendering of שׁיף
as τηρέω in Genesis 3:15 is
known to be problematic. Therefore, it seems likely that Paul chose a Greek
word that would more accurately translate שׁיף:
συντρίβω, which means “to
crush.” In the context, Paul seems to be representing the heretics in 16:17 as
agents of Satan, an idea supported by other Pauline statements identifying
false teachers as agents of Satan (2 Cor 11:14–15). In this sense, these two
collective groups are at enmity with each other. What is noteworthy in Romans
16:20 is that it is both an individual (the God of peace) and a collective
group (the church) who are involved in crushing Satan, though the key actor in
the victory is God rather than the church. If Romans 16:20 is an allusion to
Genesis 3:15, which seems quite probable, then it is definitely presenting both
an individual and a collective understanding of the identity of the seed of the
woman. (Jonathan M. Cheek, “The Individual and Collective
Offspring of the Woman: The Canonical Outworking of Genesis 3:15,” Themelios 48, no. 1 [April 2023]: 42-43
