Genesis 3:15

and I will put enmity The first meaning of this sentence refers to the instinctive antipathy of mankind towards the serpent, and the frequently deadly character of the wounds inflicted by serpents upon human beings.

But this explanation does not exhaust the full meaning of the verse. The narrator tells the story, not in the spirit of a compiler of folk-lore, but with the purpose of embodying in it the truths of religion. The hostility between the serpent and the woman, between the serpent's seed and the woman's seed, typifies the unending conflict between all that represents the forces of evil on the one hand, and all that represents the true and high destiny of mankind on the other. Upon this antagonism Jehovah has, as it were, set His seal from the very beginning. He has ordained it. There must be war between every form of evil and the children of man. This verse has been called the Protevangelium. There is no prediction of a personal victor, or even of an ultimate victory. Commentators used to see in the words, "thou shalt bruise his heel," a prediction of the sufferings and crucifixion of our Lord, as "the seed" of the woman; and in the words, "it shall bruise thy head," the victory of the Crucified and Risen Son of Man over the forces of sin and death. We are not justified in going to the full length of this interpretation. The victory of the Cross contains, in its fullest expression, the fulfilment of the conflict, which God here proclaims between Mankind and the symbol of Evil, and in which He Himself espouses the cause of man. The Conflict and the Victory are oracularly announced. But there is no prediction of the Personal Messiah.

enmity An unusual word in the Hebrew, occurring elsewhere in O.T. only in Numbers 35:21-22; Ezekiel 25:15; Ezekiel 35:5. LXX ἔχθραν, Lat. inimicitias. It denotes the "blood-feud" between the man and the serpent-race.

bruise The Hebrew word rendered "bruise" is the same in both clauses. Suitable as it is in its application to the "crushing" of a serpent's head beneath a man's foot, it is unsuitable as applied to the serpent's attack upon the man's heel. Accordingly some scholars prefer the rendering "aim at," from a word of a similar root meaning to "pant" or "pant after." So the R.V. marg. lie in wait for(which, however, the root can hardly mean). The LXX has watch, τήρησει and τήρησεις, probably with the same idea. Vulg. has conteret= "shall bruise," in the first clause; insidiaberis= "shalt lie in wait for," in the second clause. It has been conjectured that the root shûph= "bruise," may have had some special secondary meaning in which it was used of the serpent's bite.

The Vulgate ipsa conteret caput tuumis noticeable. By an error, it rendered the Heb. masc. pronoun ("he" = LXX αὐτός) by the feminine pronoun "ipsa," ascribing to the woman herself, not to her seed, the crushing of the serpent's head. The feminine pronoun has given rise to some singular instances of exegesis in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary.