The First Gospel
Whose Head is Crushed in Genesis 3:15?
We’ve explored Isaiah’s virgin prophecy and David’s psalm about incarnation. Now we’re going back to the beginning, to the moment immediately after the Fall, when God pronounces judgment on the serpent and makes the first promise of redemption. This verse is called the protoevangelium, the “first gospel.” But depending on whether you’re reading the Hebrew or the Greek, you might be seeing a quite different picture of how that redemption unfolds.
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The Promise in Eden
Genesis 3:15 is one of the most important verses in all of Scripture. Right after Adam and Eve have eaten the forbidden fruit, God speaks to the serpent:
Genesis 3:15 (KJV): “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.”
Genesis 3:15 (WEBUS): “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
First, it’s important to note that the term “bruise” that appears in both the KJV and the WEBUS, is a much weaker verb than is generally rendered from the Hebrew word in the Masoretic Text. The word here is שׁוּף (shuph), which is typically translated as “crush” or “lie in wait.”
Now, this is the first glimpse of the Gospel. God promises that the woman’s offspring— her “seed” —will one day crush the serpent’s head, though in the process the seed will be wounded in the heel. For two thousand years, Christians have understood this as a prophecy of Christ: Jesus, the seed of the woman (born of a virgin, with no human father), will defeat Satan (the serpent) through His death and resurrection. Satan bruises Christ’s heel at the cross, but Christ crushes Satan’s head in His victory over death.
It’s beautiful. It’s foundational. It’s the thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation.
But here’s where things get interesting: the Hebrew and Greek texts describe this cosmic battle slightly differently.
The Texts Side by Side
Masoretic Hebrew Text: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he (הוּא, hu) will bruise/crush you [on the] head (רֹאשׁ, rosh), and you will bruise/crush him [on the] heel (עָקֵב, aqev).”
Septuagint Greek Text: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he (αὐτός, autos) will watch/guard your head (τηρήσει σου τὴν κεφαλήν, tērēsei sou tēn kephalēn), and you will watch/guard his heel (τηρήσεις αὐτοῦ τὴν πτέρναν, tērēseis autou tēn pternan).”
At first glance, these look similar. Both involve the woman’s seed, both involve the serpent’s head and the seed’s heel. But look closer at the key differences:
The Verb: The Hebrew uses שׁוּף (shuph), which means “to bruise, crush, strike, snap at,” among other things. It’s generally a violent, aggressive verb. The Septuagint uses τηρέω (tēreō), which typically means “to watch, guard, observe, keep.” This is radically different imagery, though there is another sense, as I mentioned above, where the Hebrew shuph can mean to “lie in wait,” which is similar.
The Grammar: In the Hebrew, both actions use the same verb, shuph. The seed will crush the serpent’s head, and the serpent will crush the seed’s heel. It’s symmetrical. In the Greek, both actions also use the same verb— tēreō —but with a completely different meaning: the seed will watch the serpent’s head, and the serpent will watch the seed’s heel.
Even though shuph can have a similar meaning, with the way it’s generally understood, this isn’t a minor translation nuance. That understanding makes it a fundamentally different picture of the conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
What Does the Hebrew Say?
The Hebrew verb שׁוּף (shuph) appears only three times in the entire Old Testament—twice in Genesis 3:15 and once in Job 9:17, where it describes a tempest that “breaks” or “crushes.” The root meaning conveys violence, striking, crushing.
Interestingly, in extra-biblical sources where this Hebrew word appears, it almost always means to “bruise/crush, overwhelm,” or “snap at.” However, some scholars have suggested that in certain contexts it could be translated as “to cover.”
So the imagery in typical Hebrew translations is warfare. The woman’s seed and the serpent’s seed are in mortal combat. The serpent strikes at the heel (a non-lethal but painful blow). The woman’s seed strikes at the head (a lethal, crushing blow). One wound is temporary; the other is fatal.
This maps beautifully onto Christ and Satan. Satan inflicts real damage—the crucifixion is no mere scratch. Christ suffers. He bleeds. He dies. The heel is bruised. But the wound isn’t permanent. Christ rises. And in rising, He delivers the victory over Satan. The head is crushed. The serpent’s power is broken.
The Reformers and Puritans loved this reading. They saw in Genesis 3:15 the entire arc of redemption: Satan’s temporary victory at the cross, and Christ’s ultimate triumph in the resurrection.
John Calvin wrote that this verse contains “the first promise of the Redeemer” and that the striking of the head signifies Satan’s ultimate destruction, while the striking of the heel signifies Christ’s suffering. Very real, but not final.
Matthew Henry in his commentary says: “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head—break his power, defeat his counsels, destroy his works, and triumph over him at last.”
The Hebrew text gives us a picture of decisive, violent conflict with a clear winner and loser.
What Does the Greek Say?
Now look at the Septuagint. The verb τηρέω (tēreō) means “to watch, guard, observe, keep an eye on.” It’s not inherently violent. It’s the word used for:
Keeping commandments (Matthew 19:17)
Guarding a vineyard (Matthew 27:36)
Preserving or protecting something (John 17:15, where Jesus asks the Father to “keep” His disciples)
Watching for or waiting for something
So when the Septuagint says the seed of the woman will tēreō the serpent’s head, and the serpent will tēreō the seed’s heel, it’s describing something more like watchful hostility. Think constant vigilance, mutual antagonism, a standoff where each is watching the other, waiting for an opportunity.
This doesn’t mean the Septuagint eliminates the idea of conflict. The context is still God putting “enmity” between the two parties. But the Greek shifts the emphasis from a single crushing blow to an ongoing, watchful struggle.
Some scholars have suggested the Septuagint translators may have been reading the Hebrew verb differently. Perhaps they understood shuph as related to a root meaning “to pant after, to long for, to watch intently.” Or they may have been interpreting the warfare metaphor through the lens of vigilance: the seed of the woman must constantly be on guard against the serpent’s attacks, and the serpent is always watching for a chance to strike.
Others suggest the translators deliberately chose tēreō to emphasize the cosmic scope of the conflict. This isn’t just one battle; it’s an ongoing war that spans all of human history. The woman’s seed (and by extension, the people of God) must always be watching, always guarding against the serpent’s schemes.
How Does This Affect Our Reading?
Here’s the fascinating thing: both readings enrich our understanding of the Gospel.
The Hebrew reading (crush/bruise) gives us the eschatological victory. It points us to the cross and resurrection as the decisive moment when Satan’s power was broken. Christ dealt the death blow. Satan is a defeated enemy, even if his final judgment is yet future. This is the reading that emphasizes Christ’s triumph.
The Greek reading (watch/guard) gives us the historical reality. It acknowledges that the conflict between the seed and the serpent isn’t over in a single moment. From Genesis 3 onward, there’s an ongoing battle. Satan watches for opportunities to destroy God’s people. God’s people must remain vigilant, guarding against Satan’s attacks. This is the reading that emphasizes spiritual warfare and perseverance.
Paul seems to have both in mind when he writes to the Romans: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet,” (Romans 16:20). He uses the language of crushing (echoing the Hebrew), but he speaks of it as something still future for the Roman church. Something they must watch for and prepare for (echoing the Greek).
Peter, too, when he warns believers to “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). The call to vigilance reflects the Septuagint’s emphasis on watchfulness.
The Grammatical Question: “It” or “He”?
There’s another layer to this. In both the Hebrew and the Greek, there’s an ambiguity about the subject of the verbs.
The Hebrew pronoun הוּא (hu) can mean “he,” “it,” or even “she” depending on context. Most English translations render it as “he” (referring to the individual seed who will crush the serpent) or “it” (referring to the collective seed of the woman).
The question matters: Is Genesis 3:15 predicting one specific descendant of the woman who will defeat Satan? Or is it predicting an ongoing conflict between all of humanity (the woman’s offspring collectively) and Satan?
The Christian answer, of course, is both. The immediate context suggests an ongoing conflict—there will be enmity between the serpent’s offspring (those who follow Satan) and the woman’s offspring (those who follow God) throughout history. But the ultimate fulfillment is singular: one Seed, one Man, Jesus Christ, who crushes the serpent’s head definitively.
Paul makes this explicit in Galatians 3:16: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” Paul reads “seed” in the singular, pointing to Christ as the ultimate fulfillment.
The Septuagint’s use of αὐτός (autos, “he”) maintains this ambiguity. It can be read collectively or individually. But in the context of Christian interpretation— especially post-resurrection —it’s clearly pointing forward to Christ.
The Church Fathers and the Protoevangelium
The early Church treasured Genesis 3:15 as the protoevangelium, the first announcement of the Gospel in seed form.
Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 180 A.D.) writes in Against Heresies that just as sin came through a woman (Eve), salvation must come through a woman (Mary). He sees Genesis 3:15 as predicting not just Christ’s victory, but the specific mechanism: birth from a virgin, the “seed of the woman” with no human father involved. Satan targets the woman’s offspring, and God brings redemption through the woman’s offspring.
Justin Martyr (c. 150 A.D.) in his Dialogue with Trypho argues that Genesis 3:15 predicts the Messiah’s suffering (the bruised heel) and His ultimate victory (the crushed head). He sees the cross as the fulfillment of both.
The fathers read the text Christologically from the beginning. They didn’t need Paul’s explicit statement in Galatians to see Christ in Genesis 3:15, they saw it naturally, because the pattern of a suffering-but-victorious Redeemer was woven into the very first promise God made after the Fall.
Jewish Interpretation and Christian Reading
It’s worth noting that Jewish interpretation of Genesis 3:15 has historically been different. Without the New Testament lens, Jewish scholars have tended to read this verse as describing the general hostility between humans and serpents, or metaphorically as the ongoing struggle between good and evil, righteousness and wickedness.
The Targum Onkelos (an Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah) interprets the “seed of the woman” as the righteous descendants who will keep God’s commandments, and the “seed of the serpent” as the wicked who follow Satan’s ways. The conflict is moral and spiritual, but not necessarily Messianic.
Some later Jewish commentators, particularly after the rise of Christianity, explicitly rejected the Christian reading. They argued that the verse is simply explaining why humans fear snakes and why snakes strike at human feet; a natural observation, not a prophecy.
But here’s the interesting thing: the Septuagint, translated by Jewish scholars 250 years before Christ, preserves this verse in a way that early Christians found deeply meaningful. The emphasis on “watching” and “guarding” fits the New Testament’s call to vigilance. The singular “he” fits the Christological reading. The Septuagint doesn’t require a Christian interpretation, but it certainly allows for one.
What is meant by, “the seed of the woman”
This is one of those phrases in Scripture that often floats by beneath our notice without even stopping to think about it. We’ve all heard it so many times that we just accept it and move on. I mean, how many timed did we hear this part in Sunday School?
But when you stop to think about it, isn’t this a positively bizarre phrase?
The seed of the woman doesn’t really make sense. Both biologically and idiomatically, the seed lies with the man. This is how we’ve always thought about procreation. It is the “seed” that fertilizes the egg. We have never referred to a woman’s egg as “seed.”
Even historically (never minding biblical sources for a moment), we have phrases like “spilling seed” that are clearly a reference to semen from a male.
So how exactly do we get to the “seed of the woman”?
Well, some scholars suggest (and I happen to agree) that this is an explicit reference to a virgin birth and the Messiah. The only way for a woman to have a seed is if she is procreating without a human male to fertilize the egg. That is, both idiomatically and biologically, the only way.
Although there is, of course, opposition to this view. Some interpretations argue that the phrase is not inherently messianic or a prophecy of a virgin birth, citing that the Hebrew “seed” (זרע, 𝑧𝑒𝑟𝑎) is used collectively to mean offspring or descendants, and its grammatical function in the verse refers to the overall descendants of Eve.
Is it really a serpent in the Garden?
