The Seed of the Woman

In Genesis 3:15 God speaks about the seed of the serpent and about the seed of the woman. He then goes on to refer to each of these seeds by the use of a personal pronoun: "he." This tells us that He is speaking in both cases of single male individuals.

However, we know, and certainly God knew, that women do not carry what is termed "seed." We know this term is used for that which comes from a man and which impregnates the egg of the woman at the point of conception. Therefore the term "seed of the woman" speaks of something that is outside the norm of biology…in fact, God is referring prophetically to the virgin birth of His own son, Jesus Christ.

To better understand this, we need to take a look at the genealogy of Jesus. In fact, Jesus has three genealogies listed in three of the four New Testament gospels: one in Matthew, one in Luke, and one in John; each one showing a different bloodline. This in itself is unusual as we each have only two bloodlines: one on the father's side and one on the mother's side. But then again, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, predicted first by God and then by a prophet of God thousands of years before it ever happened (Isaiah 7:14), is not typical either; in fact, there has only ever been one such as this. So, let's look take a quick look at the genealogies listed in these gospels…you know…the ones we gloss over because of all the "begats." As boring as they seem to be, and we have all at one time or another wondered why it was necessary to list them, they contain vital information to us in our study, as we will see.

The entire first chapter of Matthew deals with the genealogy of Jesus Christ and of the virgin birth. It is very important that you read the entire thing for yourself and more information is given about this virgin conception in Luke 1:26-56.

What we want to note is that in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus, he begins with Abraham (not Adam?) goes down to King David, through David's son Solomon, then winds down to Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob and Joseph, the man who marries Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. But immediately after this genealogy is the detailed description of how Jesus was conceived, and we see that Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus:

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But, while he thought on these things behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is: God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS." (Matthew 1:18-25)

From this we see that the seed that caused Mary to give birth to Jesus was seed from God Himself through His Holy Spirit. It was not the seed of a man, but it was planted into the womb of a human being, so that Jesus was, in fact, both God and man or as the Angel of the Lord said "God with us" in an unprecedented event…God leaving His heavenly throne to come dwell with us…to save us from our sins which began first back in the garden. I hope you will spend some time meditating on that information to grasp the full impact of what that means to you personally, for Jesus came to save each of us, individually and very personally.

Continuing on: The second genealogy listed in Luke 3:23-38 actually begins with Jesus being the son of Joseph and winds its way back to…not Abraham, not even Adam…but to GOD Himself. But as you read the entire genealogy here, you see that it seems to be saying that the father of Joseph was named Heli and not Jacob as Matthew listed. What we are seeing in Luke is actually the genealogy of Mary, the mother of Jesus; but Luke begins with Jesus, calls Joseph his father, and calls Joseph's father-in-law as though he were Joseph's father. All of this is explained by the Jewish tradition at the time of males becoming "legal" sons even though they are not "biological" sons. Even today, we often speak of our son-in-laws or our step-sons as "sons" without giving all the detail of how they came to be our "sons," and those sons and son-in-laws often receive of the inheritance of their step-fathers or father-in-laws. It is as simple as that. Jesus became known as "the carpenter's son" because he was the legal son and legal heir of Joseph who was a carpenter by trade; Joseph took the unborn Jesus to be his legal son when he believed the word of the Angel of the Lord and took his fiancée, Mary, as his wife after all, even refraining from the consummation of their marriage until after the birth of Jesus. Thus Jesus had legal claim to the bloodline of David, even though his mother did not come through the bloodline of King David through his son Solomon, but through David's other son, Nathan, instead. And there was a very good reason for this as seen in Jeremiah 22:24-30, in the judgment of God pronounced against Jehoiachin, aka Jechonias in Matthew's genealogy or Jeconiah in 1 Chronicles 3:17, shortened to Coniah in Jeremiah, who was a descendant of King David through his son Solomon; look at the final words of that judgment here:

"O earth, o earth, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah."

This is not saying that Jechonias had no children; it is saying that he may as well be counted as having no children, for all who descend from him will partake of this curse and will not prosper on the throne of David or rule in Judah. And obviously, he did have children as he is listed in the genealogy of Joseph in Matthew. Jesus, had he been born biologically through Joseph, would have been a partaker of this curse. Instead, being conceived of God and of Mary, whose bloodlines did not go through David's son, Solomon, but through David's son, Nathan, Jesus escaped the effects of that curse; although he was born into the family of a very poor carpenter who did not prosper, yet that was the Father's plan from the beginning, we know. And we will see later in our studies that Jesus did, in fact, ascend to sit on a throne…a heavenly throne; something that could not have happened had Jesus been born through the bloodline of Jechonias. [Note: It is odd that Joseph seems to disappear from the New Testament without us ever being told what happened to him. The last we see of him is when Jesus, at the age of 12, is temporarily lost from Joseph and Mary during a trip to Jerusalem and they find him teaching in the temple. To my knowledge, the bible reveals no more about Joseph after they return home to Nazareth from that trip.]

The third genealogy is found in John 1:1-2 in which Jesus is proclaimed to be the Word of God:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God."

Matthew showed us the Jewish bloodline of Jesus through Abraham and David, providing the qualifications of Jesus as the Messiah (anti-semetics be warned…Jesus Christ, our Savior was not a Christian…He was THE Christ and He was a Jew, as were all of His twelve disciples.) Luke showed us the humanity of Jesus through the bloodline of his mother, Mary, going all the way back to the Garden and Adam and to Adam being the son of God…God's own creation. John showed us the deity of Jesus, having been with the Father from the beginning of time as we understand it…WITH God and WAS God. What about Mark…the writer of one of the four gospels? Why did he not list a genealogy? Mark showed us Jesus as a humble and obedient servant of God…no one bothers with the bloodlines of mere servants.

The "seed of the woman" then, is none other than Jesus Christ, whose virgin birth was proclaimed by God from the Garden. We will see reference to this terminology of "seed of the woman" further along in our studies when we learn about the second coming of Jesus Christ and the culmination of the war that began here in the Garden.