Enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. "Will the serpent bruise your heel?" The Bible says to bruise the heel, what does it mean?

After the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God made a very important promise.

Theologians call it a fancy word proto-evangelism. It means “the first Gospel.” This is the first messianic prophecy and the first promise of salvation. God said to the snake:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel.” (Gen. 3:15)

After the destruction brought by sin, God predicted restoration. Jesus, the seed of the woman, came to bruise the serpent's head. By the way, this fall did not take God by surprise. In Rev. 13:8 Jesus is called “By the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This means that God foresaw the fall of man and prepared the necessary means in advance. He planned to send His Son to reverse the curse even before the curse was cast.

Just as David killed Goliath with his own sword, so Jesus killed the devil with his most powerful weapon - death.

“And just as children share in flesh and blood, He also received them, in order by death to deprive him of the power of him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and to deliver those who from the fear of death were subject to slavery throughout their lives.” (Heb. 2:14-15)

Before the cross, Satan held the fear of death over humanity like an ominous scepter. Now that Jesus has conquered death, those who believe in His atoning sacrifice no longer have to fear it. Death is no longer a bitter end for a believer, but a glorious beginning. This is literally the portal through which we pass from life to eternity. Death is a transition, an elevation, a release - it is a liberation from the trap of a sinful, disease-prone, fallen body. Someone said: “Death for a Christian is simply a passage home.” The same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead lives in us and one day “He will also give life to [our] mortal bodies”(Rom. 8:11). Death for a believer is as harmless as a bee without a sting.

A father and son were driving down the road when a bee flew into their car and began buzzing around their son's head. The boy had a fatal allergic reaction to bee stings. He panicked in horror, waving his arms. The father opened the windows and tried to drive the bee out of the car, but was unsuccessful. Finally, he drove off the road, pounced on the bee and caught it with his bare hands. He deliberately allowed the bee to sting him. Then he opened his hand and said: “Look son, you don't have to be afraid anymore. She no longer has a sting. You are safe now!” Jesus took the sting of death for us, and therefore we no longer need to fear him. No wonder Paul writes:

"Death! where is your sting? hell! where is your victory? (1 Cor. 15:55)

A skeptic might think: “If Jesus really defeated the devil on the cross, how do you explain all the evil in the world?” If you look at the news, it looks like evil is winning: violence, crime, disease, war, terrorism, natural disasters, and so on. Yes, I am fully aware of the demonic activity that is rampant in the world. But what happens when a snake's head is cut off? She writhes and twitches her tail in death throes. All the evil we see is Satan's last desperate attempt to destroy as many people as possible because he knows his time is near. As Billy Graham said: “I was reading the last page of the Bible. Everything will be fine." In Rev. 20 talks about how ONE angel will bind Satan in the abyss for 1000 years. Then, after being released for a short time, he will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity, and the saints will enjoy their heavenly home.

Jesus' last words on the cross were “It is finished!” What did He mean? He didn't just talk about His life or His earthly ministry. I believe He meant this:

1. The Scripture has been fulfilled. Numerous prophecies concerning His birth, ministry, suffering and death were literally fulfilled.

2. The sacrificial system is outdated. Millions of animals were killed and burned to atone for sins. Jesus, the Lamb of God, is our only sacrifice. No more sacrifices are needed.

3. Sins were paid for. The word “finished” is a translation of the Greek word tetelestai, which means “paid in full.” Archaeologists have found ancient “tax receipts” on papyri with the word tetelestai on them.

4. The plan of salvation was completed.

5. The victory over Satan was completed. Jesus stepped with his heel right on the serpent's head and took the keys from hell and death (Eph. 4:8-10, Col. 2:15, Rev. 1:18).

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Kent Hughes in his “1001 Great Stories” shares this opinion:

“In a European art gallery, a famous painting hung for many years. It depicted a chessboard, on one side of which the devil sat on a chair, looking ominously triumphant. Opposite him was a sad, unhappy young man, defeat visible on his face. The title read “Checkmate!” American chess champion Paul Murphy traveled to Europe and visited this gallery. He looked at this picture for a long time in silent thoughtfulness. And then he exclaimed with delight: ‘Bring me a chessboard; there is one - and only one - move with which I can save him!’.. The world received checkmate from the devil, but the Savior made one move that could free us from despondency in life and doom in eternity.”

