The Curse on the Serpent

A pdf file of my doctrinal dissertation, "The Curse on the Serpent (Genesis 3:15) in Biblical Theology and Hermeneutics" (John Ronning, PhD diss., Westminster Theological Seminary, 1997) is available here .

Genesis 3:15 has been often, for good reason, called the "protoevangelium," the first preaching of the gospel. Some main points:

1. A figurative / moral interpretation of the seed of the serpent and seed of the woman  is indicated by the first fulfillment of the predicted enmity, found in Genesis 4. The two seeds are the righteous and the wicked, which is most evident in the case of Cain, who is the serpent's seed, or offspring, because he is morally like the serpent (a liar, a murderer, and cursed). Thus when Jesus says "you are of your father the devil," the first precedent is Cain. Jesus was simply saying that his accusers were unconverted, since"offspring of the serpent" is the natural state of man. The predicted enmity continues throughout the OT and into the NT. Certain details of the episodes of enmity may be viewed as foreshadowings of things that were to be experienced by Jesus when he came into the world, which things are important in any study of the topic "Christ in the Old Testament."

2. Genesis 3:15 and its first fulfillment in Genesis 4 echoes the creation language of Genesis 1, implying that the seed of the woman (the righteous, such as Abel) is God's new creation; i.e., it refers to the new birth. Creation language in Genesis 3:15, along with the prediction of the crushing of the serpent's head, explains why in the OT depictions of God's victory over the dragon (Rahab or Leviathan) is recounted along with mention of creation (Psalm 74). It is relatively unknown that the adjective describing Rahab/Leviathan usually translated "fleeing serpent" actually means "evil serpent" (Isa 27:1; Job 26:13).

3. Genesis 3:15 is related to the theme of the "new Adam" in the Old Testament, and relates in general to messianic prophecy. But is "the seed of the woman" exclusively a reference to Christ? No: as stated above, the woman's seed is a collective referring to the righteous among mankind. However, we can see that in the second part of the verse, "he shall strike you on the head" could certainly refer to an individual, rather than having the woman's seed as antecedant. This would provide a "balance" to the verse which is otherwise missing. What I mean is that first there is a reference to two individuals: ". . .between you and the woman." Then there is reference to two collectives: "and between your offspring and her offspring." The third reference would be mixed if "he" referred back to the woman's (collective) seed: "he [collective] will strike you [an individual] on the head." So I argue that "he" actually does refer, in a way that would not be evident until subsequent revelation, to the work of Christ.

4. There are literalistic fulfillments of the curse in the OT, such as Jael driving a tent peg through the skull of Sisera, David killing Goliath with a blow to the head, etc. We can see something similar in the NT, as the cross of Jesus is driven into "the place of the skull" (mentioned in all four Gospels), while at the same time his feet are wounded.

There is also a good deal of discussion of Genesis 3:15 in my new book, The Jewish Targums and John's Logos Theology from Hendrickson . Also available, of course, from many online bookstores such as Amazon , Christianbook.com , Westminster Bookstore , etc.