Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You said:

You can’t say that the woman’s seed (in the context) is victorious over the serpents-so whether you translate it crush, strike, bruise etc you must do the same for both.

Yes, I agree that this is the really neat thing that shows how God planned satan’s destruction from the beginning.

While God cursed the serpent, He also stated how the serpent through his seed will fight back at the seed of the woman and the very act of his fighting back will cause his destruction. The Hebrew term for “crush” is a prophesy that the serpent will crush the Messiah’s heel on the cross. Look here for new crucifixion evidence that shows that the heel was pierced with the nails:

Crucifixion evidence was found in June of 1968 at Giv’at ha-Mivtar. The discovery within a cemetery which dates to the first century time period shows evidence of a man who was crucified with nails through his feet and wrists. His legs were broken. The description is very similar to that found in the NT Gospels concerning the crucifixion of Christ. Josephus described crucifixion in the time of the Fall of Jerusalem as so great that “space could not be found for the crosses nor crosses for the bodies.” (JW 5.11.1) demonstrating that crucifixion was common during the time period of Jesus.

Joseph Fitzmyer reviewed the evidence from Giv’at ha-Mivtar in his 1978 CBQ article entitled “Crucifixion in Ancient Palestine, Qumran Literature, and the New Testament.” He quotes the findings of V. Tzaferis (Israeli Department of Antiquities and Museums) who says: “This is undoubtedly a case of crucifixion.” The report continues describing what the picture above demonstrates a “large iron nail” fixed through heel bones.

The man who was crucified was 24-28 years old and 5ft 5 inches tall. The nail had been driven into acacia wood and then bent down; so that it would not be worked out. The nail was so firmly into the wood that the feet were cut off in order to remove the body from the cross (“it was impossible to withdraw the nail and there was a post mortem amputation of the feet . .. “).

Fitzmyer concludes that “the evidence for the practice is no longer solely literary in extrabiblical writings, but now archaeological as well.” Furthermore the evidence related to the Gospel of John which indicates they did not break the legs of Jesus shows a corresponding link between the typical practice (as John indicates and the evidence now demonstrates did occur) and what occurred to Jesus in the Gospels. Furthermore the relationship between actual piercing and also the cross/tree detail are both corroborated by the evidence.

From http://davidritsema.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/crucifixion/

So while God cursed the serpent in the garden because of his deception, the serpent tried to destroy God’s Messiah by cursing Him by the cross.

Galatians 3:13 (NASB)
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”—

But God turned around and use the instrument that was meant to curse and kill Christ, into an instrument that would bring Christ the victory.

Colossians 2:14–15 (NASB)
14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

The very cross that was used as a weapon against Jesus by crushing his heel through crucifixon became the weapon that destroyed satan’s power. The curse was complete against the serpent when Jesus triumphed over the serpent with the cross. God used the very weapon (the cross) that the serpent tried to destroy Jesus with and it was prophesied back in Genesis that the thing that would crush the Messiah heal would crush the head of the serpent.

Psalm 68:21 (NASB)
21 Surely God will shatter the head of His enemies,
The hairy crown of him who goes on in his guilty deeds.

And because Jesus crushed the head of the serpent at the cross, we too as His body will has satan crushed under our feet.

Romans 16:20 (NASB)
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

The beauty of the cross and God’s prediction in Genesis 3:15 is that what the enemy meant for evil, God meant for good. The cross was meant by the enemy to curse and to destroy. But the cross actually destroyed the destroyer.

While the human author of Genesis likely never understood the words that he was penning concerning God’s words to the serpent, looking back on the prophesy we can see God’s plan made to destroy the serpent right from the beginning. The Word Biblical Commentary shows that even in the Septuagint and other Jewish writings back to the third century BC, the victory of the Messiah over satan was viewed in Genesis 3:15.

Certainly the oldest Jewish interpretation found in the third century B.C. Septuagint, the Palestinian targums (Ps.-J., Neof., Frg.), and possibly the Onqelos targum takes the serpent as symbolic of Satan and look for a victory over him in the days of King Messiah. The NT also alludes to this passage, understanding it in a broadly messianic sense (Rom. 16:20; Heb. 2:14; Rev. 12), and it may be that the term “Son of Man” as a title for Jesus and the term “woman” for Mary (John 2:4; 19:26) also reflect this passage (Gallus; cf. Michl). Certainly, later Christian commentators, beginning with Justin (ca. A.D. 160) and Irenaeus (ca. 180), have often regarded 3:15 as the Protoevangelium, the first messianic prophecy in the OT. While a messianic interpretation may be justified in the light of subsequent revelation, a sensus plenior, it would perhaps be wrong to suggest that this was the narrator’s own understanding. Probably he just looked for mankind eventually to defeat the serpent’s seed, the powers of evil.
Wenham, G. J. (2002). Vol. 1: Word Biblical Commentary : Genesis 1-15. Word Biblical Commentary (80–81).

I have no doubt that when Jesus rose from the dead and He met with some of the disciples on the road, that He took Genesis 3:15 and explained its meaning to them.

Luke 24:25–27 (NASB95)
25 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”
27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Notice that Jesus started with Moses and from Moses’ writings He explained to them what had been written about Him and the suffering that He would experience. Genesis 3:15 is the very first Scripture that mentions the suffering of the Messiah with his heel crushed and it is also the very first Scripture that declares the victory on the same front as His heal was crushed. It is the cross and it is the sign of triumph over the serpent.