The Seed of the Woman from Eden to the New Jerusalem

The Protoevangelium in Eden: Promise of the Woman’s Seed
In Christian tradition, Genesis 3:15 is known as the Protoevangelium (“first gospel”) – a cryptic prophecy of redemption uttered to the serpent in Eden. God declares to the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”   This verse introduces a “seed of the woman” destined to battle the serpent. Uniquely, the offspring is described as that of the woman, not of a man – a phrasing that early Christians later saw as foreshadowing the Virgin Birth of Christ. In Christian exegesis the woman’s seed is ultimately Christ, born of a woman without an earthly father, who delivers the decisive blow to Satan (the serpent).

But there is also a collective aspect: the “seed” can be read as the community that comes forth from this victory – the people of God who share in Christ’s triumph. From the start, then, Genesis 3:15 carries a double meaning: it hints at a singular victorious offspring and a broader godly lineage at enmity with evil. Early Jewish interpreters, by contrast, often understood the verse more generally as a struggle between humankind and evil (or between humans and snakes), without an explicit messianic focus . Even so, the idea took root that this was the first glimmer of hope – a promise that evil would ultimately be overcome by the offspring of the woman. This hope unfolds across the canon, culminating in the imagery of Revelation, where the conflict foreseen in Eden reaches its dramatic resolution.

Eve and Mary: “New Eve” in Early Christian Interpretation
The early Church quickly drew a parallel between Eve and Mary, seeing in Mary the “New Eve” whose obedience unties Eve’s knot of disobedience  .  St. Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century) is one of the first to articulate this parallel.  In Against Heresies he explains that just as Eve, while still a virgin, had disobeyed God and became “the cause of death” for herself and all humanity, so Mary, “being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, became the cause of salvation for herself and the whole human race.”   Mary’s faithful fiat (“Let it be to me according to your word” – Luke 1:38) is the mirror-image of Eve’s faithless choice . Irenaeus explicitly connects this reversal to Genesis 3: Eve’s disobedience had allowed Satan to bind humanity, but Mary’s obedience loosed those bonds . Thus the Virgin Mary is seen as the woman through whom the serpent is ultimately overcome – the fulfillment of God’s words to Eve. Other Fathers echo this idea: Tertullian, Justin Martyr, and Cyril of Jerusalem all speak of Mary as the Second Eve, instrumental in reversing the fall.

Early Christians also read Genesis 3:15 itself as referencing Christ’s victory and Mary’s role. The “seed of the woman” was taken as a prophetic reference to Christ born of Mary  . Notably, the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) uses a masculine pronoun (“he shall bruise your head”), and most Christian Fathers understood the verse to say Christ will crush the serpent’s head . In the Latin West, however, a fascinating interpretive tradition arose: the Old Latin translation (and later St. Jerome’s Vulgate) rendered the pronoun in Genesis 3:15 as feminine – ipsa conteret, “she shall crush thy head.” St. Jerome knew the Hebrew is masculine, yet he chose the feminine reading because, as he notes, it had become common among Latin Fathers and it highlighted the role of the woman (Mary) in the Messiah’s victory. As one Catholic study observes, “Almost all Latin fathers – Augustine, Ambrose, and others – quoted this verse as ‘she [shall crush] thy head’” , understanding that Mary’s action is involved by giving birth to the Redeemer. While the serpent’s head is ultimately crushed by Christ on the cross, it is poetically also through Mary (the woman) that this victory comes about. In effect, the “woman” of Genesis 3:15 was seen as a joint reference to Eve and Mary: Eve as the immediate woman addressed, and Mary as the woman whose seed (Christ) fulfills the prophecy  . This gave rise to rich Eve-Mary typology in early Christian writings. St. Cyprian of Carthage (3rd century) thus writes that Christ is “the seed…from the woman that should trample on the head of the devil,” and he also exhorts believers that we, the Church, by Christ’s power will “crush” the serpent underfoot.

