Experience bears ample witness to the truth of the divine sentence, that there shall, in future, be enmity between the seed of the serpent and mankind, in so far as this sentence refers to the instrument of the temptation; for abhorrence of the serpent is natural to man. Thus Calvin remarks: "It is in consequence of a secret natural instinct that man abhors them; and as often as the sight of a serpent fills us with horror, the recollection of our apostasy is renewed."
But, in the fate of the serpent which is here announced, there is an indication of the doom of the spiritual author of the temptation. It has been objected that any reference to Satan is inadmissible, because the "seed of the serpent" here spoken of cannot designate wicked men, who are "children of the devil;" for these, too, belong to the seed of the woman, and cannot, therefore, be put in opposition to it. But against this objection Storr, in his treatise, de Protevangelio, remarks: "We easily see that many of the seed of the woman likewise belong to the seed of the serpent; but they have become unworthy of that name, since they apostatized to the common enemy of their race." It is quite true that, by the seed of the woman, her whole progeny is designated; but they who enter into communion with the hereditary enemy of the human race are viewed as having excommunicated themselves. Compare Gen. xxi. 12, where Isaac alone is declared to be the true descendant of Abraham, and his other sons are, as false descendants, excluded. Moreover, not only wicked men, but also the angels of Satan (Matt. xxv. 41; Rev. xii. 7-9), belong to the seed of the serpent.
The greater number of the earlier Christian interpreters were of opinion that, by the seed of the woman, the Messiah is directly pointed at. But to this opinion it may be objected, that it does violence to the language to understand, by the seed of the woman, any single individual; and the more so, since we are compelled to understand, by the seed of the serpent, a plurality of individuals, viz., the spiritual children of Satan, the heads and members of the kingdom of darkness. Further,—As far as the sentence has reference to the serpent, the human race alone can be understood by the seed of the woman; and to this, therefore, the victory over the invisible author of the temptation must also be adjudged. The reference to the human race is also indicated by the connection between "her seed" in this verse, and the words, "Thou shalt bring forth sons," in ver. 16. Finally,—As the person of the Messiah does not yet distinctly appear even in the promises to the Patriarchs, this passage cannot well be explained of a personal Messiah; inasmuch as, by such an explanation, the progressive expansion of the Messianic prophecy in Genesis would be destroyed.
If, however, by the seed of the woman we understand the entire progeny of the woman, we obtain the following sense: "It is true that thou hast now inflicted upon the woman a severe wound, and that thou and thine associates will continue to assail her: but, notwithstanding thine eager desire to injure, thou shalt be able to inflict on mankind only such wounds as are curable; while, on the contrary, the posterity of the woman shall, at some future period, vanquish thee, and make thee feel all thy weakness."
This interpretation is found as early as in the Targum of Jonathan, and in that of Jerusalem, where, by the seed of the woman, are understood the Jews, who, at the time of the Messiah, shall overcome Sammael. Thus, too, does Paul explain it in Rom. xvi. 20, where the promise is regarded as referring to Christians as a body. It has found, subsequently, an able defender in Calvin[3] and, in modern times, in Herder.[4] The treatise of Storr, too (in the Opusc. ii.), is devoted to its defence.
Even according to this interpretation, the passage justly bears the name of the Protevangelium, which has been given to it by the Church. It is only in general terms, indeed, that the future victory of the kingdom of light over that of darkness is foretold, and not the person of the Redeemer who should lead in the warfare, and bestow the strength which should be necessary for maintaining it. Anything beyond this we are not even entitled to expect at the first beginnings of the human race; a gradual progress is observable in the kingdom of grace, as well as in that of nature.
It is certainly, however, not a matter of chance that the posterity of the woman is not broken up into a plurality, but that, in order to designate it, expressions in the singular (זרע and הוא) are chosen. This unity, which, in the meanwhile, it is true, is only ideal, was chosen with regard to the person of the Redeemer, who comprehends within Himself the whole human race. And it is not less significant, and has certainly a deeper ground, that the victory over the serpent is assigned to the seed of the woman, not to the posterity of Adam; and though, indeed, the circumstance that the woman was first deceived may have been the proximate cause of it, yet it cannot be exclusively referred to, and derived from, it. By these remarks we come still nearer to the view of the ancient Church.
[ [1]] So, e.g. Cramer in the Nebenarbeiten zur Theologischen Literatur, St. 2.
[ [2]] The positive reasons by which I there proved the reference to Satan, have not been invalidated by the objections of Hofmann in his Schriftbeweis i. 379. He says: As an adjective formed in a manner similar to קלקל (Num. xxi. 6) must have an intransitive signification, it cannot mean "separated," but according to its derivation from עזל = אזל, it means: "altogether gone away." But this argument has no force. The real import of the form of the word is gradation, and frequent repetition. Instances of a passive signification are given in Ewald's Lehrbuch der Hebr. Sprache, § 157 c.: compare, e.g., Deut. xxxii. 5. There is so much the stronger reason for adopting the passive signification, that in Arabic also,—which alone can be consulted, as the comparison with the Hebrew אזל has no sure foundation on which to rest,—the root has the signification: remotus, sepositus fuit, and the participle: a ceteris se sejungens. Compare Egypt and the B. M., p. 169.