Publication Date
2014
Abstract
This article proposes that the case for a ‘messianic’ reading of Gen. 3:15 is cumulative. No single individual argument is decisive and it is virtually impossible to sustain a robust protevangelium interpretation of this text within the context of Gen. 3 alone. However, as already pointed out in the introduction, isolating Gen. 3 from its literary/historical context in the book of Genesis does not lead to a fruitful resolution of its meaning but at best creates a hypothetical reconstructed meaning behind the text which becomes difficult to sustain in light of the interpretation of the 'seed' in the entire book. Though the lexical evidence by itself is somewhat ambiguous, the individual meaning for the term ‘seed’ is certainly plausible as demonstrated by its usage within the book of Genesis and in the rest of the Hebrew Bible. Further, when the text is read in the context of the first and second toledots in the Primeval History, not to mention in light of the macro-toledot structure of the entire book of Genesis we would agree with T.D. Alexander’s statement that in the “in the light of Genesis as a whole, a messianic reading of this verse is not only possible but highly probable.
Recommended Citation
Pettus, David
(2014)
"Reading a Protoevangelium in the Context of Genesis,"
Eruditio Ardescens: Vol. 1:
Iss.
2, Article 8.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/jlbts/vol1/iss2/8