St. Augustine of Hippo adds another layer, identifying the “woman” not only as Eve or Mary, but also as the Church herself – the Bride of Christ and mother of believers. Augustine taught that the Church is the “Jerusalem above” and mater omnium (“mother of us all”) spoken of in Galatians 4:26 . Preaching on Psalm 87, he connects the City of God with the woman Zion who bears children: “the Heavenly Jerusalem, of which the Apostle says, ‘which is the mother of us all’ (Gal 4:26)” . In Augustine’s view, the promise of Genesis 3:15 ultimately points to the people of God’s city triumphing over the devil. He notes that Scripture often calls the Church Jerusalem or Zion, and portrays her as a mother bringing forth a holy seed. Thus, later interpreters like Augustine see a multi-layered “woman” in Genesis 3:15: Eve stands at the start of the story; Mary at the crucial turning point of the Incarnation; and Holy Mother Church (the New Eve in a corporate sense) carries the promise forward as the community in whom the victory over Satan is realized  . Even the “New Jerusalem” of Revelation can be viewed as this woman in her finalized form – the perfected Bride. We already see in Augustine the idea that the “woman” signifies God’s people in both Old and New Covenants: “the city of God is called Jerusalem” in prophecy both in an earthly sense and ultimately in the heavenly sense  . The early Church fathers, then, set the tone for reading Genesis 3:15 as a prophecy whose fulfillment spans from Mary’s divine maternity to the birth of the Church and beyond.

The Woman as Zion: Motherhood and Deliverance in Jewish Tradition
Parallel to Christian interpretation, Jewish exegesis also developed rich symbolism around the “woman” and her offspring, especially in relation to Zion. While Jewish commentators did not read Genesis 3:15 as a Messianic prophecy of a virgin-born redeemer, they did perceive the verse as hinting at humanity’s ultimate triumph over evil  . Ancient rabbis expanded on the Genesis narrative in imaginative Aggadah: one Midrash suggests the serpent in Eden actually lusted after Eve. The serpent’s temptation had a malicious motive – it “cast its eyes on Eve,” desiring to eliminate Adam and take Eve for itself. As punishment, God declares, “What the serpent wanted was not given him, and what he had was taken from him – ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman’” . In other words, in rabbinic lore God ensured that Eve and her progeny would never ally with the serpent. The enmity in Genesis 3:15 was thus understood as preventing any future serpent-human alliance – a moral separation between the offspring of Eve (humanity) and the offspring of the serpent (the forces of evil). The Midrash Rabbah on Genesis (Bereshit Rabbah 18.6) preserves this interpretation, noting that the serpent’s plan to possess the woman failed, resulting instead in perpetual antagonism.

This highlights an early Jewish view: the “seed of the woman” represents all humans, destined to struggle against the serpent’s seed (evil inclination or demonic forces). Indeed, the Targum (Aramaic paraphrase) on Genesis 3:15 reads the verse in a morally instructive way – not explicitly messianic, but with an eye to ultimate deliverance. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan interprets the verse as an exhortation: when the children of the woman keep God’s commandments, “they will smite you [serpent] on your head… but when they forsake the commandments, you will bite them in the heel.” Yet it concludes with a hint of hope: “there shall be a remedy for the sons of the woman…in the days of King Messiah.”  Here Jewish tradition does link the verse to the Messiah’s days, envisioning a time of healing for humanity’s wounds. The serpent will ultimately find no “medicine,” but the offspring of the woman will be healed in Messianic times . Thus, some strains of Jewish interpretation (as in this Targum) saw Genesis 3:15 as echoing the broader messianic hope that one day evil’s damage would be reversed .

Beyond Eden, the Hebrew Bible develops the image of Daughter Zion – Jerusalem personified as a woman and mother. The prophet Isaiah, especially, portrays Zion/Jerusalem as a mother who will travail and bring forth a redeemed people. In Isaiah 66:7–8 we read: “Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son. … Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be delivered in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she brought forth her children.” Here Zion is a woman who miraculously gives birth to a new nation. Jewish readers understood this as a metaphor for Israel’s restoration – a sudden, joyful birth of the community after the pangs of exile.

The woman of Isaiah 66 delivers a “male child” (interpreters have variously seen this as the Messiah or the collective people) without prolonged labor, signifying the gracious swiftness of God’s salvation. The next verses (Isa 66:10–14) invite rejoicing with Jerusalem as a mother, nursing and comforting her offspring. This prophetic image deeply influenced later Jewish thought: Zion became known as “Mother Zion.” In the rabbinic imagination, only Zion was explicitly called “mother,” since all peoples find birth or rebirth in her.