If you’re a student of scripture you may know that the Hebrew word, נָחָשׁ (nachash), has several possible meanings. It can mean “serpent,” but it can also mean “to shine,” to “use divination or sorcery,” or “brazen.” So there is scholarly debate over whether the “serpent” mentioned here is really a serpent, or if the text is meant to refer to an angel, specifically Lucifer or Satan.
It has been suggested by some scholars that this is a significant part of why we have the phrase in Revelation 12:9 (“that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world”), to be an intentional callback to Genesis 3:15 so we don’t miss the point.
Those who make this point also bring to light the exact phrasing being used in 3:1 when the serpent is introduced (“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”). The word translated in the King James as “subtil” is עָר֣וּם (arum), and it generally means “crafty” but can mean any form of “wisdom” (there’s no value connotation), “sinister cunning” or it can even be a wordplay with עָר֥וֹם (erom), which means “naked,” so could be a callback to Genesis 2:25 where it’s given that Adam and Eve are naked and unashamed. With the further point that what the text actually says is that the “serpent” (or “shining one” or “angel”) is the wisest of all the creatures God had made.
With all the callbacks to this suggesting that the serpent in the garden is actually Satan, I have a hard time not accepting this reading of the text. In spite of the fact that in the Septuagint, the translators made the very clear decision to translate the word as ὄφις (ophis), which very unambiguously means “serpent” or “snake.”
What This Means for Us
When you read Genesis 3:15 in your English Bible, you’re reading the Hebrew emphasis: crushing, bruising, violent conflict, and decisive victory. This is glorious. This is essential. This is the Gospel in embryonic form.
But when you read the Septuagint— or when you trace how the New Testament writers understood this verse —you also encounter the Greek emphasis: watching, guarding, ongoing vigilance, the long war between the seed and the serpent that spans all of history and culminates in Christ.
You need both.
You need the Hebrew’s promise of total victory, with Satan’s head crushed, death defeated, the curse reversed. That’s your hope. That’s your confidence. Christ has won.
But you also need the Greek’s call to vigilance. It’s the reminder that until Christ returns, you’re still in enemy territory. Satan is still prowling. You must watch. You must guard your heart, your mind, your faith. The victory is certain, but the battle isn’t over.
The Beauty of Comparative Reading
This is why comparing the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint isn’t an academic exercise. It’s not about finding contradictions or undermining Scripture. It’s about seeing the fullness of what God has revealed.
The Hebrew gives you one angle of vision. The Greek gives you another. And when you hold them together, when you let them speak in harmony rather than forcing them into uniformity, you get a richer, deeper, more textured understanding of the Gospel.
Genesis 3:15 isn’t just about the cross. It’s not just about the resurrection. It’s not just about final judgment. It’s about all of it. Here we have the entire scope of redemptive history from Eden to the New Jerusalem. It’s about Christ’s decisive victory and about the church’s faithful endurance. It’s about the serpent’s head crushed and about believers keeping watch against his schemes.
The Masoretic Text and the Septuagint, read together, give you the full story.
Where We’re Going Next
We’ve now looked at three passages where the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text diverge in ways that shape theology:
Isaiah 7:14: Virgin or young woman? The Septuagint’s parthenos gives us the explicit virgin birth prophecy that Matthew quotes.
Psalm 40:6: Opened ears or prepared body? The Septuagint’s incarnational language provides the framework for Hebrews’ argument.
Genesis 3:15: Crushing or watching? The Masoretic and Septuagint together give us both Christ’s victory and the church’s vigilance.
In each case, we’re not choosing one text over the other. We’re recognizing that God has given us His Word in multiple languages, through multiple translations, and that comparing them enriches rather than diminishes our understanding.
Next time, we’ll explore a passage from the Prophets where a single word difference creates a massive theological shift—and where the Septuagint’s reading may actually preserve the original meaning that was lost in the Masoretic transmission.
Until then, remember: the serpent’s head is crushed, but you must still keep watch. Christ has won the war, but you’re still in the battle.
Stay vigilant. The victory is yours.
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