Genesis 3:3

I am currently reading a book about the Jewish background of Christianity called "In the Shadow of the Temple" by Oskar Skarsaune.  In a section on the thought behind the Pharisee movement, the author makes a point related to our discussion of the temptation of Eve.

The Pharisees were one of many groups in Israel that tried to exert power to establish their interpretation of Judaism.  One of their primary tenets was the importance of the purity regulations.  In the Old Testament the purity regulations applied mostly to those serving in the temple, such as priests and levites, and to those worshipping at the temple.  The Pharisees wanted to take these purity law and extend them throughout all of Israel and to ordinary Jews.  They advocated many positions that went beyond the material in the Old Testament and could not be justified by Biblical exegesis.  So the question is how did the Pharisees claim authority for their teaching?

If you will remember, the Serpent asks the woman if God actually said, "you shall not eat of any tree of the garden."  The woman's response is, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"  God had never said that they should not touch the fruit of the forbidden tree.  Either the woman added this command or Adam misinformed her.  Our view is that adding as well as subtracting from God's word is not a good thing.

Oskar Skarsaune cites a rabbinic text called the Mishnah Avot that takes the opposite view and may explain the justification for the thinking behind the Pharisees' extension of purity laws beyond the realm the Old Testament had established.  Some sort of authority figures called "the men of the Great Synagogue" said three things: be deliberate in judgment, raise up many disciples, and make a fence around the law. The relevant part for us is the phrase, "make a fence around the law."

The Mishnah Avot defines making a fence around the law as giving supplementary rulings that hinder a man or woman from breaking a scriptural command.  To support this principle, the Mishnah Avot cites Genesis 3:3.  However, under the interpretation of the Mishnah Avot the addition of the phrase "neither shall you touch it." is something positive designed to help Eve from falling into sin.  Therefore, the supplementary rulings of the Pharisees that have no direct Biblical grounding, are legitimate because they prevent someone from breaking a Biblical command.

 It is interesting to note that the Pharisees never considered that the addition of the phrase "neither shall you touch it" as method to prevent sin did not work.  The addition of the command did not make a fence around the law.  It is possible that the command hastened Eve's sin because in Genesis 3:6 the texts specifically states that she took of its fruit and ate.  Perhaps once the woman took the fruit and nothing bad happened she began to believe the serpent's word and then proceeded to eat.

A better lesson to draw from the passage is the addition of law did not prevent the woman from sinning and probably will not prevent us from sinning.  The only hope we have is in the promise God after the fall of the seed of the woman who will crush the serpent's head.  This is the point repeatedly made by Paul, that we should look not to an intensification of the law but instead cling to the promise.

The Skull Crushing Seed of the Woman

I found a paper this weekend, by an Old Testament scholar named Jim Hamilton, that does a great job of examining Genesis 3:15 and showing its use throughout the Old Testament.  The author's main point is, though we do not find a lot of the wording of Genesis 3:15 used throughout the Old Testament, we do see the concepts expressed in Genesis 3:15 reoccurring.  Hamilton uses the term word-study fallacy to describe the process of only looking for the wording of Genesis 3:15 and not the concepts.

The paper is about 14 pages long, and though in depth, I do not think you will find it highly technical.  Hamilton covers a lot of the territory we covered in small group, including the word offspring or seed being understood as a singular as well as plural concept.  I think you will find this paper fleshes out in more detail a lot of what we covered in small group.  Hopefully it will lead to a deeper understanding of Christ in the Old Testament.  Hamilton's main point is to show the method the New Testament writers used to interpret the Old Testament, was through the grid of the coming Messiah.

Here is the link to the paper:

http://jimhamilton.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/hamilton_sbjt_10-2.pdf

Fill free to post any questions or comments you have about the paper in the comment section.

Guarding the Garden

One of the points I have made throughout our small group Bible study is that we should think of the garden as a sacred space.  The garden is the place where God's presence is manifest and humanity and God meet.  Adam is instructed to tend and guard the garden.  The conjunction of the verbs tend and guard is used throughout the rest of the Old Testament to describe the duty charged to the priests.  Both the tabernacle and the temple contain arboreal and garden imagery.   The tabernacle and the temple are also places where God and humanity meet and thus the sanctity of its holiness must be protected.

After the fall, the charge to guard the garden is taken from humanity and given to the cherubim with the flaming sword.  The tabernacle and the temple incorporate this concept by decorating the curtain separating the holy place from the holy of holies with images of cherubim.  Two large statutes of cherubim covered with gold stand guard over the ark of the covenant.

Guarding was necessary to prevent contamination of the holy sacred space.  God's purity must be protected and thus there is a duty to prevent anything unholy from entering these places where God's presence is manifest.  The penalty for transgressing this boundary is death.  It was the duty of Adam to slay the serpent for daring to enter God's holy ground and challenging the word of God.

Below is a sign written in Greek that dates from the time of Herod's temple.  Currently it is displayed at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.  Signs such as these, in both Latin and Greek, were posted at regular intervals around the inner court.  The outer court was open to all people, but access to the inner court was limited to Jews.

The inscription reads as follows:  

"No foreigner is to enter within the balustrade and embankment around the sanctuary.  Whoever is caught will have himself only to blame for his death which follows."

Revelation 12 Challenge

As you know, Revelation poses a lot of interpretive challenges.  So I thought tackling something of the difficulty of Revelation will give us confidence as we learn to read the Bible as a coherent story.  If you can understand Revelation, you can understand anything.

The genre of the literature and the political environment that John was writing in made it necessary to use symbolic language.  However, given that John must use symbolism, what symbols can he use to ensure that his readers will understand what he is trying communicate and yet will confound any nosey Romans?

The answer is that John draw on symbols that are meaningful to his readers, but not to the Romans.  So John draws his imagery from the Old Testament.  I actually think most of the problems people have with interpreting Revelation stems from lack of knowledge of the Old Testament.

Your challenge is to try and figure out what John is saying in Revelation 12.  Do not feel like you have to interpret every single detail John uses.  John draws from multiple places in the Old Testament and it would be tough for many pastors to pick up all the allusions.  Try to figure out the broad outline and then go from there.

Genesis 38 Challenge

Genesis 38, which contains the story of Judah and Tamar, has always been troubling to Biblical scholars.  The story of Joseph begins in Genesis 37 and is more or a less a self contained story that runs all the way to the end of Genesis.  Genesis 38 interrupts the flow of the narrative and focuses on the sordid details of Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar.  Furthermore, the story of Judah and Tamar seems to have no connection with the Joseph story.

Not only does the story of Judah and Tamar seems out of place by abruptly interrupting the Joseph story, it is also salacious.  Contrast this story with the story of Joseph who is honorable man, refusing to be seduced by Potiphar's wife.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Judah is the father of three sons.  Judah's oldest son marries Tamar and is killed by God because "he displeased God."  In the ancient world it was important that the family name be carried on. So if a husband died before his wife had a child, it was the duty of the next oldest brother to marry the widow and produce offspring in his oldest brother's name.

Judah's next oldest son, Onan, marries Tamar.  Onan neglects his duty to provide Tamar with an offspring, instead engaging in the practice of coitus interruptus (A.K.A. the pull-out method for the less delicate among you).  God strikes down Onan for his failure to do his duty.  At this point, Judah decides that Tamar is cursed and refuses to let Tamar marry his youngest son.

Tamar takes matters into her own hands by disguising herself, dressing as a prostitute, and seducing Judah at a sheep shearing festival.  The result is Judah impregnates Tamar.  Upon discovering that Tamar is pregnant, Judah wants to have Tamar burned.  However, Tamar is able prove that she was the prostitute and that the child is Judah's and Judah declares that Tamar "is more righteous than I."

It is clear that the author of Genesis did not feel he had to include every detail.  It is also clear that the author has organized the stories in Genesis in a structured way.   So your challenge is to take what we have learned so far, as well as any outside information you wish to include, and try to explain why the author includes this story in the book of Genesis?

Week 10 Prayer Requests

1.  Ross' father

2.  Aaron's Grandmother

3. Work stress

4.  Karen's brother's decision

5.  Upcoming election for committee members

Week 10 Post-Fall Judgment Part II

We can divide the rest of this chapter in 4 parts:

1.  Coming Messianic Seed 14-15

2.  Common Grace & Common Curse 16-19

3.  Covenant of Grace 20-21

4.  Expulsion from the Garden  22-24

1 & 3 are related to each other in that deal with special grace and the coming of Christ presented both prophetically and symbolically.  This is grace that is specifically for God’s people.  

Q.  Who are God’s people in Genesis 3:15?

The seed of the woman is the description used for God’s people.  They will be the one who benefits when the serpent’s head is crushed.  

2 & 4 deals with the common purpose of all humanity.  God established an order of common grace and extends His kindness to humanity in general rather than by destroying humanity as justice demands.

Q.  Where do we see examples of common grace in this passage.  The rest of the Bible?

The seed of the serpent is allowed to live, rain falls on the wicked and the righteous.  God delays and restrains His judgment.

2.  Common Grace & Curse

-  Here God addresses Adam & Eve as representatives of the human race.  These are judgments that are issue to all of humanity, not just those who are seed of the serpent or seed of the woman.   Two judgments are issued against humanity.

Q.  What are the two judgments?

- Pain in childbirth

- Frustration of work

Q.  How do the judgments relate to the tasks Adam and Eve were originally given?

-  Being fruitful and multiplying will come at a cost.

-  Subduing and having dominion will be difficult.

-  Death will still result in the end.

Q.  We established that originally humanity was given the task of expanding the garden and filling it and the end result was that they would have access to the Tree of Life and enjoy God’s Sabbath rest.  Humanity would share in God’s rule of His creation.  After the fall, is this goal still achievable?  

-  Because God has established that our work will be frustrated, the work is no longer achievable.  As Chris said last week, man has been demoted.  

-  However, while humanity will still suffer the curse, it is grace because death will be delayed, childbirth will happen, man will still be able to eke out a living.  

Q.  What book of the Bible deals with the outworking of this frustration?

- Ecclesiastes

Q.  Can you relate this point of our work being frustrated to the sermon today?

3.  Covenant of Grace

Q.  What is Adam’s response to God’s judgment?

-  He names his wife Eve, which corresponds to living.  The Hebrew word havah sounds like the Hebrew word for live. 

Q.  What does this say about Adam?

-  Adam has faith in God and His promise that humanity will continue and the serpent will ultimately be defeated by the seed of Eve.  

-  Notice Adam does this before Eve has had a child.  The verse says she was the mother of all living, not will be the mother of all living, or I hope she is the mother of all living.  This is faith.  

-  God confirms Adam’s faith by covering their nakedness with clothes of animal skins.  

-  The recognition of nakedness is the result of the serpent’s work, by clothing man God is undoing the work of the serpent.  If you remember there is a pun in Hebrew where the  serpent is described as arum or cunning and the man and woman realize they are arumim or naked.  The word for skin used here is ar.

-  The skins work as a picture of the prophecy of Genesis 3:15, almost like a sacrament.  

Q.  Why would I say that it is like a sacrament?

God does not remove their sin, but He removes one of the effects of their sin.  This removal is tangible and gives Adam & Eve a sign that demonstrates a promise of God.  

Q.  What is the sign and what is the promise?

The sign is the skin and the promise is the defeat of the serpent.

-  Since an animal had to die in order to make the skins, the action also communicates the suffering that must occur to defeat the work of the serpent.

4.  Expulsion from the Garden

-  Adam & Eve no longer have the access to God that they had in the garden.  

-  Man is also separated from the tree of life.  

-  The only way back is through the flaming sword of the cherubim, something no man could pass through successfully.  The cherubim is set to guard the way to the tree of life.  The word guard here is shamar, the same word that was originally part of Adam’s commission to tend and guard the garden.  Adam’s job has been taken from him, further evidence of his demotion.

-  The garden was a holy place and now humanity is restricted from it.  You can think of the garden as being similar to the temple.  Both are places where the presence of God dwells.  Just as the priest was to guard the temple from anything unholy, Adam was to guard the garden.  The temple is full of garden like imagery - flowers, trees, and fruit carved into the different surfaces.  

-  The tabernacle and the temple reflect this separation.  

                                Babylonian equivalent of a cherub

2 Chronicles 3:14, "And He made the veil of blue and purple and crimson fabrics and fine linen and he worked cherubim on it."  

The curtains that separates off the holy of holies have cherubim embroidered on them. The Holy of Holies is where God dwelled and so His presence is separated from humanity by the cherubim.  

Hebrews 10:19-22, "Therefore brothers since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way the he opened for us through the curtain that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

-  So we really see the gospel presented here.  Humanity can no longer achieve their responsibility under the covenant.  They have been demoted and all their work is frustrated.  They are expelled from the garden and the only way they can get back is to pass through the sword of God’s judgment.  The only hope is for the seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent and to pass through God’s judgment.  Our only response to our situation should be a belief, or faith, that God will bring this to pass as Adam demonstrated by naming His wife Eve.  

Zechariah 2:3-5, "And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, “Run, say to that young man, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it.  And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be glory in her midst.”

-  In the Zechariah passage, the angels are no longer the antagonist.  Fire no longer keeps people out, it is protective.  The presence of God is no longer separated, He is glory in her midst.  What a great phrase.  

The Madonna Die Palafrenieri

The above painting portrays the young Jesus crushing the head of a snake, anticipating His victory over Satan.   Holding Jesus is his mother, Mary.  The figure on the left is Anne, the apocryphal mother of Mary.  

Even though the Bible does not mention Anna and there is probably some weirdo Catholic saint stuff associated with her, I kind of like the fact that she is in the painting.  After all, though Mary's mother may not have been named Anna, Mary had a mother and by depicting both women the painting reinforces the prophecy of the seed of the woman.  

This painting was completed in 1606 by Carravagio.  Originally, it was intended as an altar piece for St. Peter's Basilica, but was removed two days later and sold to a private collector.  Apparently portraying the Virgin Mary with a low cut dress was too much for the Pope. 

No doubt Jesus' nudity was another reason that the church shunned the painting.  However, I wonder if it represents a return to the pre-fall state where humanity was naked and not ashamed.  

Kol Yahweh

At our last small group meeting we discussed the poor translation of Genesis 3:8.  The verse literrally reads "And they heard the voice of Yahweh God walking in the garden."  It seems odd that the voice of God would be walking, and so most translators opt to use the phrase "sound of" rather than "voice of."

In Hebrew the phrase translated as voice or sound of the Lord is kol Yahweh.   The word kol can mean sound as well as voice, however the pairing of the word kol with Yahweh, meaning voice of the Lord, has a rich history that extends beyond Genesis 3:8.  Since the phrase recurs throughout the Old Testament, it seems like we would be on good grounds to translate the phrase the way it is translated throughout the rest of the Old Testament.

That still leaves us with the question of how do we understand that the voice of the Lord was walking? As we discussed in small group last Sunday, the picture given to us is of God making His appearance in all His judicial glory.  He comes not in the "cool of the day" but in the "spirit of the day."  This is the presence of God being made manifest.   God's presence is awesome and terrifying and beyond human description.  The use of the phrase "voice of the Lord God walking" is a necessarily imperfect attempt to describe an event that human language is inadequate to describe fully.

Exodus and Deuteronomy use the phrase "voice of the Lord" to refer to the law.  For example, Exodus 15:26 states, "If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord your God."  Deuteronomy uses the phrase to describe the giving of the law at Mount Horeb.

Moses recounts the people's reaction to the voice of the Lord in Deuteronomy 5:24-25, "And you (people of Israel) said, 'Behold, the Lord our God has shown us His glory and greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the midst of the fire,  This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live.  Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us.  If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die."  It is at this point the people recognize their unworthiness before a holy God and elect to send Moses alone to receive the commands of the Lord.   God's response to the people's concern is that they have spoken rightly. The voice of the Lord inspires awe and fear, much as it did to Adam and Eve.

The voice of the Lord is used in other passages in conjunction with His judgment.  Isaiah 30:31 warns the Assyrians that they will be terror stricken at the voice of the Lord, when He smites with His rod. Micah also uses "the voice of the Lord" in a similar way in Micah 6:9, "The voice of the Lord cries to the city - and it is sound wisdom to fear Your name: Hear of the road and of Him who appointed it."  The warning in Micah is given to the Israelites.

Of all the places the phrase "voice of the Lord" is used in the Bible, perhaps no other gives a fuller picture of the meaning of the phrase than Psalms 29.  Here it is in its entirety:

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name;
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

The voice of the Lord is over the waters:
The God of glory thunders
The Lord, over man waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young, wild ox.
The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh
The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth
  and strips the forests bare,
  and in His temple all cry, "Glory!"

The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
The Lord sits enthroned as a king forever
May the Lord give strength to His people!
May the Lord bless His people with peace!

Note all the rich imagery.  The voice of the lord is compare to rushing water and thunder.  I particularly like the line that says the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars.  Not only is the voice of the Lord compared to nature, but even the nation of Lebanon responds to its command.  Sirion is another name for Mount Hermon, a mountain on the border of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel that is still strategically important to this day.  It is the highest point in that area of the world and at the very command of the Lord it will skip like a wild young ox.  Nature is completely under the control of the voice of the Lord.

The can be no doubt that the Bible views the voice of the Lord in terms of awe.  It is powerful and dangerous.   The Lord even agrees that it is right for the Israelites to stay away from the voice of God because, as God's powerful instrument representing His commands and His justice, they will die.   So how can humanity approach a God with such power and such holiness?

Deuteronomy 18 contains a promise that God will raise up a new prophet like Moses to whom the people should listen.  The reason given to the Israelites for the need to raise up this new prophet like Moses is because hearing the voice of the Lord would result in the death of the Israelites.  Deuteronomy ends with the passing of Moses' commission to Joshua, however verse 34:10 states "And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face."  This is important because it means Joshua was not the prophet like Moses.

The prophet referred to in Deuteronomy 18, who could actually stand before God and hear and deliver the voice of the Lord, was not Joshua.  Numbers 12:6-8 says that prophets will be raised by God that God will speak to in dreams or visions.  The passage then goes on to specifically state that this will differ from the way God spoke to Moses, because God spoke to Moses face to face.  Other prophets would come, but this would not be the prophet predicted in Deuteronomy 18 that would be able to approach the voice of the Lord.  The prophet of Deuteronomy 18 must be someone who the Lord knows face to face.  No prophet in the Old Testament is described as being like Moses or who knows the Lord face to face .  This prophet like Moses, promised in Deuteronomy 18, can only be Jesus Christ.

Week 9 Homework

Next week we will continue our discussion of Genesis 3:14-24.  So no new material to read.

Week 9 Prayer Requests

1.  The Howell's friend Phil passed away unexpectedly this week.

2.  Aaron's parents are dealing with issues concerning his grandmother and aging.

3.  Ryan Merrill got a cast and braces this week.

4.  Brant's niece dealing with the her parent's separation.

5.  Kristin is having a tough time working with a difficult supervisor.

6.  The Thomases' have a new nephew.

Week 9 Post-Fall Judgment Part I

Small Group Week 9 Post Fall Judgment Recap

 - Overview of Old Testament and history of redemption. God did not reveal Himself as a set of propositions, but rather in a story.
- This story takes place in history. Through historical events God reveals His nature and purpose. We have divided this story up into 5 acts.
1. Kingdom Offered
2. Kingdom Promised
3. Kingdom Prefigured
4. Kingdom Inaugurated
5. Kingdom Consummated
- The theme of the Bible is the kingdom of God and the way God achieves His Kingdom is through events that take place in redemptive history.
- We are moving from the first act, Kingdom Offered to Kingdom Promised

Covenant Lawsuit

 - Genesis 3:8 says they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
 - This verse suffers from a poor translation. It makes it sound as though God is taking a morning stroll through the garden and just happens on Adam and Eve.
 - A better translation would be spirit of the day. The word for cool here is ruach which can be translated wind, but when used with the Lord God it is probably referring to His Holy Spirit. The spirit of God is His glory that feels the tabernacle in Exodus 40. Its the awesome shekinah glory.
- The day in conjunction with spirit is better thought of as judgment day. So when we read this verse we should think of God coming in His glory to execute justice. This is a visible, awesome manifestation of God. Similar language is used of God at Mount Sinai and you remember the people were afraid to go up the mountain and they told Moses they wanted to stay where they were and they it was a better idea if just Moses went to the top of Mount Sinai.
 - That something remarkable is going on here can be seen by the language used here.

Q. What did Adam & Eve hear?

- Once again we have a poor translation. The verse literally says they heard “the voice of the Lord” walking. Something weird that transcends human experience is going here if the voice of the Lord is walking. The voice of the Lord actually has a rich history. I may do a blog post this week about the phrase voice of the Lord because its pretty cool.
- This day of judgment is God executing His covenant lawsuit. The covenant was a judicial instrument and there were provisions for the prosecution of the law suit. In the Ancient Near East messengers were sent to remind the vassal of the stipulations of the law suit and the sanctions that would result from non-obedience.

Q. Where do we see this taking place in the Old Testament?

- The prophets were the messengers God sent to remind the people of their responsibilities under the covenant.
 - God begins His investigating by questioning Adam and Eve much like a judge holding court.

 Q. What do you find interesting or remarkable about the judgment God orders in Genesis 3:14-19?

 - The remarkable thing is that God does not execute them. Humanity has clearly violated the terms of the covenant and the penalty is death and yet God suspends the sentence to a degree and even allows humanity to continue.
- Before the man and women receive their judgment, God promises that the human race will continue. This is Adam & Eve’s first hint that they will not die immediately as might be expected. The serpent has not won a victory and in fact the serpent will be humiliated.
 - The alliance the woman had made with serpent will also not stand. Remember last week we noted that Adam and Eve were becoming more as the image of the serpent than the image of  God. There is the word play with naked and cunning. Adam and Eve act like the serpent in their answers to God’s questions.
 - God however promises that He will put enmity between the children of Eve and the children of the serpent.
 - From now on this means holy war between the followers of God and the followers of the Serpent.
 - Furthermore, the serpent will have his head crushed and be defeated.

 - In the very midst of God’s judgment and wrath against sin, God introduces the promise of grace for man in general as well as the coming of the Messiah who will defeat the serpent. We can divide the rest of this chapter in 4 parts:

1. Coming Messianic Seed 14-15
2. Common Grace & Common Curse for humanity 16-19
3. Covenant of Grace 20-21
4. Expulsion from the Garden 22-24

- 1 & 3 are related to each other in that deal with special grace and coming of Christ presented both prophetically and symbolically.
- 2 & 4 Deal with the common purpose of all humanity. God established an order of common grace and extends His kindness to humanity in general rather than by destroying humanity as justice demands - seed of the serpent is allowed to live, rain falls on the wicked and the righteous. God delays and restrains His judgment.

 1. Coming of the Messianic Seed

- Enmity between your seed and her seed. Enmity is a good translation because just like in English, the Hebrew word for enmity comes from enemy. The two seeds will be enemies of one another.

 Q. Who are these two seeds?

- The seed of the serpent could refer to the fallen angels, but that would not be parallel to the seed of the woman where humanity is in view.
- So the seed of the serpent are the spiritual offspring of the serpent and the seed of the woman are the spiritual offspring of God.
- We see this view held in 1 John 3:7-12 which is an extended commentary on Genesis 3:15. Here the seed of the serpent is interpreted as humans.
 - Seed is a collective singular. It is a singular word but it can have a plural referent. I think both concepts are in view here.

 Q. How can we say that the seed is singular?

- The pronouns used for the battle between the serpent and the seed of the woman are singular.
 - A coming champion of the seed of the woman will battle the serpent representing the two sides just as Goliath and David fought as champions of the Israelites and the Philistines.
- Both this champion and the serpent will suffer wounds but the Satan’s head will be crushed.
- Genesis also sees both concepts in view:
 1. Genesis 22:17-18. The offspring are multiplied like the stars in heaven, clearly a plural reference. However, the offspring will possess the gates of HIS enemies, a singular reference.
 2. Genesis 24:60 The sister is blessed as one who will become mother to thousands of ten thousands, but then may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate HIM.

 - The word for the what happens to the seed of the woman’s heel and the seed of the serpent’s head is the same in Hebrew. The serpent’s head will be crushed but the seed of the woman will also suffer a blow.
 - So in Luke we are told that on the road to Emmaus, two men meet the resurrected Jesus and in verse 26, Jesus tells them “was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory.” you may wonder where does it say the messiah will suffer? You may think of Isaiah 53 but then Jesus says that “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” So right here at the beginning, the first reference to the Messiah, we are told of the necessity of His suffering.