A Midrash on the Psalms, reflecting on Psalm 87:5 (“And of Zion it shall be said, ‘This one and that one were born in her’” ), notes: “Zion is called mother, for everyone is born in her.”  In other words, the true mother of the world is not Eve but Zion, the spiritual mother who gives life to all through God’s covenant. This concept prepared the ground for Paul’s later declaration that the “Jerusalem above” is our mother.

Jewish apocalyptic writings also describe a heavenly Jerusalem. Later rabbis spoke of a Jerusalem shel ma’alah (Jerusalem above) alongside the earthly city. Already in texts like 4 Ezra (2 Esdras) 9–10 (a 1st-century Jewish apocalypse), Zion appears as a visionary woman who transitions into a glorious city – a striking parallel to Revelation’s “bride-city.” Thus, even within Judaism, the woman Zion takes on an almost transcendent identity as both the mother of Israel and a heavenly archetype in God’s plan. The Babylonian Talmud likewise connects maternal labor with redemption in the phrase “the birthpangs of the Messiah” (chevlei Mashiach). The sages used the travail of a woman in labor as a metaphor for the tumultuous sufferings that would precede the Messianic age.

They imagined that just as a mother’s pain turns to joy with the birth of a child, so Israel’s trials would climax and then resolve with the advent of the Messiah and the dawn of salvation. In sum, Jewish tradition bequeathed to Christianity a rich tapestry of female imagery – Eve and her daughters striving against evil, Zion laboring to bring forth a redeemed multitude, and a heavenly Jerusalem awaiting as a mother above. These themes would all converge in the theology of the New Testament.

Seed of Abraham and Mother of Believers: Pauline Reflections
St. Paul takes the “seed” promise of Scripture and gives it a Christ-centered and ecclesial interpretation. In Galatians 3:16, Paul famously argues that the promise to Abraham’s “seed” in Genesis was singular, pointing specifically to Christ. “The promises were made to Abraham and to his seed; it does not say ‘and to seeds,’ as of many; but as of one: ‘and to your Seed,’ who is Christ” (Gal 3:16). Paul, aware that “seed” (zera‘ in Hebrew, sperma in Greek) can be a collective noun , seizes on the singular form to reveal a divine mystery: in the end, the covenant promise narrows to a single offspring – the Messiah. N.T. Wright explains that for Paul, Jesus is Israel’s one true offspring, embodying the destiny of Israel in one person. Only through union with Christ can anyone belong to Abraham’s seed and inherit the promise. 

Thus in Galatians 3:29 Paul concludes, “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” The “seed” has a double reference: first to Christ himself, and then, by extension, to those in Christ. As one analysis puts it, “Christ takes center stage as the promised ‘seed’… The family of faith comes into clear view in 3:29 only through Christ as the promised singular seed of Abraham” . In other words, Jesus is the Seed, and all who belong to Jesus become the collective seed, the numerous offspring promised to Abraham.

Richard B. Hays notes that Paul’s handling of the “seed” promise is not a legalistic trick but a Spirit-led “reading” of Scripture’s narrative. Paul perceived that the singular zera‘ in Genesis anticipated a singular, royal descendant – and simultaneously, that this descendant (Messiah) would gather a people. The singular and collective senses of “offspring” are not mutually exclusive; rather, they unfold in sequence. As later theologians observed, Scripture itself “merges the individual and collective ideas of ‘offspring.’”   The one leads to the many: Christ the one seed creates, by His Spirit, an entire family of children for God.

Paul also develops the figure of the Woman and her children in Galatians chapter 4. In Galatians 4:21–31 he employs an allegory of two women, Hagar and Sarah, which represents two covenants. Hagar (the slave woman) corresponds to the earthly Jerusalem in bondage, while Sarah (the free woman) corresponds to the new covenant and the “Jerusalem above.” Paul quotes Isaiah 54: “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear… for the children of the desolate one are more than those of the one who has a husband.” Sarah, once barren, becomes the joyful mother of God’s covenant people. In Paul’s allegory, Sarah = the Jerusalem above, and “she is our mother.” Galatians 4:26 triumphantly states: “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” Here Paul explicitly identifies the community of believers in Christ as children of a heavenly mother – the free Jerusalem which is Zion fulfilled.

