Who was the promised seed in Genesis 3:15?

Genesis 3:15 is often called the first announcement of the Gospel. It appears immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve, in the moment when sin first enters human history. Instead of abandoning humanity, God speaks a promise of future victory:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

To understand this verse, we must consider the situation. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and through that disobedience sin and death entered the world. God addresses the serpent, who represents the power of evil, and declares that one day a descendant of the woman will crush the serpent’s head. This passage is not only a judgment but also a promise. It is the earliest glimmer of hope in the Bible, often called the Protoevangelium, meaning “the first Gospel.”

The promise speaks of a future child, a particular offspring who will defeat evil. Throughout the Old Testament, this promise unfolds gradually. God narrows the line of the promised seed: through Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 22:18), through Isaac and Jacob, and later through the royal line of King David (2 Samuel 7:12–13). The story of Israel becomes the story of awaiting the One who will restore what was lost.

This promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and importantly, it is fulfilled through Mary. Saint Paul writes, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman” (Galatians 4:4). He does not simply say “born” but specifically “born of woman,” which directly echoes Genesis 3:15. The identity of the Messiah is therefore inseparable from the identity of His mother. Mary is the woman chosen in God’s eternal plan, the one who freely cooperates with God’s grace when she says, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

The wording of Genesis is also unusual. In Scripture, ancestry is normally traced through the father. Yet Genesis 3:15 speaks of the “seed of the woman.” This points to the virgin birth of Christ, where Jesus is conceived not through human fatherhood but by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:34–35). This is why the prophecy cannot refer to any ordinary human descendant. It refers uniquely to Jesus, and uniquely through Mary.

The serpent striking the heel represents the suffering of Christ on the Cross. The crushing of the serpent’s head represents His victory over sin and death through His Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). The Cross is not defeat; it is triumph.

If we reflect on this carefully, Genesis 3:15 shows that God’s plan from the very beginning involved both the Messiah and the woman through whom He would come. Mary and Jesus stand together in the victory over evil: the Mother and her Son, fulfilling the first promise of redemption.