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On July 28, 2017 By In Theology

The Seed and the Serpent: Genesis 3:15 fulfilled in Exodus, Part 2

Guest Post by Jacob Gucker

According to Genesis 3:15 the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. This post argues for a near fulfillment of this prophecy in the birth of Israel as a nation and the crushing of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. Part one dealt with the “seed of the woman” facet of the prophecy. This part deals with “crushing the serpent’s head.”

Pictures of King Tut’s sarcophagus offer a visual clue that Pharaoh might indeed be an embodiment of the Serpent, his royal headdress clearly resembling the hood of a cobra rising up to strike. The new Pharaoh who did not knowJosephh “rose up” to strike Israel by drowning Hebrew boys in the Nile. It might have been an aggressive or violent rising with a change of regime; the language may reach back to Genesis 4 where Cain “rose up” to kill his brother.[1]

Passages in the writings of the prophets offer the strongest evidence that Pharaoh is the embodiment of the serpent of old. They call Pharaoh the dragon of the Nile (Ezekiel 29:3), the dragon of Rahab (Isaiah 51:9). The word translated “dragon” is not the same as the word for serpent in Genesis 3, nahash, but it is the same word, tannin, used in Exodus 7:9 and 12 when God instructs Moses to throw Aaron’s staff on the ground for it to become a serpent. This differs from the word used in Exodus 4 when God instructs Moses to throw his staff on the ground for the first time where it turns into a nahash. One finds that a serpent and a dragon are in the same family of animals in the Bible. The tannins might be seen as “super serpents.” They are the often serpentine chaos monsters of the Bible and the Bible refers to nations and rulers as embodiments of these beasts. Furthermore, Isaiah 27:1 places tannin and nahash in parallel with one another. Pharaoh and Egypt are thus the embodiment of the same enemy that tempted Adam and Eve, only escalated.

In Isaiah 51:9-10 the speaker urges the “Arm of the LORD” to wake up and put on strength.  At one time, according to this passage, the Arm of the LORD “cut Rahab to pieces and pierced the dragon.” In the same instance He “dried up the sea,” making the depths of the sea “a way for the redeemed to pass over.” In the crossing of the Red Sea God made a way for His people to cross over, but He also drew Rahab the dragon, embodied by Pharaoh and his army, into the depths to leave him there, crushed by the flood of water.

There is yet another clue in Exodus 3 when God commands Moses to throw his staff on the ground that it might become a serpent. Humorously, Moses flees from the serpent when he sees what has become of his staff. This seemingly insignificant detail has great literary import. Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh when his Hebrew brothers rightfully accused him of murdering an Egyptian slave-driver. Now, Moses is fleeing from the serpent. But God tells him to reach out his hand and grab it by the tail. Soon, Pharaoh will be the fleeing serpent. God hardens his heart when he hears that Israel has fled from Egypt. This incites him to give chase. God commands Israel to encamp by the Red Sea. Yahweh is laying a trap for the serpent so that the salvation of Israel and the destruction of the serpent occur in the same act of redemption and judgement. The serpent pursues, but when it becomes apparent that Yahweh is fighting for Israel, the Egyptians flee, only to be swept into the sea and destroyed.

As Israel emerges from the water alive, Miriam is there once again. She was like a midwife for her brother’s new birth from the waters of death and now she is a midwife who has helped birth the nation. She takes a tambourine in her hand and leads forth all the women of Israel who have seen Yahweh’s victory over Pharaoh. Yahweh has vindicated their courage and faith.

As Isaiah said, it was the “Arm of the LORD” who ultimately did this and readers of Isaiah 53 find that the “Arm of the LORD” is a suffering servant who “was pierced for our transgressions,” and  “crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.” This is Jesus and His crucifixion was a baptism in the wrath of the gentiles. As with the Exodus, the Serpent was drawn out to pursue Him into death. The Kings of the earth assembled and took counsel together, but it was a trap! God condemned Sin in His body on the tree.  Jesus is Israel and the ultimate seed of the woman who would crush the Serpent’s head.  All the faithful who are united to Him by baptism have gone with Him through death and are thus born again.