This “Jerusalem above” aligns with the Jewish notion of a heavenly Zion, but Paul the Pharisee weds it to the Church or Edah as witnessing body: the assembly of those in Christ is already, spiritually, the Jerusalem above, the mother of the faithful. St. Augustine and other Fathers would later seize on this verse to call the Church “our mother,” as noted earlier, yet this has conflated with this ‘church’ with Qahal and thus Roman hegemony. Paul’s point is that Christians, whether Jew or Gentile by birth, are born anew as citizens of the free Jerusalem, children of the promise like Isaac. By contrast, those clinging to the old law are in spiritual slavery, like children of Hagar (the present Jerusalem under the law) – a hard saying aimed at the Judaizers troubling the Galatians. The “woman” in Paul’s analogy ultimately represents two personified cities/community: one enslaved (earthly Jerusalem apart from Christ) and one free (the heavenly Jerusalem of Christ). It is the free woman, Sarah/Zion, who prevails and enlarges her family. Thus Paul takes Isaiah’s imagery of barren Zion rejoicing in children and applies it to the nascent Church – a miracle birth of a worldwide family from the barrenness of the old order.

Paul even uses maternal imagery for himself in relation to his congregations. A few verses earlier in Galatians 4:19, he exclaims: “My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” Paul sees his apostolic labor as Qahal akin to a mother enduring birth pangs – a striking metaphor of pastoral love. As Beverly R. Gaventa observes, Paul’s language reflects “an established association between apocalyptic expectation and the anguish of childbirth”.

In texts like Romans 8:22 (“the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now”) and 1 Thessalonians 5:3 (“as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman”), Paul taps into the biblical motif of end-times suffering as birth pangs preceding the new creation. He situates the Church’s formation squarely in that prophetic drama: the Messiah has come (the birth has occurred), yet Paul “labors” to see the fullness of Christ formed in the community – as though the Church herself is in gestation. Gaventa notes that Paul likely inherited this childbirth imagery from Jewish apocalyptic tradition and repurposed it to describe both his ministry and the Church’s eschatological hope. Such maternal metaphors reinforce the notion of the Church as a mother (Paul being an instrument Qahal of Mother Church as Edah). If the Jerusalem above is our mother, Paul is like a midwife or mother’s helper, assisting in the delivery of new Christians and nurturing them to maturity (cf. 1 Cor 3:1-2, where he feeds them milk like a nurse).

In sum, Paul presents Christ as the singular “seed” of promise, and the witnessing Church as the collective “seed” in Him. Likewise, he presents Mary/Sarah/Zion as the figurative “mother” whose children are the redeemed, and the Heavenly Jerusalem/Church as the ongoing mother of Christians. These Pauline insights knit together the threads of Genesis and Isaiah: The promise to Eve and Abraham is fulfilled in Mary’s son Jesus, and through Him we become children of Sarah and children of heavenly Zion. This sets the stage for the grand finale in Revelation, where these symbols reach their climax.

The Woman Clothed with the Sun and the Bride Adorned:

Fulfillment in Revelation
The Book of Revelation brings the woman vs. serpent drama full circle, using vivid apocalyptic imagery that alludes back to Genesis. In Revelation 12, John sees a celestial woman “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” She is pregnant and crying out in birth pangs . Opposing her is a great red dragon (explicitly identified as “that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan” in Rev 12:9), ready to devour her child . The woman gives birth to a male child “who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron” – clearly a reference to the Messiah (echoing Psalm 2). Her child is caught up to God’s throne, and the woman flees to a safe place prepared by God (Rev 12:5-6). War breaks out in heaven, the dragon is defeated and cast down to earth, and in fury the dragon then pursues “the woman” and “the rest of her offspring…who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 12:17). This spectacular vision is essentially a New Testament retelling of Genesis 3:15. As one scholar observed, “it is Genesis 3:15–20 that dominates the whole of Revelation 12.”  All the key players of Eden reappear: the Woman, her seed (offspring), the Serpent (Dragon), and enmity between them.

In Revelation’s symbolism, the male child is Jesus (the individual Seed of the woman), and after he is taken up (an allusion to Christ’s ascension), the Woman’s other offspring are explicitly the faithful believers in Christ  . Thus the woman of Revelation 12 represents a composite figure of God’s people, especially Israel and Mary and ultimately the Church. Many Christian interpreters see in her first of all Mary the mother of Christ (since she gives birth to the Messiah) – indeed, in Catholic tradition Revelation 12 is often applied to Mary in her glorified state (hence art depicting Mary crowned with 12 stars). Yet the woman is not only Mary; with her cosmic adornment and her other children identified as all true believers, she signifies the broader community of the faithful (the new Israel). The “enmity” between the serpent and the woman’s seed from Genesis is manifest here as the dragon’s war against Christ and his people  . Importantly, Revelation 12:17 calls the faithful “the rest of her offspring” (Greek sperma, seed) – a direct allusion back to the woman’s seed in Genesis.