Now it's our turn! What Jesus did on the cross is of no use to us unless we repent and believe. When we surrender to Christ, we place our heel on the serpent's head and enter into His victory.

“The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet soon.” (Rom. 16:20)

“...and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel” (Gen. 3:15)

Let's see what this scripture says when God, angry with the serpent who deceived Eve, curses him: “...because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle and above all the beasts of the field; On your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all the days of your life...” (Genesis 3:14). This curse is directed at the animal how to a vessel through which temptation came. In the next verse, the curse of the serpent continues, but now it is addressed not to the animal through which the temptation came, but to the tempter himself - the ancient serpent, whose name is the devil. These are already prophetic words for the entire existence of the earth about the struggle of Satan, that is, the snake, and wife - the universal church : “...and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel” (Gen. 3:15).

This passage of Scripture cannot be taken literally as a curse on the serpent-animal and an appeal to the woman and the offspring born of her. From this verse we see that from the very beginning of human development, God foreshadows the coming war between the children born of the devil - by the serpent's seed– and children born of God – the church – wife's seed.

The Apostle John also says that there are children of the devil and there are children of God: “Whoever is born of God commits no sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are recognized in this way: everyone who does not practice righteousness is not from God, neither does he who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:9,10).

In one of the parables of Jesus Christ, we also see confirmation that there is a seed of the devil - these are the tares that he sows among the wheat: “...while the people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away; When the greenery sprang up and the fruit appeared, then the tares also appeared. Having come, the servants of the householder said to him: Master! did you not sow good seed in your field? where does the tares come from? He said to them, “The enemy of man has done this.” And the slaves said to him: Do you want us to go and choose them? But he said: no, so that when you choose the tares, you do not pull up the wheat along with them, leave both to grow together until the harvest; and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but put the wheat into my barn” (Matthew 13:25-30).

Humanity is divided into three types of people: children, born by wife(seed of the wife); children, born of the devil(seed of the serpent), and “empties” - people, born flesh of flesh, dry branches that bear no fruit, unable to bear even the simple fruit of repentance. Such branches are cut off. If we consider the field, as in the parables of Jesus Christ, we will see that among the ears of wheat there are some full of grains and drooping from weight, and others that rise above all the other ears and stick out on their long stalks because they are empty, they have no grains. Although they are not tares, they will not be gathered into barns, because they are empty, barren and subject to burning in fire. These are spiritual, not spiritual people, in no way, except perhaps in appearance, not different from animals: “They are like dumb animals, led by nature, born to be caught and destroyed, speaking evil of what they do not understand, and in their corruption they will be destroyed” (2 Pet. 2:12). Jesus Himself said: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). There are also those who are sent from heaven, as God Himself says: “You know this because you were already born then, and the number of your days is very great” (Job 38:21). It is also said about all those who are messengers: “...because He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love...” (Eph. 1:4). So in Jesus Himself we see “...predestined before the foundation of the world, but which was revealed in the last times for you...” (1 Peter 1:20). So this is the seed of God, the seed of the woman. And there are those who are born from the desire of a husband. They are not messengers.

But both those, and others, and others must be born again, of the Spirit. The chance of salvation is offered to everyone without exception. Jesus Christ speaks about this: “...that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). What do these words mean? That we are not given the right to reject anyone and not bear witness to someone, even if we see that he is not one of those who, like Job, “was already then”, that is, to the seed of the woman. The Lord commanded His Sun to rise over everyone without exception. And we know that the Sun for us is Jesus Christ, Who suffered for everyone without exception. And the rain sent on the righteous and the unrighteous means that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the earth on every creature.

Those who are sent from heaven - the seed of the woman - always have within themselves a calling and a desire for what their inner nature is predisposed to. But they too must be born of the Spirit. Why does it say "seed of the woman"? Because what was laid down by God, begotten by Him, must be born through a wife. Even Jesus, being begotten of God, sent from heaven, must first be born through a woman (this is a type), and then become Christ: “...though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience through what He suffered, and being perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him...” (Heb. 5:8,9). Not everyone born from the desire of a husband turns to God.

