Genesis 3:15 Study | he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel

It is quite enigmatic the meaning of the biblical text recorded in the verse of Genesis 3:15. The different versions of the Bible in Portuguese, English, Greek and even Aramaic, bring translations that require attention and interpretation.

This verse speaks of enmity between the first woman (Eva), and the snake, which would extend to the woman’s offspring, and the serpent’s offspring.

Furthermore, according to our versions of Genesis 3:15, the Eternal would have promised that the woman’s offspring (or someone of that offspring – depends on the version) would injure / attack / crush and crush the snake’s head, and the snake would injure its heel.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will hurt your head, and you will hurt its heel.
Genesis 3:15

The Church, in general, recognizes a messianic prophecy in these words. The Messiah, Jesus Christ, would be the one who would fulfill it, crushing the serpent’s head, through his death at the crucifixion, and subsequent resurrection.

The wound in the heel of Christ would be the flagellation of the Messiah, when he was flogged, mocked, and nailed to the cross of Calvary, on Golgotha.

This version of the story about the fall of man and its consequences, which is in Genesis 3:15, appears very strongly in the interpreted (paraphrased) translations from the Old Testament to Aramaic, since the return of the Jews from Babylonian exile.

Aramaic was popularized among Jews at that time, and biblical books were translated, as they were understood, in many cases neglecting the literal and original Hebrew text.

One of the most widely read translations of Genesis 3:15 was that of the document called Targum Neofiti, which contained the following verse in which the Eternal addresses his punishment to the serpent:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your children and her children.

And it will happen that when the woman’s children observe the Law, and keep the commandments, they will target you, strike you in the head, and kill you.

But when they Abandon the commandments of the law, you will attack them on their heels and make you sick.

For her children, however, there will be a remedy, but for you, O serpent, there will be no remedy, for they must do the appeasement in the end, on the day of King Messiah [Christ]. Targum Neofiti – Genesis 3:15

The Old Testament Peshitta text in Aramaic is also very similar to the Portuguese version, following this strong influence of the interpretation of popular translations, at the time of the second Temple, at the time of Jesus and the Apostles.

However, a large part of the people of Israel never failed to speak Hebrew. The Dead Sea manuscripts revealed that Hebrew was a living language, used in everyday life, at the same time.

In other words, the Jews became a bilingual people, using more Hebrew (in the south of the country, in Judea), or Aramaic (in the north, in Galilee), depending on the region in which they found themselves.

And it is because of the meaning of the original text in Genesis 3:15, that I explained this above. There is an original that differs from the versions we currently have (which, as we have seen, are influenced by paraphrased Aramaic translations).

And what would be written in Genesis 3:15 in the original Hebrew? What would those words mean? This is the subject of our Bible study. Follow us.

Genesis 3:15 in the original

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed …
Genesis 3:15

As we have explained in our studies of the first book of the Bible, Genesis uses events that have occurred as a means of illustrating spiritual truths. It is the famous levels of interpretation acting together in this book that is highly symbolic.

The allegories in this verse refer to the figure of the “serpent”, which in the original is the word נַחַשׁ “nachash” (reads narásh), and is a masculine term, which can also be translated as “seducer”.

The cunning of this character is an allegory for “Satan”, which later in the biblical text is called “the ancient serpent”.

He trapped the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and tied him up for a thousand years.
Revelation 20: 2

The woman is a symbol of the “Congregation of the Eternal”, which is popularly called the Church. In other words, the woman is a symbol of the Church. And see that there is a prophecy in this verse that there will be an enmity between Satan and the Lord’s Church.

This enmity was put by the Eternal himself, and it passed to the “seeds” of both the woman and the serpent. The word seed in the original, in Hebrew, is the term זֶרַע “zêra”, which also means “generation / descent”.

The “seed / offspring / generation” of women, is the allegorical representation of the generation of the Church. In other words, it is the representation of the generations of the just, who have been persecuted by the generation of the serpent since the just Abel.

Cain, is the allegory of the generation / race of the serpent, who chased and killed Abel, his brother, the first member of the Church of the just. And that enmity did not end there.

Millennia after the fall of man, we find John the Baptist preaching in the desert, warning the men of his own nation, to stop being the descendants of the serpent:

And when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who came to his baptism, he said to them: Race of vipers, who taught you to flee from future wrath?
Matthew 3: 7

Breed of vipers, in Hebrew, are the words זֶרַע צִפְעוֹנִים Zêra Tsifoním, which also mean “offspring of the serpent”.