As G.K. Beale notes, John uses sperma here likely to deliberately echo Genesis 3:15, showing that the woman’s “seed” has both an individual and a corporate meaning: Christ and those who belong to Christ. The prophecy is fulfilled in two stages: the Messiah is born and defeats Satan (Rev 12:5, 10-11), and then the Messiah’s people continue to overcome Satan by faithful witness even unto death (12:11, 17). 

Ultimately, the serpent’s attempt to destroy the woman’s seed fails – the Messiah is victorious and the persecuted Church is preserved. Thus Revelation confirms the dual aspect of the woman’s seed: Jesus and the community in him share in the battle and victory over the ancient serpent. As Genesis foretold, the serpent strikes the heel (the dragon makes war on the saints), but the woman’s seed crushes the serpent’s head – in Revelation this is seen in the downfall of Satan and the beast, even if through the paradox of martyrdom  . The “crushing” is ultimately God’s work: “He will destroy the dragon…that ancient serpent” (cf. Rev 20:2, 10). The medieval image of Mary standing on the serpent’s head with Christ is a fitting synthesis of these ideas: by bringing forth Christ and by being part of the Church, the woman (Mary and the people of God) participates in the Savior’s victory over Satan.

Finally, in Revelation 21–22 we see the fully glorified woman as the Bride of the Lamb. John beholds the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” . A voice proclaims, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men.” The imagery here merges the city with a bride – feminine imagery for the collective people of God perfected. The New Jerusalem is the eschatological fulfillment of Zion, the realization of the “Jerusalem above” that Paul spoke of.

She is “prepared as a bride” for Christ the Lamb, echoing the marriage metaphor that God’s people are the Bride of Christ (Eph 5:25-27, Rev 19:7-8). This magnificent bride-city is, in a sense, Eve restored to paradise – now not just as one woman, but as a huge community depicted as a single glorious woman. All the unfaithfulness of the past (the harlotry of old Jerusalem or unfaithful Israel) is gone; the New Jerusalem is a pure bride. This city is also our Mother: just as Zion was mother of Israel, the New Jerusalem is explicitly the mother of all the redeemed, containing the tree of life and river of life for her children (Rev 22:1-2).

The author of Hebrews already hinted at this reality for believers even now: “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…” (Heb 12:22), meaning that in Christ we are already made citizens of that mother city . An early commentary notes that in Hebrews 12 “the heavenly Jerusalem” is a name for the Church of God, both now and in the consummation. The bride in Revelation thus represents the Church perfected – the same “wife of the Lamb” which is the end-point of the Church’s existence. In patristic eyes, this is the final identity of that “woman” whose seed was promised in Genesis: she becomes the shining Holy City, Mother Zion in her eternal form, filled with the multitudes of God’s children.

The entire biblical metanarrative can therefore be seen through the lens of the Woman and her Seed. Eve inaugurates the story, receiving the promise of a struggle that will end in victory. Over millennia this promise is clarified: the “seed” will be a singular heir of Abraham (a Messiah) who will also generate a people of God; the “woman” will be not only Eve but also Sarah, Israel/Zion, and ultimately a virginal mother (Mary) and a holy bride (the Church/New Jerusalem). The Early Church Fathers celebrated how Mary’s obedience and divine maternity made her the New Eve, mother of the saving Seed. The Old Testament prophets and Jewish sages spoke of Daughter Zion travailing and bringing forth a redeemed community, and envisioned a heavenly Jerusalem as the mother of all. The Apostles identified Jesus as the promised seed and the Church as the children of the free woman of promise.