As for the words about enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, this enmity is expressed in an eternal war between them. Although the seed of the serpent stings, it is allowed to bruise only on the heel, and the power to bruise the seed of the serpent on the head is given to us - the seed of the woman through Jesus Christ, as the husband of this woman. This war is well revealed in Revelation, which speaks of the war of Michael the Archangel and His Angels with the dragon and his angels: “And the woman fled into the desert, where a place had been prepared for her by God, that she might be fed there for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. And there was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought [against them], but they did not stand, and there was no longer a place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was cast out to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven: Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ, because the slanderer of our brethren is cast out, who slandered them before our God day and night. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and did not love their own lives even to death” (Rev. 12:6-11).

Verse 11 reveals what the war is, who the angels are, who is fighting, and where this war is taking place. Everything done on earth is reflected in heaven. “...and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19), - this is the connection between heaven and earth.

“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and did not love their own lives even to death” (Rev. 12:11). Here we are talking about people - children of God, fighting with the children of the devil. Angels cannot help but love "...your soul even to death...", because they are immortal, which means we are talking about people. And the Blood of Jesus was given to us, and not to the Angels, and the testimony of our lips is our work.

So, this is about us as Angels belonging to the army of Michael the Archangel, and this is our war, and every victory and every defeat is reflected in heaven. This is the kind of enmity spoken of in Genesis, when God, cursing the serpent-dragon, spoke of the power to bruise the head given to the seed of the woman:

Igor asks
Answered by Alexandra Lanz, 04/20/2011

Hello to you in the truth of God, Igor!

You are asking about the final part of God's prophecy regarding the serpent, but to understand the words you are interested in, we must consider the entire prophecy as a whole:

"And the Lord God said to the serpent:

for doing this

Cursed are you above all cattle and above all the beasts of the field;

you will walk on your belly,

and you shall eat dust all the days of your life;

and I will put enmity between you and your wife,

and between your seed and her seed;

it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel" ().

What is the difference between the heel (heel) and the head?

1) it is always in the dust, where the poisonous snake crawls. This means that humanity will still not be able to avoid the pain that the serpent wants to inflict on it. Illness, depression, disappointment, accidents, death - this is all the result of the fact that the feet of humanity are where the snake crawls, biting us.

2) even if the heel hurts, it is still not fatal. Even if the snake manages to sting a person in the heel, causing him severe mental and physical pain, the person will still have the opportunity to take an antidote before the poison affects the central life support system.

3) the head, not the heel, controls the life of the creature, so if a wound inflicted on the head is always more serious than a wound inflicted on the heel. To be able to wound an enemy in the head means to be able to kill him. Whereas wounds inflicted on the heel will never bring death to the whole body. Suffering - yes. But not death.

Thus, God promises humanity that, although it will suffer from Satan, it will not perish. But at the same time, God promises Satan that although he will be allowed to torment humanity, Satan will still die - at the hands of humanity itself.

I want to draw your attention to one truth of this prophecy that is absolutely important for our salvation. The truth is that if we, as individuals united in one body of humanity, decide to take the path of war with the serpent that stings us, we will not hit the serpent in the head with our own strength.

Notice that when God promises to put the enmity between good and evil in the heart of mankind, He speaks of the seed of the woman, although according to Biblical logic it is the seed of the father (man) that is important. However, the prophecy clearly states that although the conqueror will be born of the wife, the seed of the husband will not take part in it.

This is an infinitely important moment! The seed of a man, united with the seed of a wife, cannot be a winner, because a fallen man is powerless before the one who defeated him (before the serpent), a fallen man (husband) can only pass on to his children his fallen nature, powerless against the serpent, but not nature winner over the serpent. But the seed of God, united with the seed of the woman, can...

Therefore, we have before us a prophecy about the birth of Man, in which each of us can become a winner over the serpent. This prophecy came true two thousand years ago:

“And the Angel said to Her: Do not be afraid, Mary, for You have found favor with God;

and behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.

Mary said to the Angel: How will this be when I don’t know my husband?

The angel answered and said to her: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God" ().

Jesus was the only Man on earth who was actually born not from an earthly father, but from a Heavenly Father, i.e. He actually took upon himself in every detail our human flesh, and at the same time he was the Son of God, and not of man (husband).

It was Jesus who was bitten in the heel by the serpent so severely that He had to die the second eternal death. The serpent put all his poison, all his hatred, all his strength into making Jesus suffer forever.

