α) Gn. 3:15 (Protoevangelium): Inimicitas ponam inter te
et mulierem et semen tuum et semen illius; ipsa conteret caput tuum, et tu
insidiaberis calcaneo eius. The translation of these words,
according to the original text, is: “I will put enmity between you and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He (the seed of the woman) shall
crush thy head, and thou shalt crush his heel.”
The literal sense
of the passage is possibly the following: Between Satan and his followers on
the one hand, and Eve and her posterity on the other hand, there is to be
constant moral warfare. The posterity of Eve will achieve a complete and final
victory over Satan and his followers, even if it is wounded in the struggle.
The posterity of Eve includes the Messias, in whose power humanity will win a
victory over Satan. Thus the passage is indirectly messianic. Cf. D 2123.
The seed of the woman was understood as referring to the
Redeemer (the αὐτός of
the Septuagint), and thus the Mother of the Redeemer came to be seen in the
woman. Since the second century this direct messianic-marian interpretation has
been expounded by individual Fathers, for example, St. Irenaeus, St.
Epiphanius, Isidor of Pelusium, St. Cyprian, the author of the Epistola ad
amicum aegrotum, St. Leo the Great. However, it is not found in the writings of
the majority of the Fathers, among them the great teachers of the East and
West. According to this interpretation, Mary stands with Christ in a perfect
and victorious enmity towards Satan and his following. Many of the later
scholastics and a great many modern theologians argue, in the light of this
interpretation of the Proloevangelium that: Mary’s victory over Satan would not
have been perfect, if she had ever been under his dominion. Consequently she
must have entered this world without the stain of original sin.
The Bull “Ineffabilis” approves of this
messianic-marianic interpretation. It draws from it the inference that Mary, in
consequence of her intimate association with Christ, “with Him and through Him
had eternal enmity towards the poisonous serpent, triumphed in the most
complete fashion over him, and crushed its head with her immaculate foot.” The
Bull does not give any authentic explanation of the passage. It must also be
observed that the infallibility of the Papal doctrinal decision extends only to
the dogma as such and not to the reasons given as leading up to the dogma. (Ludwig
Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma [St. Louis: B. Herder Book Company,
1957], 200)
For those curious, D 2123 (part
of "The Historical Character of the Earlier Chapters of Genesis,"
Response of the Biblical Commission, June 30, 1909) reads thusly:
2123
[DS 3514] Question III:
Whether in particular the literal and historical sense can be called into
question, where it is a matter of facts related in the same chapters, which
pertain to the foundations of the Christian religion; for example, among
others, the creation of all things wrought by God in the beginning of time; the
special creation of man; the formation of the first woman from the first man;
the oneness of the human race; the original happiness of our first parents in
the state of justice, integrity, and immortality; the command given to man by
God to prove his obedience; the transgression of the divine command through the
devil’s persuasion under the guise of a serpent; the casting of our first
parents out of that first state of innocence; and also the promise of a future
restorer?—Reply: In the negative.
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