John thus called the Pharisees and Sadducees those who opposed his preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and who persecuted the generation of the just, the Church, the congregation of the Lord.

So that Jesus taught that all those who persecute his Church, are considered a race of vipers, a generation of the serpent, whether of Jewish, Greek, Brazilian origin, or whatever. They are on the road to destruction.

For this generation to require the blood of all the prophets who, since the foundation of the world, have been shed;

From the blood of Abel, to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the temple; so, I tell you, this generation will be required.
Luke 11: 50,51

Still in the future, through the revelation of the Apostle John, we read in the book of Revelation that this struggle of the Church, in the figure of a woman, against the generation of the wicked, in the allegory of a serpent, will continue until the end of time.

And when the dragon saw that he had been cast into the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

And the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, so that she could fly into the desert, to her place, where she is supported for a time, and times, and half a time, out of sight of the serpent.
Revelation 12: 13,14

He will hurt your head

… he will hurt your head, and you will hurt its heel.
Genesis 3:15

The second part of the verse in Genesis 3:15 is the most difficult to understand. It turns out that in the original, in Hebrew, this is not quite what is written. However, as it is a complicated phrase, this is perhaps the reason that led the translators to search for an interpretation.

It turns out that the terms used are:

• הוּא Hu – He;
• יְשׁוּפְךָ Yeshufecha (reads Yeshufrra) – will hurt / attack you;
• רֹאשׁ Rosh (reads Rochi) – First (it can also mean head, when it is a noun);
• וְאַתָּה Ve Atá – And you / You;
• תְּשׁוּפֶנּוּ Teshufenu – (read Techufênu) – you will hurt / attack him;
• עָקֵב Aqev (reads Aquêvi) – Finally (it can mean heel when it is a noun).

Based on these meanings of the original, we can reconstruct the second part of Genesis 3:15, and try to understand it better:

… He will strike you first, and you will attack him last. Genesis 3:15 – translated from Hebrew

The main difference in this translation directly from the original, comes from the meaning of the word רֹאשׁ Rosh, which in this verse is after the verb “to hurt / attack”, and which cannot be translated as “head”, because there it works as an adverb of time.

רֹאשׁ Rosh, in the adverb function of time, means “first”. Likewise, the word עָקֵב Aqev, after the verb “hurt / attack”, is an adverb of time, meaning “last”.

עָקֵב Aqev, if used as a noun, would be “heel”, but this is not the case.

Furthermore, for the term “the head” to exist, the word רֹאשׁ Rosh, would have to be accompanied by a prefix with the letter ב BET, and a suffix with the letter ך RAF sofit, which would change the word to בראשך ” beroshcha “(reads beroshirrá).

Likewise, we would have to add the same prefix and suffix to the word עָקֵב Aqev, but that is not what we have in the original.

The meaning of Genesis 3:15

And in order to understand what is the message that Genesis 3:15 wants to send us, we also need to resort to interpretation. Everything indicates that Genesis is connected with the meanings of Revelation.

The woman’s seed / seed, in the original Hebrew, is treated as הוּא Hu – Him. And He came from the woman’s seed, without the participation of man, being born of a virgin, according to the prophecy of Isaiah :

All this happened in order to fulfill what was said on the Lord’s part, by the prophet, who says;

Behold, the virgin will conceive, and give birth to a son, And they will call him by the name of EMANUEL, Which translated is: God with us. Matthew 1: 22,23

And his torment on the cross was a direct attack on the serpent and the serpent’s seed, destroying the works of Satan:

… For this the Son of God was manifested: to destroy the works of the Devil.
1 John 3: 8

And he promised us that in the future, the snake will be crushed by our steps:

And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet …
Romans 16:20

And he will establish a kingdom on this earth that will have no end. But the snake will attack last. As a last breath she will once again try to defeat the Congregation, the Church of the Eternal.

And it will guide as many as are deceived in the last battle in the world. The snake will attack last, but will not succeed!

… and will go out to deceive the nations that are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, whose number is like the sand of the sea, in order to gather them for the battle.

And they went up over the width of the land, and surrounded the camp of the saints and the dear city; but fire came down from heaven, and devoured them;

and the Devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are; and day and night they will be tormented for ever and ever.
Revelation 20: 8-10