Why Is Jesus Called the Seed of the Woman in Genesis 3:15?

It comes out actually, and we try to work it out in the chapter fairly well, and towards the end of the chapter with the question of why it is that Jesus refers to his mother twice as “woman”. He does it at the beginning of his ministry at the wedding in Cana of Galilee and he does it again at the very end of his earthly pilgrimage as he refers to his disciple and refers to his mother and refers to her as “woman”. I think that the point that we make in there is that Jesus is actually identifying himself in relationship to that whole notion in Genesis 3. That he realizes that it is as the “seed of the woman.” As he who has come as the second Adam to reverse everything that the first Adam has done.

The first Adam has faced temptation and has failed miserably. Christ has faced temptation and has triumphed. The first Adam confronts the tree and is attracted to it. The second Adam, Jesus, confronts the tree and recoils from it, and he then embraces it in obedience to the will of God.

And so, all of that, I think, and more besides, is wrapped up in the thing, and it bears testimony to the notion that we do best when we read the Bible backwards, so that it says, as we reverse through the scriptures back to Genesis 3, that we begin to understand what is being said there. Whereas, when you simply read Genesis 3, you say, "Well, what does this mean, and how does this work out?" and that's the way I tend to approach it.

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