The Seed of the Woman and the Serpent

Who is the woman of Revelation 12:1-6?

Genesis 37:9-11 describes Israel this way as Joseph reveals his dream.

But Genesis 3:1-5 gives us the two main characters of Revelation 12:1-6: Eve and the Serpent (Hebrew: nāḥāš, נָחָשׁ; Greek: óphis, ὄφις).

Revelation 12:9 reveals who the Serpent really is: "The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent (óphis, ὄφις) called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.

Original sin is described in Genesis 3:5: "You'll be as gods knowing, determining for yourselves good and evil, and you'll experience it (yādaʿ, יָדַע, K&B, pp. 390-392).

Genesis 3:7 gives us a description of what happens when our eyes are opened, and Genesis 3:8-13 is a crash course in ego defense mechanisms of modern psychology with its table turning and blame shifting.

What is the role of Adam and of Eve in our fall and in our redemption? The Son of Eve will crush the head of the Serpent (Genesis 3:15). As with the woman of Revelation 12:2, Eve now will experience agony in giving birth (Genesis 3:16).

But it is through Eve and all her female descendants, including the Virgin Mary, that we are saved (1 Timothy 2:15). Without woman there would be no incarnation: God without ceasing to be God, became a true human being in the womb of the Woman. And because of that, the death of the Lord Jesus secures our salvation.

The Lord Jesus Christ has his heal bitten by Satan as he dies on the Cross. But the Lord Jesus crushes Satan's head by his death, burial, and resurrection. The Lord Jesus, the son of Mary, the son of Israel, the son of Eve.