Yes, from the pain that pierced the heel of Jesus (in His flesh), His heart broke and His life stopped, but the serpent never managed to reach the head of Jesus, to that “control center” of His life, in which Eternity was concentrated Therefore, death, ETERNAL death, could not hold Him ().

So Jesus is the very seed that comes from the woman and that bruises the serpent’s head. If we are in Jesus, then we live His victorious life, the life of overcomers... and although the serpent manages to bite us in the heel (torment our flesh even to the point of physical death), if we are in Christ, we can preserve our brains inaccessible to his poison, which means -

To constantly defeat everything that the serpent puts in our path,
- thereby delivering blows to his head.

And all this is by the power of God Himself ().

With love in the Winner,
Sasha.

Read more on the topic “Interpretation of Scripture”:

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

"and I will put down enmity..." This section is of the greatest importance. It contains a prophecy that runs through the entire history of the world, right up to the very end of the world, and is fulfilled together on every page of the above-mentioned history. The deep enmity mentioned here is that internal opposition that exists between good and evil, light and darkness (John 3:19-20; 7:7; 1 John 2:15) - this enmity is reflected even in the sphere of higher spirits (Rev. 12:7-9) .

“The first wife in the world was the first to fall into the devil’s snare, but she was the first to shake his power over herself with her repentance (meaning repentance for her entire subsequent extra-paradise life)” (Vissarion).

Many Church Fathers (Justin, Irenaeus, Cyprian, John Chrysostom, Jerome, etc.), based on various places of Holy Scripture, attribute this instruction not so much to Eve, but to that great wife who, more than all other wives, personified in herself " enmity" to the kingdom of Satan, serving the mystery of the incarnation (Rev. 12:13,17; Gal. 4:4; Isa. 7:14; Luke 2:7; Jer. 31:22). Instead of the disastrous friendship between the wife and the serpent, there is a saving enmity between them. Since the wife of the first Adam was the cause of the fall, the mother of the second Adam was the instrument of salvation.

"and between your seed and her seed." The seed of the serpent in the immediate, literal sense means the offspring of the natural serpent, i.e. all future individuals of this genus with whom the wife's offspring, i.e. all of humanity in general is waging a primordial and fierce war; but in a further, certain sense, through this analogy, the offspring of the tempting serpent is symbolized, i.e. children of the devil in spirit, who in the language of the Holy Scriptures are called either “brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7; 12:34; 23:33), then “tares in God’s field” (Matthew 13:38-40), then directly “sons of destruction, disobedience, the devil” (John 8:44; Acts 13:10).

Among these children of the devil, the Holy Scripture especially singles out one “great adversary,” “the man of lawlessness and the son of perdition,” i.e. Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:3). In complete parallel with this, the interpretation of the wife’s seed is established: by it, in the same way, first of all, we mean all her offspring - the entire human race; in the further sense determined by the context of speech, it means pious representatives of humanity who energetically fought the evil that reigned on earth; finally, from among this latter, the Holy Scripture gives grounds to single out one Great Descendant, born of a woman (Gal. 4:4; Gen. 17:7,19), as the victorious opponent of the Antichrist, the main culprit of the victory over the serpent.

"it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel.” The very process and nature of the above enmity is clearly depicted in an artistic picture of the great struggle between the two warring parties, with a fatal outcome for one of them (a blow to the head) and relatively insignificant damage to the other (a sting in the heel). Quite close analogies to this image are found in other places of Holy Scripture (Rom. 16:20, etc.). The mention here of a wife, a serpent and their offspring, a blow to the head and a sting to the heel - all these are nothing more than artistic images, but images full of deep meaning: they contain the idea of ​​​​the struggle between the kingdom of light, truth and goodness and the region of darkness, lies and all evil; This highly dramatic struggle, beginning from the moment of the fall of our ancestors, passes through the entire world history and will end only in the kingdom of glory with the complete triumph of good, when, according to the word of Scripture, there will be God " everything in everything"(1 Cor. 15:28; cf. John 12:32). We will meet the serpent or his main fiend - the Antichrist and will smite the latter (2 Thess. 2:8-9; Rev. 20:10).

It is curious that the tradition of paganism has preserved a fairly strong memory of this important fact and has even captured the very picture of this struggle on various artistic monuments. If this divine promise of victory over the devil serves as a living source of consolation and joy for us, then what kind of ray of life-giving hope was it for the fallen ancestors, who first heard this most joyful news from the lips of God himself? Therefore, this promise is quite deservedly called the “first gospel”, i.e. the first good news about the coming Deliverer from slavery to the devil.

St. Ambrose of Milan

and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel

… Let us turn to what God decided: evil should not be destroyed, but temporarily punished. Therefore He said to the serpent: And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel. Where there is enmity, there is discord and a desire to harm, and where there is a desire to harm, there is evil. So, there is discord between the serpent and the wife. Evil is subject to discord; therefore, it has not been eliminated. Then, it was decided that the serpent would bite the wife and her seed in the heel and through this harm them and inject their poison into them. So let us not crouch to the ground - and the snake will not be able to harm us. Let us protect our feet with the Gospel from the poison of the serpent, from its bites; let the Gospel be our protection.

About escape from the world.

St. Filaret (Drozdov)

and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel

The serpent, finally, is made from a meek and submissive animal to man hostile to him. The image of this enmity, in the description of Moses, corresponds to the current state of both animals.

…In the image enmity between the serpent and man, the restoration of the kingdom of Grace on the ruins of the dominion of sin and death is described with particular clarity. Feud marks not only division, but also a desire to harm and presupposes previous peace or harmony. Through sin, man came into agreement with the devil. After this union, God threatens the devil with enmity; From this it is clear that the destruction of this union will follow on the part of man; and the enmity of this latter will consist in moving away from sin and trying to defeat the devil. Put the enmity to rest God Himself promises. Man, having committed sin, is already slave of sin(John 8:34) and does not have the strength to break his bonds in order to resist the devil. So, for this God gives him his power, which is Grace. Enmity is due between the serpent and the woman. This does not exclude the husband, but it shows that in order to confront the serpent, it will not be a man’s strength that will be needed; that the same wife whom he had overthrown by deceit would rise against him in strength; that the power of God will be made perfect in weakness(2 Cor. 12:9) . The feud must continue between the seed of the serpent and between the seed of the woman. Name seed carried from plants to the higher kinds of creatures, in Holy Scripture means posterity in general (Gen. 9:9), one person in the offspring (Gen. 4:25), children of promise (Rom. 9:7-8), the promised Deliverer (Gal. 3:16); sometimes also a moral birth, that is, a consistently preserved disposition and way of life (Is. 1:4). Serpent spiritual, as far as we know, has no natural offspring. So, seed he can be called: rejected spirits, participants in his apostasy; sinful men, whom the word of God clearly names spawn of vipers(Matt. 3:7) and children of the devil(1 John 3:10), just as the first of them, Cain was from the evil one(1 John 3:12) And finally, the predicted one will be predominantly man of sin(2 Sol. 2:3) . wife's seed does not simply mean the human race in general; this is revealed both by the concept of the seed of the serpent, and also from the very name of the seed of the wife, since in ordinary understanding the seed or offspring is assigned to the husband. So, the seed of the woman, in contrast to the seed of the serpent, should mean the most virgin part of humanity, preserved by the grace of God and hour by hour further purified, restored and perfected in people believers who were born not of blood, nor of the lust of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God(John 1:12-13) ; in superiority - the purest essence of humanity in the person of the God-man, the leader and head of all believers, who had born of a wife(Gal. 4:4) and appear to destroy the works of the devil(1 John 3:8) . The promise of continuity enmity between the seed of the serpent and the woman the establishment and continuous preservation of the militant Church is proclaimed. The greatest punishment of the serpent and the greatest secret of the seed of the woman lies in the words: it will hit you in the head. The translation of seventy interpreters paves the way for the explanation of these words: αυτος σου τηρησει κεφαλήν, He'll aim for your head. The word αυτος, He, which does not agree with the word σπέρμα, seed, shows that the translator had in mind not so much the word seed, as the main object, in the present case signified by it; So what wife's seed he took them for one person. Indeed, wife's seed is not opposed to the set here seed of the serpent, but one serpent and therefore should primarily mean one Leader and Head of the believers; But what is said in this place can only be applied to the multitude of believers, since they form one body with him (Rom. 16:20). Hitting the serpent in the head there is a reduction of this enemy to the point of impossibility of harming, since the serpent, whose head is crushed, can no longer sting. So, this proclaims victory over the devil, complete and eternal, the cessation of all actions and consequences of his enmity, the liberation of man from sin and death, the earth from curse and the flesh itself from corruption. This majestic victory again explains and elevates the concept of the victorious wife's seed. If God Himself posits, or begins, enmity between the serpent and the woman, then who but God can end it with triumph and glory? However, before the solemn cessation of hostility, some part of the power is left to the serpent: you will sting his heel. This is allowed so that the one who moved a person against the goodness of God becomes an executor of God’s justice; so that a person is not careless in relation to the murderer and is encouraged by the constant experience of evil to turn to good. The serpent stings in the heel, which is the lowest and most insignificant part of the human composition; in the heel, which was wounded into the fall, leaves another heel for a person to revolt. This is how believers are wounded by temptations, disasters, and bodily death. From wounds in the heel it is also not excluded that it is victorious and divine wife's seed, or the Head and Deliverer of believers. But since He could not be subjected to this wound through his own fault or through his own weakness, we must conclude that He is subjected to wounding in order to suffer the illnesses of others and to crush the head of the serpent through this. This is the wounding about which the prophet speaks: By His stripe healing was granted to us(Isa. 53:5) . Thus, in the predestination of wife's seed is the seed of the whole Gospel.

Interpretation on the Book of Genesis.

169. DID PEOPLE REMAIN HOPE FOR SALVATION?

When the first people confessed their sin to God, God, in His mercy, gave them hope of salvation.

170. WHAT WAS THIS HOPE?

This hope was that God promised that The Wife's Seed will be erased(will strike, crush) chapter snake (Gen. 3:15).

171. WHAT DOES THIS PROMISE MEAN?

This means that the Lord Jesus Christ will defeat the devil, who has deceived people, and will deliver them from sin, curse and death.

172. WHY IS THE LORD JESUS ​​CHRIST CALLED “THE SEED OF THE WIFE”?

The Lord Jesus Christ is called the Seed of the Woman because He was born on earth without a husband from the Blessed Virgin Mary.

173. WHAT BENEFITS WAS THIS PROMISE TO THE PEOPLE?

The benefit of this promise was such that people could have saving faith in the Coming Savior, just as we believe in the Coming One.

Long Orthodox Catechism of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Church. Part two. About faith. About the third member of the Creed.

Sschmch. Irenaeus of Lyon

and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel

So He took charge of everything, raising war against our enemy, and striking down the one who first took us captive in Adam, and trampling on his head. You can read in Genesis that God said to the serpent: And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he will keep your head, and you will keep his heel. (Gen. 3:15). For from that time on He who had to be born of a virgin wife in the likeness of Adam was preached as “one who kept the head of the serpent,” that is, the seed of whom the apostle speaks in the Epistle to the Galatians: the law of works is given until the seed comes to whom the promise relates(Gal. 3:19), and shows it even more clearly in the same letter, saying: when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman(Gal. 4:4) . For the enemy would not have been justly defeated if the one who defeated him had not been a man from a wife. Because through his wife, he first prevailed over man and made himself man’s enemy. Therefore, the Lord also confesses Himself to be the Son of Man, restoring in Himself the firstborn man, from whom the wife was created; so that just as through the defeated man [Adam] our race descended into death, through the conquering man [Christ] we would again ascend into life, and just as through the man [Adam] death gained victory over us, through the man [Christ] we would again have victory over death.

Against heresies.

St. Isidore Pelusiot

And I will put enmity between you and your wife, and between your seed and her seed: her head will be kept by him, and you will keep his heel.

To the words spoken to the serpent: I will put enmity between you and so on.

The seed of the woman, whom God commands to be at enmity with the serpent, is our Lord Jesus. For He alone became the seed of the woman from the woman, without the mediation of the seed of the man and without diminishing Her purity.

St. Ephraim the Syrian

and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: her head will be kept by him, and his heel will be kept by you.

Sschmch. Onuphry (Gagalyuk)

and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel

There is a constant struggle between the Kingdom of God on earth and the kingdom of Satan. The Kingdom of God on earth is the Orthodox Church of Christ. Anyone who fights the Church of God, to one degree or another, works against God, for the domination of Satan on earth. Of course, for Satan and his kingdom, the struggle with God and the Church will end in complete defeat (1 Cor. 15:24–27). But here on earth, by God’s permission, Satan has been given the opportunity to torment and harm the servants of Christ in every possible way. And Satan with his kingdom stings the servants of God with sorrows, illnesses, and sometimes kills them... But Satan cannot defeat the followers of the Savior if they constantly cling to their Lord. A Christian needs to constantly remember about the intrigues of Satan and his blows, sometimes very heavy. Do not be discouraged, but endure them complacently, and place all your hope in God!

In defense of the Christian faith. Reflections on selected passages of Holy Scripture.

Blazh. Augustine

and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel

Enmity is not between the serpent and the husband, but between the serpent and the wife. Maybe because he doesn’t deceive or seduce their husbands? But it is obvious that he is deceiving. Or because he tempted not Adam, but his wife? But did not this make him the enemy of Adam, whom deception reached through his wife, especially since it has already been said about the future: I will put enmity between you and your wife? If the reason is that the serpent did not immediately seduce Adam, then he did not immediately seduce Eve. Why is it said this way? Is it not because this makes us understand: the devil can seduce us only through the animal part, which reveals the female image in a single and whole person, which we have already talked about a lot above?

About the Book of Genesis against the Manichaeans.

Blzh. Hieronymus of Stridonsky

and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel

The Hebrew text says it better: “He will trample on your head, and you will trample on his heel.” After all, the serpent also hinders our progress, and “the Lord will soon put Satan under our feet.”

Jewish Questions on the Book of Genesis.

Lopukhin A.P.

and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel

First Promise of the Messiah

“and I will put down enmity...” This section is of the greatest importance. It contains a prophecy that runs through the entire history of the world, right up to the very end of the world, and is fulfilled together on every page of the above-mentioned history. The deep enmity named here is that internal opposition that exists between good and evil, light and darkness (John 3:19-20; John 7:7; 1 John 2:15) - this enmity is reflected even in the sphere of the highest spirits (Rev. 12:7-9).

“The first wife in the world was the first to fall into the devil’s snare, but she was the first to shake his power over herself with her repentance (meaning repentance for her entire subsequent life outside of paradise)” (Vissarion).

Many Church Fathers (Justin, Irenaeus, Cyprian, John Chrysostom, Jerome, etc.), based on various places of Holy Scripture, attribute this instruction not so much to Eve, but to that great wife who, more than all other wives, personified in herself “ enmity" to the kingdom of Satan, serving the mystery of the incarnation (Matt. 3:7 Gal. 4:4; Gen. 17:7), as a victorious opponent of the Antichrist, the main culprit of the victory over the serpent.

“It will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel.”. The very process and nature of the above enmity is clearly depicted in an artistic picture of the great struggle between the two warring parties, with a fatal outcome for one of them (a blow to the head) and relatively insignificant damage to the other (a sting in the heel). Quite close analogies to this image are found in other places of Holy Scripture (Rom. 16:20, etc.). The mention here of a wife, a serpent and their offspring, a blow to the head and a sting to the heel - all these are nothing more than artistic images, but images full of deep meaning: they contain the idea of ​​​​the struggle between the kingdom of light, truth and goodness and the region of darkness, lies and all evil; this highly dramatic struggle, beginning from the moment of the fall of our ancestors, passes through the entire world history and will end only in the kingdom of glory with the complete triumph of good, when, according to the word of Scripture, there will be God "all in all"(1 Cor. 15:28; cf. John 12:32). The conclusion of this struggle will be the spiritual duel that is spoken of here, when “He” (αυτος - masculine pronoun), i.e. the Great Descendant, enters into battle with the serpent himself or his main fiend - the Antichrist and defeats the latter on head (2 Thess. 2:8-9; Rev. 20:10).

It is curious that the tradition of paganism has preserved a fairly strong memory of this important fact and has even captured the very picture of this struggle on various artistic monuments. If this divine promise of victory over the devil serves as a living source of consolation and joy for us, then what ray of life-giving hope was it for the fallen ancestors, who first heard this most joyful news from the lips of God Himself? Therefore, this promise is quite deservedly called the “first gospel,” that is, the first good news about the coming Deliverer from slavery to the devil.