The offspring of the woman
The Old Testament
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis 3:15
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In the New Testament
But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.
Galatians 4:4
BSB
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Straight after the fall, God tells the serpent that there will be enmity between the serpent and the offspring of the woman. That offspring will crush the serpent's head; the serpent will strike his heel.
The church father Irenaeus already read this in the second century as the first promise of salvation, spoken at the darkest moment. Later it came to be called the 'first gospel'. The Hebrew word for offspring, zera, can mean a group or a single person. Strikingly, the Greek translation made before Jesus, the Septuagint, uses 'he' here, as if one person is meant. The wound to the heel against the wound to the head is read as the cross, which is temporary, against the victory, which is final.