[1] Bodner, Keith. “Old Promise, New King.” In An Ark on the Nile: Beginning of the Book of Exodus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Oxford Scholarship Online, 2016. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198784074.003.0003.

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On July 27, 2017 By In Theology

The Seed and the Serpent: Genesis 3:15 fulfilled in Exodus, Part 1

Guest Post by Jacob Gucker

If Moses wrote the Pentateuch and it is one continuous story, readers might expect the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 concerning the seed of the woman bruising the serpent’s head to be fulfilled some time before the end. This post argues for a near fulfillment of this prophecy in the birth of Israel as a nation and the crushing of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. Part one will deal with the “seed of the woman” facet of the prophecy and part two will deal with “crushing the Serpent’s head.”

Exodus is primarily about the birth of God’s son. Israel is the national son of God born out of slavery in Egypt at Passover and into the house of Yahweh. Passover was an exchange of “sons of the herd” for firstborn sons, and Israel is the firstborn of a planned new creation. Whereas Genesis has a theme of birth despite barrenness, Exodus begins with outright fruitfulness, though it is overshadowed by the dragon who waits to devour.

Keith Bodner’s An Ark on the Nile shows from Exodus 1-2 that Moses’ rescue from the Nile is a recapitulation of Noah’s Ark. It looks back to Noah’s rescue from the primordial waters of the flood even as it foreshadows Israel’s rescue from the waters of the Red Sea. Noah’s Ark was not built for seaworthiness but as a floating temple that anticipates the Mosaic Tabernacle that will go with Israel through the wilderness.[1]

Bodner highlights the important role of women who are the only protagonists in the beginning to go up against Pharaoh. Moses’ father is silent and the elders of Israel take no action. There are the vigorous Hebrew women who give birth quickly, the midwives who resist Pharaoh’s decree to throw every Boy into the Nile, Moses’ mother who hid her good son for three months, Moses’ sister who stationed herself to watch what would become of her brother, Pharaoh’s daughter who seems to be willing to defy her father, and the maidservants who go with her to bathe. They share in drawing Moses from the waters of the Nile in his little Ark. They are a corporate woman bringing forth a singular “seed” to be the covenantal head of the nation that will be born. In bringing Moses forth from the waters they participate in bringing the nation forth from bondage.

Bodner argues that Miriam and Pharaoh’s daughter play more significant roles than modern readers might think. He posits that Miriam is a shrewd mediator who speaks so as to suggest to Pharaoh’s daughter that an adoption is in order. He notes that Miriam is referred to here as an Almah, indicating that she too is capable of bearing children. He suggests that she is a “rhetorical midwife” in Moses’ new birth[2]. Taking the initiative here, Miriam seems to guide Pharaoh’s daughter and will have a similar role with the women of Israel at the Red Sea.

The naming of Moses brings the Egyptian princess into the tradition of phonetic naming that began with Eve naming Cain. She names him Moses because it sounds like the Hebrew word for “to draw out.” But there is more to his name because it is etymologically Egyptian, based upon the verbal stem msy which means “to be born” and the noun ms means “son.”[3]  Pharaoh’s daughter is participating in bringing forth the seed of the woman. This anticipates God including gentile women at numerous points in the long story of bringing forth the Messiah. Although Mary is the special maidservant chosen to bear the Son of God, all of the women in the Messianic genealogy are participants.

The serpent crippled Israel by hard labor and by Pharaoh’s heinous decree, but this seed will crush the serpent’s head. Part two will show how Pharaoh, the head of Egpyt, is the embodiment of the serpent in the book of Exodus.

Jacob Gucker is a librarian at BMA Theological Seminary in Jacksonville, Texas. He lives with his wife and baby daughter at Preacher’s End Farm where she raises vegetables and pastures chickens and he looks up from his books to help out.

[1] Keith Bodner, An Ark on the Nile: Beginning of the Book of Exodus (Oxford University Press, 2016).

[2]Bodner, Keith. “The Waters of Chaos.” In An Ark on the Nile: Beginning of the Book of Exodus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Oxford Scholarship Online, 2016. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198784074.003.0005.

[3]Ibid.

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