serpent (Gen. iii. 15): "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."

Our critics have two objections to the interpretation that has always
been given and maintained by Christian scholars and by the Church as a
whole. First, that "the seed of the woman" does not refer to the
Messiah, but to the human race, which is to bruise the serpent's head.
Second, that the serpent engaged in seducing Eve, and here placed under
the curse, does not refer to Satan.

In replying to the objection that the Messiah is not referred to in the
passage, let it be said that the pronoun is a pronoun referring to a
person. It is so translated in the Revised Version. "_He_ shall bruise
thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel." It is not the human race, but
he, an individual person. This person was not to be the seed of the man,
but of the woman.

The announcing angel said to Mary, "The Holy Spirit 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." (Luke i. 35.) The child to be born was to be literally and truly
"_the seed of the woman_," and that was the Messiah, the only person of
the entire human race of whom that could be said.

We are not left, however, to an exegetical statement alone, although
that is absolutely unequivocal. The promise was repeated to Abraham, to
Isaac, to Jacob, and to David. The seed of the woman was to be the
Messiah, the Christ, triumphing over the power of Satan. The race has
not triumphed over Satan, but has been a failure.