Bruised

Bruised: The Seed of the Woman and the Serpent

The Hebrew verb translated bruise in Genesis 3:15 is שׁוּף (shûwph)—a primitive root meaning to gape at, snap at; figuratively, to overwhelm—and is variously rendered as break, bruise, or cover. It is a verb of aggression and consequence.

In Genesis 3:14–15 (KJV), God addresses the Serpent directly after Eve’s deception:

“And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 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 verse contains the first prophecy of Scripture, and it sets the terms of redemptive conflict: the Seed of the Woman will crush the Serpent’s head; the Serpent will bruise the heel of the Seed. Both are to be wounded, but not equally. The Messiah’s heel—His movement and walk—will be bruised. The Serpent’s head—his cunning, power, and authority—will be crushed. The prophecy operates in both singular and collective terms, pointing to Messiah and Satan as well as their respective seed, literal or spiritual.

Ancient rabbinic sources confirm that this verse was historically understood as Messianic. For instance, Genesis Rabbah, RaDaK (on Habakkuk 3:13), and the Targum Yonatan interpret this as a prophecy of Messiah defeating Satan.

The phrase “seed of the woman” is unique in Scripture. In biblical genealogies, descent is normally reckoned through the male line, never the female. That this figure is called the woman’s seed suggests a singular, peculiar individual—one whose origin and personhood are of divine uniqueness. As David L. Cooper rightly notes:

“The fact that he is thus designated is a clear indication that there is something about his personality that makes him ‘the seed of the woman’ in a peculiar sense that can be said of no other one.” (source)

This figure is not Adam, who was not wounded in Eden. It is Christ, who was not merely bruised but killed in Jerusalem. Satan, on the other hand, was not slain in the Fall, nor annihilated by the resurrection. But he was decisively wounded—prophetically and positionally—as pertains to his ultimate power and end. This presents no contradiction, since the prophecy operates eschatologically: it declares the final outcome for both figures, not the immediate temporal result. One wound is mortal in destiny; the other is painful but temporary. One leads to resurrection; the other to dust and judgment.

There is both a mundane and an ultimate layer to this prophecy. Mundanely, Genesis 3:15 offers a paradigm for the ongoing battle between Messiah’s followers and Satan’s. It is not just a personal clash between Christ and the devil, but a historical conflict between their respective seeds—those aligned with Truth and those with deceit.

Satan, acting through subtlety and cunning (the head), persuaded Eve to distrust God’s word. Adam, in turn, surrendered his walk (the heel) by aligning with her disobedience. Thus, head and heel—the organs of deception and movement—become symbols of how humanity fell.

In this, the Fall was not merely an act of rebellion but a rejection of prophetic truth. Adam and Eve disbelieved the prophetic word of God regarding death and accepted instead a counter-prophecy—Satan’s false assurance that they would not surely die. This was an equivocation, a twisting of the word “day,” which, understood theologically, aligns with God’s thousand-year day (2 Peter 3:8).

Human history from that point forward becomes a struggle to recover the moral-spiritual walk—faith in the Prophetic Word—amid countless competing narratives. Philosophy, theology, and religion become distorted replacements for direct trust in Messianic fulfillment. The Church’s walk becomes hobbled, its motivations disoriented. Likewise, the secular mind is impaired in its insistence that reason, morality, or meaning can stand alone without the prophetic/Messianic paradigm.

Thus, Genesis 3:15 outlines the consequences not just for Eve and the Serpent, but for their respective seeds, culminating in Christ and Satan themselves. In its ultimate sense, the prophecy is clearly about Messiah’s death and resurrection and Satan’s eventual defeat. But it concludes only after the spiritual heirs of both—the believing and unbelieving—fail or succeed to realize the vision entrusted to their professed heads.