 |
| Eve and Mary, Ferdinand Max Bredt, pre-1921 |
- - - - - - -
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
-Genesis 3:15
- - - - - - -
The Primary Significance of Genesis 3:15: Messianic Prophecy
The word for "seed" in Greek is "sperma." In Latin, "semen." In its proper sense, "seed" refers to a man's issue. The Old Testament refers regularly to Abraham's seed (cf. ) and David's seed (cf. ) This, however, is the only place in all of Scripture which refers to a woman's seed (which is an anomaly in itself, as women don't technically have seed.) If we were to think of this word in the ancient sense, with its standard masculine application, then the verse comes very close to saying "between your sperm and hers."
What is implied by such a statement? If the woman has seed of her own, there is no requirement for a man's involvement in seeing that she brings forth the fruit of her womb. In other words, she has no need for sexual contact with a man in order to bring forth children.
In reading this passage, many people recognize that the "seed" which crushes the serpent's head is a reference to the coming Messiah; not as many pick up on just how much detail the verse actually gives in identifying definite articles of his arrival. Given that He is "the woman's seed", it also references the fact that this child will be conceived and born of woman, and The verse ultimately signifies not only a promised Messiah, but also indicates his virgin birth. Thus, the "woman", in the immediate context, is Eve, but in the prophetic context, is Mary. She is, in a very real sense, the "woman" of Genesis 3:15, the one who is at enmity with the ancient serpent.
The Secondary Significance: Gender Translation
This is where it really gets controversial. In many translations of Genesis, especially Protestant ones, you will read the verse as is presented atop this essay. But there is another significant rendering of it. In St. Jerome's translation of the Bible into the Latin vernacular of his day, known as the Vulgate, there is a slight difference in text which renders a seemingly huge difference in meaning.
I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.Whereas the contemporary version says "he shall crush thy head", this in turn rather says "she shall crush thy head." This then attributes the defeat of Satan, at least in context of this verse, not to Christ, but to Mary. To many, the implication of this translation this seems rather lavish and excessive towards the Virgin, almost as if it robs dignity from the actual Redeemer of mankind.
Was Jerome at all justified in rendering the text as he did? It is a fair question, and deserves to be answered and explored.
Archaeological and Traditional Evidence from Judaism:
What's more, this version of the verse is quoted by some of the most prominent names in Judaism:
Typology:
It can be seen that ancient Jews themselves had used the feminine form of this verse. There remains, however, an even stronger reason to validate its use, and that is one of typology. Genesis 3:15 doesn't look forward to one single instance of a woman striking the head of the serpent; it looks to several. In other words, throughout the Scriptures, women crush the heads of serpents all the time!
- Jael and Sisera (Judges 4)
... Later on, in the Song of Deborah, the praises of Jael are sung as thus: She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workman's mallet; she struck Sisera a blow, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple. (Jg. 5:26)
- The Woman (unnamed) and Abimelech (Judges 9)
How does this "serpent," this villain, meet his end? "a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, and crushed his skull." (Jg. 9:53)
- The Woman (unnamed) and Sheba
- Esther and Haman (Esther 7)
Through Esther's piety and valor, she rose up and spoke out to the king, revealing Haman's plans to him. Outraged at his right hand man, the king executes him. "So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai." (Esther 7:10) Through the woman (Esther), Haman (the serpent) is sent to his death by the suffocation from the rope, thereby "crushing" his head.
- Judith and Holofernes (Judith 13)
In this piece of "figurative Jewish history," the beautiful, noble and God-fearing Judith is called upon to assist the people of Israel in their greatest hour of need, for they are awaiting the armies of Nebuchadnezzar to conquer the land. After much prayer and fasting, Judith almost single-handedly saves the day by devising a plan to stealthily take out the general of his army, Holofernes. She adorns herself and enters the camp of their troops, presenting herself as a deserter against her own nation. On account of her beauty and good company, Holofernes lusts after her and eventually invites her into his chambers. Once the two are alone, without missing a beat, Judith grabs his sword and cuts off his head, and then stealthily leaves camp and returns to her people with a most glorious trophy. This Jewess strikes the head of this villain and so restores peace to Israel.
This being a pattern throughout Scripture, it finds its culmination in the New Testament. The serpent himself is Satan, whose deception severed man from a blessed union with God and subjected them to the darkness of sin and death. The woman who crushes his head, therefore, is Mary; by her assent to the Heavenly Father's plan, the Incarnation takes place and God walks among men as He did in the garden, and His mission of retrieving the lost sheep is finally begun.
The Fathers of the Church Speak: Eve & Mary
The verse from Genesis establishes a correlation between Eve and Mary, but how far and how deeply does it go? Peering into the thoughts of the Church Fathers on this connection proves to be quite illuminating.
"[Jesus] became man by the Virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death.... But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her, and the power of the Highest would overshadow her: wherefore also the Holy Thing begotten of her is the Son of God; and she replied, ‘Be it unto me according to your word."
-St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 100, A.D. 160
In accordance with this design, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word. (Luke 1:38) But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin... having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, became the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race.