In Revelation, all these strands unite: the faithful woman (echoing Eve, Mary, and Zion) battles the serpent through her offspring (Messiah and Church), and finally appears as the radiant Bride-Mother, the New Jerusalem, in which God dwells with His children forever. As one commentator aptly put it, Revelation 12 reads like a “midrash on Genesis 3:15”  – a Spirit-inspired commentary unveiling the ultimate meaning of that primeval prophecy. And so, from the Garden of Eden to the Holy City at the end of Scripture, the narrative arc of redemption can be traced by following the Woman and her Seed: the mother of the living who, by God’s grace, becomes the Mother of Lifeand the mother of all new creation.

Endnotes:
1. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book III, ch. 22, in Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 1, ed. A. Roberts and W. Rambaut (Buffalo: Christian Literature, 1885), 455–457.   renaeus contrasts Eve’s disobedience and Mary’s obedience: “the virgin Eve… by disobeying, became the cause of death for herself and the whole human race; so too the Virgin Mary… by obeying, became the cause of salvation for herself and the whole human race.” He sees Mary as undoing Eve’s knot, echoing Gen. 3:15’s theme of the woman’s role in victory.

2. Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 87, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8, trans. J. E. Tweed (New York: Christian Literature, 1888), 421–422. . Augustine identifies the “Jerusalem above” (Gal 4:26) with the heavenly Zion and interprets Psalm 87’s references to Zion as mother to mean the Church: “the Heavenly Jerusalem, of which the Apostle says, ‘which is the mother of us all’… Now therefore you are no more strangers… but fellow citizens of the saints”. The Church, as our mother, is the fulfillment of Zion.

3. Bereshit Rabbah 18:6 (5th c. AD), in Midrash Rabbah: Genesis, trans. H. Freedman and M. Simon (London: Soncino, 1939), 142.  This Genesis midrash remarks on God’s judgment of the serpent: the serpent’s lust for Eve failed and instead “enmity” was placed between them. It says, “What the serpent wanted was not given him, and what he had was taken from him” , meaning the serpent lost its legs and intimacy with humans, fulfilling Gen. 3:15 as a curse of mutual hostility.

4. Tosefta Sotah 4:17–18 (Land of Israel, 3rd c.), ed. Saul Lieberman, Tosefta Ki-Fshutah, vol. 8 (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1973), 231.  This tannaitic expansion similarly records that the serpent’s punishment – enmity with the woman – corresponded measure-for-measure to its desire for Eve. Early rabbinic tradition thus saw Gen. 3:15 as insuring the serpent (Satan) could never again fraternize with humanity.

5. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 3:15 (circa 7th–8th c. AD), trans. in The Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuchby J. W. Etheridge (London, 1862), 1:43. . This Aramaic paraphrase interprets the “seed” collectively and injects a Messianic hope: when Israel keeps Torah they will crush the serpent, but if not, the serpent will bite them – “yet there will be a remedy… in the days of King Messiah” . It’s an early Jewish witness linking Gen. 3:15 to a future Messianic era of deliverance.

6. Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis (4th c.), 2.32–33, trans. Edward G. Mathews Jr., in St. Ephrem the Syrian: Selected Prose Works (Washington: CUA Press, 1994), 131.  . Ephrem explains that the serpent sought to “subject” the woman, but God’s curse made the serpent instead subject to the woman’s offspring. He paraphrases Gen.3:15: “It (the woman’s seed) shall tread upon your head… and you will strike at its heel.”  Ephrem sees the verse as God’s judgment ensuring humanity’s eventual triumph over Satan through the woman’s progeny.

7. Cyprian of Carthage, Testimonies, II.8 and Treatise on the Dress of Virgins, 14 (3rd c.), in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5, trans. Roberts & Donaldson (Buffalo: 1886), 508, 431.   . Cyprian cites Isaiah 7:14 and Genesis 3:15 together, saying Christ is the “seed of the woman” announced to trample the serpent’s head . He also exhorts that “when the serpent begins to be trodden and crushed by us” (by Gospel shoes), it shall not prevail  – showing that the Church, as the Body of Christ, shares in crushing Satan underfoot (cf. Rom 16:20).

8. Jerome, Latin Vulgate Bible, Genesis 3:15 (405 AD). Jerome’s translation famously reads ipsa (feminine pronoun): “she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” . See Brother Thomas Mary, The Woman of Genesis (Still River, MA: 1970) for an analysis of patristic support. Jerome initially leaned toward “he shall crush,” but adopted “she” due to the patristic consensus applying the verse to Mary . The Vulgate’s reading influenced Western art and devotion to depict Mary triumphant over the serpent (by the power of her Son).

