Genesis 3:15 (WEB)
I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
As quoted in the map (KJV)
Genesis 3:15 (KJV)
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Key words
- אֵיבָהeybah · Hebrew
- 'enmity' — lethal hostility, the language of blood-feud and war (Numbers 35:21; Ezekiel 25:15).
- זֶרַעzera · Hebrew
- 'seed' — offspring. Greek sperma (σπέρμα); the same word Revelation 12:17 uses for 'the rest of her seed.'
- שׁוּףshuph · Hebrew
- 'bruise' or 'crush' — used of both blows, but a crushed head is fatal while a bruised heel is not.
- αὐτόςautos · Greek (LXX)
- 'he' — the Greek translators used a masculine pronoun for the seed, reading the verse as pointing to an individual son of the woman (the Latin Vulgate's ipsa, 'she,' produced the familiar image of Mary crushing the serpent).
Why it matters
This is the protoevangelium, the 'first gospel,' and the founding text of the New Eve typology. God sets a war between the serpent and the woman, and between their two lines of offspring, and promises that the woman's seed will crush the serpent's head. Pitre shows that the New Testament reads Mary as this 'Woman' (John 2:4; 19:26; Revelation 12) and Jesus as the seed who defeats Satan at the cross (John 12:31), and that the Fathers built the Immaculate Conception on the idea that the New Eve, like the first, begins without sin.
Catechism · 5
The Seventh Commandment
“By enduring the hardship of work” — Catechism footnote: Cf. Gen 3:14-19.
The Fall
“The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination.” — Catechism footnote: Cf. Gen 3:7-16.
“On the contrary, God calls him and in a mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall.” — Catechism footnote: Cf. Gen 3:9, 15.
"Conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary"
- §489Paragraph 2 · "Conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary"Read at vatican.va
“At the very beginning there was Eve; despite her disobedience, she receives the promise of a posterity that will be victorious over the evil one, as well as the promise that she will be the mother of all the living.” — Catechism footnote: Cf. Gen 3:15, 20.
The Revelation of God
“For he wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing."” — Catechism footnote: DV 3; cf. Gen 3:15; Rom 2:6-7.
Fathers and councils · 18
Irenaeus of Lyons
“He shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.”” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 15.
Read the whole comment“…enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He shall be on the watch for (observabit) thy head, and thou on the watch for His heel.”” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 15.
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Cyril of Jerusalem
“For there is also an enmity which is right, according as it is written, I will put enmity between thee and her seed; for friendship with the serpent works enmity with God, and death.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 15.
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Justin Martyr
“I return answer by anticipation: Could not God have cut off in the beginning the serpent, so that he exist not, rather than have said, ‘And I will put enmity between him and the woman, and between his seed and her seed?’” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 15.
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Hippolytus of Rome
“He shall be well armed in the foot (heel), and shall overtake and rob the robber’s troop.” — editor's note: [An important hint that by “heel,” in Gen. iii. 15, the “foot” is understood, by rhetorical figure.]
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Augustine of Hippo
“Therefore when the Lord would caution His Church, He said, “It shall watch thy head, and thou shalt watch his heel.”” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 15.
Read the whole comment“…to seek and to bring home a wife for his son, being by faith fully persuaded, that in that, so to speak, contemptible seed was contained the great Name; that is, that the Son of God was to come of the seed of Abraham, out of all the children of men; did not he, I say, cause his servant to swear unto him in this…” — editor's note: “In illâ veluti humilitate seminis esse magnitudinem Nominis.” [The promise (Gen. iii. 15) dignified the loins of Isaac (Gen. xvii. 19) as with the Incarnation…
Read the whole comment““She shall mark thy head, and thou shalt mark her heel.”” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 15. [“She shall mark,” etc. So the Vulgate, but not in the older editions. The Septuagint is conclusive as to the ancient exposition of the Jews, for…
Read the whole comment“That head is the part which received the curse, to wit that the seed of Eve should mark the head of the serpent.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 15.
Read the whole comment“For if an angel is able to use air, mist, cloud, fire, and any other natural substance or corporal species; and man to use face, tongue, hand, pen, letters, or any other significants, for the purpose of intimating the secret things of his own mind: in a word, if,…” — editor's note: [Judg. xiii. 20. This mysterious subject may be illustrated from Holy Scripture so as to justify our author’s very broad statement. It throws light on Gen.…
Read the whole comment“This delivering up is first signified in Genesis, where, when it had been said to the serpent, “Dust shalt thou eat,” it was said to the man, “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shall return.”” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 14–19
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Ephrem the Syrian
“There rose from the Rib a hidden power, which cut off Satan as Dagon: for in that Ark a book was hidden that cried and proclaimed concerning the Conqueror!” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 15.
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Tertullian
“Is it thus that she will set her heel on the devil’s head,” while she heaps ornaments (taken) from his head on her own neck, or on her very head?” — editor's note: See Gen. iii. 15.
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Gregory of Nazianzus
“This is why the heathen rage and the peoples imagine vain things; why tree is set over against tree, hands against hand, the one stretched out in self indulgence, the others in generosity; the one unrestrained, the others fixed by nails, the one expelling Adam, the other reconciling the ends of the earth.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 6–23.
Read the whole comment“But he who would flee from Egypt and the things of Egypt must put on shoes for safety’s sake, especially in regard to the scorpions and snakes in which Egypt so abounds, so as not to be injured by those which watch the heel which also we are bidden to tread under foot.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 15.
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John Cassian
“How the devil always lies in wait for our end, and how we ought continually to watch his head.” — editor's note: All through this chapter Cassian is alluding to Gen. iii. 15: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed; it shalt bruise…
Read the whole comment“Wherefore, though in the matter of all kinds of sins we ought ordinarily to watch the serpent’s head, yet in this above all we should be more keenly on our guard.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 15.
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Cyprian of Carthage
“He shall regard thy head, and thou shalt watch his heel.”” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 14, 15.
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Cross-references · 36
Cited together in Dialogue with Trypho Chapter 102.
Cited together in Catechism §489.
Cited together in Catechism §489.
Cited together in Catechism §489.
Cited together in Catechism §489.
Cited together in Catechism §489.
Cited together in Catechism §489.
Cited together in Catechism §489.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.21.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.21.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity XIII.12.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.21.
Cited together in Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews II.10.
Cited together in Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews II.10.
Cited together in Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews II.10.
Cited together in Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews II.10.
Cited together in Against Heresies IV.40.
Cited together in Dialogue with Trypho Chapter 102.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.21.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.21.
Cited together in Against Heresies IV.40.
Cited together in Against Heresies IV.40.
Cited together in Against Heresies IV.40.
Cited together in Against Heresies IV.40.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.21.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.21.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.21.
Cited together in Catechism §55.
Cited together in Catechism §55.
Cited together in Catechism §400.
Cited together in Catechism §400.
Cited together in Catechism §489.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity XIII.12.
Cited together in Catechism §2427.
Cited together in Catechism §2427.
Cited together in Catechism §400.