-St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies III:22:4, A.D. 180
"Adam had to be recapitulated in Christ, so that death might be swallowed up in immortality, and Eve in Mary, so that the Virgin, having become another virgin's advocate, might destroy and abolish one virgin's disobedience by the obedience of another virgin."
-St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Proof of the Apostolic Preaching 33
"For it was while Eve was yet a virgin, that the ensnaring word had crept into her ear which was to build the edifice of death. Into a virgin’s soul, in like manner, must be introduced that Word of God which was to raise the fabric of life; so that what had been reduced to ruin by this sex, might by the selfsame sex be recovered to salvation. As Eve had believed the serpent, so Mary believed the angel. The delinquency which the one occasioned by believing, the other by believing effaced."
-Tertullian, The Flesh of Christ 17, A.D. 210
When I remember the disobedience of Eve, I weep. But when I view the fruit of Mary, I am again renewed. Deathless by descent, invisible through beauty, before the ages light of light; of God the Father wast Thou begotten; being Word and Son of God, Thou didst take on flesh from Mary Virgin, in order that Thou mightest renew afresh Adam fashioned by Thy holy hand.
-St. Gregory the Wonderworker, Homily Concerning the Holy Mother of God Ever-Virgin, 1, A.D. 275
"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28). This is she who was prefigured by Eve and who symbolically received the title of mother of the living (cf. Gen 3:20). For Eve was called mother of the living after she had heard the words, “You are dust and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19), in other words, after the fall. It seems odd that she should receive such a grand title after having sinned. Looking at the matter from the outside, one notices that Eve is the one from whom the entire human race took its origin on this earth. Mary, on the contrary, truly introduced life itself into the world by giving birth to the Living One, so that Mary has become the Mother of the living.
-St. Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion (Against Heresies) 78:18, c. 350
Let women praise Her, the pure Mary — that as in Eve their mother, great was their reproach — lo! In Mary their sister, greatly magnified was their honor. […] Of him the Lord said, that he had fallen from Heaven.— The Abhorred One had exalted himself; from his uplifting he has fallen. The foot of Mary has trod him down, who bruised Eve with his heel
-St. Ephraim the Syrian, Hymns on the Nativity 15, A.D. 350
For as she [Eve] who by her guilt engrafted death into our nature, was condemned to bring forth in trouble, it was meet that she [Mary] who brought life into the world should accomplish her delivery with joy.
-St Gregory of Nyssa, Homily on the Nativity, c. AD 388
With all this in mind, I believe Jerome to have been quite justified in translating the verse as he did, and thus Genesis 3:15. It'sDeath came through Eve, but life has come through Mary.-St. Jerome, Letters 22:21,
However, this really doesn't compromise the Messianic character of this passage. Elsewhere in Scripture, the Messiah is prophetically depicted as crushing the head of the serpent. It is He who is prophesied in the Psalm which reads: "You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot." (Ps. 91:13) The Messiah treading on the adder and trampling the serpent underfoot is as vivid a prophetic fulfillment as anything else; they are not mutually exclusive. Christ has "trampled down death by death," as Byzantine Christians sing during their paschal season.
Yet, what is a Christian but one who by grace shares in the victory of Christ, whose justice is imparted into the soul through holy baptism? Just as the Head conquered the devil and his forces, so the Body continues to wage war against the powers of darkness. It is this reality to which St. Paul references when he writes to the Church of Rome, "the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." (Rm 16:20) The Christian also steps on the head of the serpent, through the grace of God merited for Him by Christ the Redeemer.
A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.The Woman in Revelation 12 signifies both the Church (and therefore refers to all Christians generally,) but also stands for the Blessed Virgin in her own right (as she is the one who literally gave birth to the Messiah, whom the devil wished to overcome.). Both the Church and the Blessed Virgin are rightly understood as the mother of Christians, which is how the Woman in this passage is described, "Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus." (Rv. 12:17) She is shown to be at odds with "that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan" (Rv. 12:9), which is an explicit identification with the serpent in Genesis 3. The passage illustrates that enmity between the woman who bears Christ and the serpent.
Jesus, through nature, conquers the serpent by His atoning life, death, resurrection and ascension, accomplishing the perfect work of redemption; this is the primary significance. Mary, through grace, conquers the serpent in accepting and abiding in the holy word of God and remaining pure always in His sight. It is this very purity which made her a fitting vessel to for the Incarnation of the Logos; this is the secondary significance. Therefore, both translations, "he shall strike your head" and "she shall strike your head", carry an orthodox understanding: the former of Christ , and the latter of the "eve" of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
And this is actually the context of the oft-misunderstood concept of Mary being Co-redemptrix. It is not that she is "another redeemer" but that she is the redeemer's associate, intimately involved in the same mission, acting in accordance with the same purpose. Being this second Eve, she is neither another priest in her own right, nor another victim in her own right, but her actions do, in an immediate sense, pave the way for his redemptive work to occur, and insofar as all the faithful share in the priesthood of Christ, she shares in this baptismal priesthood to the very highest degree possible.
"Hail, O Gracious Lady
Who in the flesh bears God for salvation of all,
and through whom the human race has found salvation;
through you, may we find paradise,
Theotokos,
Our Lady, pure and blessed!"
(from an Evlogitaria for the dead, and for Good Friday.)
No comments:
Post a Comment