GENESIS 3:15 - The First Preaching of the Gospel

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.

The First Preaching of the Gospel

Confession: In all my previous - and obviously hasty - readings, I had always assumed this verse was being addressed to Adam rather than Satan! What a difference altering the recipient makes! All of a sudden this verse went from being relatively straightforward (God saying that guys and gals will rule over gals and they won't get along) to being the most singularly loaded and difficult verse I've encountered yet.

Messianic Prophecy:

"This is one of the most remarkable verses in the Bible. The early church fathers called it the Protevangelium, which means "the first preaching of the gospel." It is the clearest promise of the coming of a Redeemer." (Ray Stedman)

"Here was the dawn of the gospel day: no sooner was the wound given, than the remedy was provided and revealed." (Matthew Henry Bible Commentary)

Most commentaries concerning this particular verse emphasize its messianic foreshadowing of the coming of Jesus:

• "her seed": as opposed to the seed of a man, i.e. the virgin Mary, mother of Jesus
• "He shall bruise...": masculine pronoun, indicating that Christ would be a man.
• "you shall bruise him on the heel": Christ would be made to suffer and die.
• "He shall bruise you on the head": Christ would be ressurected and in doing so defeat death and Satan whilst redeeming mankind in the process for their original sin.

The only thing more amazing than the amount of prophecy that's crammed into this verse is the content of the prophecy itself!

Enmity and the Woman:

While I can certainly agree with above-started interpretation of this verse as being a foretelling of the coming of Jesus who would redeem us from this original sin, I have a bit more trouble understanding some of the specifics of this verse.

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman..."

What is God talking about here? Not the dictionary sense of the word, "a feeling or condition of hostility; hatred; ill will; animosity; antagonism" (Dictionary.com), as it goes without saying that Adam & Eve would hate Satan after what he's done. The majority of commentaries the figures of Satan and the woman here to be representative of sin vs. righteousness, i.e. Satan's way vs. God's way, "this enmity cuts into the human race and divides mankind. Between those who stem from the woman and are true sons of Eve and those who follow the serpent and his master" (Answers in Genesis). But despite the relative unanimity of the commentaries, I still have problems buying into this explanation.

If indeed this is the correct interpretation than what is it exactly - at this point in time, void from everything else that would come after it - that makes the woman pure? After all, was she not the first one to sin? What makes woman anymore righteous than man at this point? God's decision to juxtapose Eve/woman against Satan and sinfulness seems baffling given that it comes directly on the heels of Eve sinning.

Perhaps I just need someone to explain it to me in even further layman's terms...

(back to Genesis 3)