Can anyone explain?

[woden]

What is Genesis 3:15 on about? It reads like a prophecy. Who is being spoken to? Who are involved? If it is a prophecy has it been fulfilled or is it to be fulfilled? Any thoughts.

[OneLight]

In order to understand what is going on, lets look at what God said to the serpant.

Genesis 3:13-15

And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent:

“ Because you have done this,

You are cursed more than all cattle,

And more than every beast of the field;

On your belly you shall go,

And you shall eat dust

All the days of your life.

15 And 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.”

Because Satan led Eve astray, God made it, from that day forward, so the woman, and her seed to always be against Satan and his seed and deeply hate the works of Satan. The Seed in bold, that will bruise his head, is Jesus, It is prophetic.

Something else I wonder about is if the snake had either legs or wings? He was ordered, from that day forward, "On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.

Hope this helps.

[jackie d]

What is Genesis 3:15 on about? It reads like a prophecy. Who is being spoken to? Who are involved? If it is a prophecy has it been fulfilled or is it to be fulfilled? Any thoughts.

Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

This is a prophesy about the church and Satan. The woman is the church and the seed is the Christians.

[BurnForChrist]

What is Genesis 3:15 on about? It reads like a prophecy. Who is being spoken to? Who are involved? If it is a prophecy has it been fulfilled or is it to be fulfilled? Any thoughts.

The answers are very insightful, but I heard another good explanation of it. Genesis 3:15 is the first prophecy about the coming of Christ. The "seed of the women" is Christ and the serpent is Satan. The Hebrew for "bruise" is "shûph" which can also mean to snap, overwhelm and crush. And the idea here presented is that Satan bruised the seeds head through the cross but Christ crushes his head through the resurrection. Hopefully that helps, and there are also good answers as well.

Burn

[Marnie]

I'm with Burn on this one. The "seed of the woman" is almost universally recognized as being Christ. I never heard the interpretation of the seed being the Church. It's interesting, though. But when you read a phrase like that one, "the seed of the woman," it's always helpful to see how it is used elsewhere in the Bible. It always refers to a descendant(s) of a certain individual, never to a class of people, like the Church.

Gen. 3:15 is regarded as the very first prophecy in the Bible.

[EricH]

I'm with Burn on this one. The "seed of the woman" is almost universally recognized as being Christ. I never heard the interpretation of the seed being the Church. It's interesting, though. But when you read a phrase like that one, "the seed of the woman," it's always helpful to see how it is used elsewhere in the Bible. It always refers to a descendant(s) of a certain individual, never to a class of people, like the Church.

Gen. 3:15 is regarded as the very first prophecy in the Bible.

Agreed

[Rick-Parker]

So, nobody takes these verses literally? It's just a metaphor? Up to interpretation?

[Guest LadyC]

So, nobody takes these verses literally? It's just a metaphor? Up to interpretation?

i certainly take the verse literally!

[Rick-Parker]

That makes 2

[Openly Curious]

What is Genesis 3:15 on about? It reads like a prophecy. Who is being spoken to? Who are involved? If it is a prophecy has it been fulfilled or is it to be fulfilled? Any thoughts.

Genesis 3:15--"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel."

This is an interesting verse of scripture here. The Lord is the one talking here as he says to the serpent (Satan) that I am going to put you and the woman at odds with one another your going to be enemies from here on out. Then the Lord speaks further how they will be at odds with one another. God says, your seed or children of the devil and the seed or children of the woman those that are righteous are going to fight against each other and the womans seed is going to bruise your head and you will bruise his heel.

the part of the verse that say, "thy seed and" this part of the verse speaks about Satan seed his children let's look at some scripture.

John 8:44--"Ye are of your father the devil and thee lusts of your father ye will do He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father of it."

Acts 13:10--"And said, O full of all subtlety and all mischeif thou child of the devil thou enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord."

1 John 3:8--"He that commitheth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil.

We can see from these verses who the children or seed of the devil is and it is those who do not do righteousness and they practice unrighteousness and wickedness in this world and fight against the righteousness of God.

"her seed" is the next part of the scriptures I want to talk about. Let's look at some more scriptures.

Isaiah 7:14--"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel."

Luke 1:31,34,35--"And behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS" 34) The said Mary unto the angel How shalt this be, seeing I know not a man? 35) And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

So the "seed" of the woman was the Son of God Jesus Christ who was foretold that he would come born of a virgin the seed of a woman. And that part of the verse has been already fulfilled as Christ has come born of a virgin the seed of a woman. Jesus did bruise the head of Satan and Satan did bruise the heel of Jesus

"it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel" I just want to give a couple of scriptures here:

Romans 16:20--"And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly"

Revelation 12:7--"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels"

First notice what Paul is saying, "the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" now Christ had already went to the cross and defeated Satan as Jesus did get his heel bruised as he went to that awful cross and it was no small thing but Jesus went to the cross and gave his life as the ransom price to buy us back from the bondage of sin.

So the scripture in Genesis has a double meaning as Paul reveals here. As Paul is speaking of the future time where Christ is going to return and defeat Satan once and for all.

I like the way the verse goes "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly: to me that is encouraging to know the God of peace is going to bruise Satan up under the saints feet shortly.

The seed of the woman was Christ and that was fulfilled as Jesus was the Son of God the seed of woman and that has come to pass.

In the future Christ again will come and make the kingdoms of this world his and Satan will be destroyed once and for all and then Satan will be bruised forever and mankind won't have to deal with evil no more but only righteousness and peace.

Hope I have helped you understand more.

blessings to your studies

OC