9. The Zohar (Sefer ha-Zohar), Part I (Bereshit), 36b–37a (13th c.), transl. Harry Sperling et al. (London: Soncino, 1931), vol. 1, 151–153. . The Zohar is a medieval Jewish mystical commentary. On Gen.3:15 it teaches that “the woman” is “the woman who fears the Lord” (Prov 31:30) – i.e. Malchut, symbolizing God’s kingdom and the community of Israel . The serpent’s “seed” are the pagan nations, while “her seed” is Israel . “He shall bruise your head” is interpreted as God (the Holy One) ultimately destroying the serpent (cf. Isa 25:8: God will “swallow up death forever”) . Thus, Kabbalah saw the verse as a cosmic conflict between the forces of holiness (Israel’s divine assem­bly) and evil (the serpent and its progeny), to be resolved by God’s intervention.

10. N.T. Wright, The Climax of the Covenant: Christ and the Law in Pauline Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 152–168.   Wright argues that Paul’s reading of the Abrahamic “seed” in Galatians 3 makes Christ the focal offspring, without negating the collective sense. He notes “seed” can denote an individual or a people . Paul identifies Jesus as the promised seed (Gal 3:16) so that in him the blessing comes to the many (3:14, 3:29) . Wright interprets Paul’s logic as salvation-historical: Israel’s promises narrowed to one representative Israelite (Christ), and through union with him, believers (Jew and Gentile) become the multitudinous seed of Abraham.

11. Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Our Mother Saint Paul (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007), 45–68.   . Gaventa examines Paul’s maternal metaphors and apocalyptic imagery. She remarks on Gal. 4:19 and Rom. 8:22 that Paul draws on “an established association between apocalyptic expectation and the anguish of childbirth.”  This imagery, rooted in OT passages like Isa 26:17 and Micah 4:10, undergirds Paul’s view of creation and the church longing for new birth. She also discusses Gal 4:26, noting Paul daringly genders the new covenant community as a mother (the “Jerusalem above”). Paul’s use of motherhood for the church underscores the nurturing, life-giving role of the community of faith.

12. Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 84–95.  . Hays considers Paul’s handling of the Abraham story and Genesis promises. He suggests Paul’s argument in Gal 3:16 is “less perverse than it might appear”  because Paul is not simply proof-texting a singular word, but evoking the whole Abrahamic narrative coming to fulfillment in one descendant (Christ). Hays points out that Paul likely saw a “catchword connection” linking the zera‘ (“seed”) promise to Abraham with the zera‘ of David (2 Sam 7:12) and ultimately the zera‘ of the woman in Gen 3:15 . Thus Paul reads Scripture holistically: the singular “seed” is a thread pointing to Messiah, while the collective aspect of “seed” is then reclaimed in Christ’s people (making Gentiles heirs without denying Israel’s story).

13. G.K. Beale and Sean M. McDonough, “Revelation,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, ed. G. Beale & D. Carson (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 1151–1152.   Beale and McDonough comment on Revelation 12:17: John’s reference to the woman’s “offspring” (Greek sperma) is “an allusion to Gen. 3:15” showing that “Eve’s messianic seed has both individual and corporate meaning.”  They note the woman in Rev 12 symbolizes both Mary/Israel (mother of Messiah) and the Church (mother of “the rest of her offspring”). The passage deliberately echoes Genesis to depict the church’s persecution by Satan in terms of the primordial prophecy of enmity.

14. Paul S. Minear, “The Woman Clothed with the Sun and the Dragon: A Note on Revelation 12,” in Novum Testamentum 5.1 (1962): 54-60. Minear observes that “Genesis 3:15–20 dominates the whole of Revelation 12” . He identifies the Woman in Rev 12 with the New Eve (a composite of Mary and Zion) and her seed with both Christ and the church. The four elements of Gen 3:15 (woman, serpent, woman’s seed, serpent’s seed) all reappear in Rev 12 . This scholarly insight bolsters the canonical linkage from the fall to the final victory: Revelation is consciously interpreting and completing the Eden prophecy.

