CLAIM: Paul applies this passage to Jesus (Rom. 16:20). Specifically, he applies this to the entire Body of Christ (the church), which is an extension of Jesus on Earth (Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 12:13; Lk. 10:16; 1 Pet. 4:11; Acts 9:4). However, critics debate over whether this passage predicts the work of Jesus.

RESPONSE: The Bible teaches that Jesus defeated the work of Satan on the Cross (Col. 2:14-15; Heb. 2:14-15; Jn. 12:31). While Jesus defeated Satan’s accusations on the Cross, he will ultimately destroy Satan in the historic future (Rev. 20:10). There are a number of reasons why this passage –properly interpreted –refers to Jesus.

First, it occurs immediately after the moral Fall. Arnold Fruchtenbaum correctly observes, “It is no surprise that the very first messianic prophecy should occur within the context of the Fall. If sin had not entered the world, there would never have been a need for a redeeming Messiah.”^[1] If God was really all-knowing, as the Bible claims (Ps. 147:5; Heb. 4:13), then he would be ready to predict the coming of Christ immediately after the Fall occurred.

Second, this passage predicts a singular person, who would defeat the work of the Serpent. “His heel” is masculine singular in Hebrew.^[2] While this prophecy is vague, it must be prophetic of someone, because there were only two people living in the Garden at this time.

Third, this passage describes the descendant of a woman –not a man. This language is strange, because the Jews were a patriarchal society –not matriarchal. Therefore, it is odd that the text would mention the seed of a woman –not a man. Fruchtenbaum writes,

There are many genealogies in Scripture… virtually all of them are lists of men’s names. Legal descent, national and tribal identity, were always taken from the father, never from the mother (the sole exception to this is found in Ezra 2:61 and Nehemiah 7:63). It is very rare that a woman’s name would be included at all unless she figured very prominently in Jewish history, and even then she would warrant only a passing reference.^[3]

Fourth, therefore, this passage might predict the virgin birth. Consider how different this prediction would be, if it said that Jesus would be from the seed of a man. This would imply that Jesus was the offspring of a human father, which he wasn’t (Mt. 1:23). The fact that it mentions the seed of a woman makes sense in light of the virgin birth. While this prophecy is vague, it would be the first of many that describe the person and work of Christ.