It is written:
“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.” (Genesis 3:15)
From the earliest times, it was understood that this passage had Messianic overtones. Edersheim tells us:
“Gen iii. 15 [see just above]. This well-known passage is paraphrased, with express reference to the Messiah, in the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and the so-called Jerusalem Targum.” (Alfred Edersheim, Edited by Robert C. Newman, Messianic Passages in the Old Testament as Cited in Rabbinic Literature, 135-140 (Kindle Edition); Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute www.ibri.org)
Several things about this text stand out as worthy of consideration.
First, the Seed of woman is somehow uniquely to her. In other words, this is somehow the “Seed of woman” as distinct from man. This is a prophecy of the Messiah’s virgin birth (cf. Isaiah 7:14).
Second, the passage makes a distinction between the “Seed of woman” and the seed of the serpent. The seed of the serpent has reference to all of humanity who follows Satan in his war against God (Matthew 13:38; John 8:44; Acts 13:10; 1 John 3:8).
Third, the followers of Satan would inflict a terrible wound on the Messiah. This truly happened when Jesus was crucified at the best of the wicked fallen angels and the wicked humans opposed to Him (1 Corinthians 2:8). Yet this wound was not permanent, because Jesus arose from the dead, thus taking the power of Satan from him (Hebrews 2:11-14).
Finally, by Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection, He defeated Satan, providing a powerful and deadly blow to him (Revelation 12:7-12). Still today, He has power over the enemy through the blood of His Cross (Colossians 2:15).
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