Seed of the woman

The seed of the woman or offspring of the woman, drawn from Genesis 3:15, is a concept which is viewed differently in Judaism and Christianity. In Christian theology the phrase is often given a Messianic interpretation.

I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel

Some versions of Genesis (e.g. the English Standard Version and the New World Translation) speak of "your offspring and her offspring". God addresses Adam, and speaks of him and "the woman" He had made as his companion (Genesis 2:18,22), whom Adam subsequently named "Eve" (Genesis 3:20).

In rabbinical Judaism, the contrasting groups of "seed of the woman" and "seed of the serpent" are generally taken as plural, and the promise "he will bruise your head" applied to Adam / mankind bruising the serpent's head.

Although a possible Jewish messianic interpretation of Genesis 3:15 in some schools of Judaism during the Second Temple Period has been suggested by some Christian scholars, no evidence of such an interpretation has yet come to light.

Identification of the "seed of the woman" with Christ goes back at least as far as Irenaeus and the phrase "Seed of the woman" is sometimes counted as one of the titles of Jesus in the Bible. A tradition found in some old eastern Christian sources (including the Kitab al-Magall and the Cave of Treasures) holds that the serpent's head was crushed at Golgotha, described as a skull-shaped hill at the centre of the Earth, where Shem and Melchizedek had placed the body of Adam. More commonly, as in Victorian homilies, "It was on Golgotha that the old serpent gave the Saviour the deadly bite in his heel, which went quite through his foot, fastening it to the cross with iron nails."

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