15. Holy Bible, Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 66:7–13; Galatians 3:15–29, 4:21–31; Revelation 12 and 21–22; Hebrews 12:22. (All Scripture quotations are from the RSV unless otherwise noted.) These biblical texts are the primary basis for the “seed of the woman” theme. Isaiah 66:8 – “As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” – directly influenced Paul’s allegory of the freewoman (Gal 4:27) and Revelation’s depiction of the woman giving birth. Revelation 21:2 – “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” – encapsulates the marriage of Lamb and Bride, uniting the seed (the Lamb/Offspring of Eve) with the woman (New Jerusalem/Eve restored). Throughout, the unity of Scripture on this theme is evident: what begins in Genesis finds consummation in Christ and the New Jerusalem at the Bible’s end.

Bibliography:
Augustine of Hippo. Exposition on Psalm 87. In Expositions of the Psalms, Vol. IV (Ps. 75–102), translated by Maria Boulding. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2002. (See also NPNF 1/8 for older trans.) 

Augustine of Hippo. The City of God, Book XVII. Translated by Henry Bettenson. London: Penguin Classics, 2003. (Discusses the two cities, identifying the “Jerusalem above” as the city of God, the mother of the faithful.)

Beale, G. K., and Sean M. McDonough. “Revelation.” In Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, edited by G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, 1081–1161. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.   

Bible (English Standard Version). The Holy Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001. (Biblical texts: Gen 3:15; Isa 66:7–13; Gal 3:15–29, 4:21–31; Rev 12; Rev 21:1–4; Heb 12:22–24.)  

Cyprian of Carthage. Treatises [including Testimonies] and Letters. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Buffalo: Christian Literature, 1886.   

Ephrem the Syrian. Commentary on Genesis (excerpted in The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 91: St. Ephrem the Syrian: Selected Prose Works, trans. Edward G. Mathews Jr. and Joseph P. Amar). Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1994.  

Gaventa, Beverly Roberts. Our Mother Saint Paul. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007.   

Gaventa, Beverly Roberts. “The Maternity of Paul: An Exegetical Study of Galatians 4:19.” In The Conversation Continues: Studies in Paul & John, in Honor of J. Louis Martyn, edited by R. T. Fortna & B. R. Gaventa, 189–201. Nashville: Abingdon, 1990.  

Hays, Richard B. Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.  

Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies, Book III. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, 315–567. Buffalo: Christian Literature, 1885.   

Jerome. Biblia Sacra Vulgata, Gen. 3:15.  (Latin Vulgate Bible, 5th century).   

Midrash Rabbah: Genesis. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon. London: Soncino Press, 1939. (See Gen. Rabbah 18:6 for the serpent’s lust for Eve and God’s decree of enmity)

Midrash (Tosefta) Sotah. Tosefta Sotah 4:17–18. In The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew, by Jacob Neusner. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002.  

Minear, Paul S. “Genesis 3:15–20 in Revelation 12.” In Novum Testamentum 5, no.1 (Jan. 1962): 81–_ (note by P. Minear arguing Gen 3:15 dominates Rev 12’s imagery)

Neusner, Jacob. Our Sages, God, and Israel. Chappaqua, NY: Rossel Books, 1984. (p.165 cites a rabbinic tale linking Gen 3:15 to a man’s fear of a snakebite.)

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. Targum Jonathan on Genesis 3:15. In The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan on the Pentateuch, translated by J. W. Etheridge. London: Longman, 1862.  

The Zohar (Sefer ha-Zohar). Vol. 1 (Bereshit), Parashat Chayei Sarah. Translated by Harry Sperling et al. London: Soncino Press, 1931. (Zohar I:32–33, p. 151–153 discusses Gen 3:15 mystically, identifying the “woman” with Malchut (the divine feminine, community of Israel) and “her seed” as Israel, “serpent’s seed” as the gentile nations; God will ultimately remove the serpent .)

Waltke, Bruce K. Old Testament Theology: Canonical Approach. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007. (Waltke notes that Scripture progressively “merges” the concept of the woman’s offspring being both collective Israel and an individual Messiah.)

Wright, N. T. The Climax of the Covenant: Christ and the Law in Pauline Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991.   

Wright, N. T. Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2013. (See Chapter 9 on Abraham’s family, where Wright reiterates that in Gal 3, Jesus as Messiah is the representative Seed who incorporates believers into Abraham’s seed.)
• Yalkut Shimoni (Medieval Anthology). Section on Psalm 87: “Zion is called mother for all are born in her.”  (Ref. in Mowinckel, Psalm Studies vol. 2, p.85).