The Proto-Gospel

And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
between your seed and her seed.
He (or it/they) will strike your head
and you will strike his (or its/their) heel.

Genesis 3:15

Serpent and the Seed

According to the Hebrew Massoretic text, the masculine singular pronoun is hu, which is translated as ‘it’ or ‘they,’ while its antecedent, translated as ’seed,’ is the masculine zera, which can be understood as referring to either a singular or collective. In the Greek Septuagint (LXX: dating to the 2nd or 3rd century B.C.), hu is translated literally using the masculine singular pronoun autos (’he’), while ’seed’ is translated using the antecedent neuter noun sperma. While the Septuagint attempts to translate the masculine pronoun literally, it cannot do so without doing violence to its relationship with its antecedent, which should properly be translated in Greek using auto (’it’).

Massoretic

Hebrew pronoun: (masculine singular) hu
Hebrew antecedent: (masculine collective or singular) zera

Septuagint (LXX)

Greek pronoun: (masculine singular) autos
Greek antecedent noun: (neuter) sperma

…between your seed (or offspring zera; sperma’) and her seed.
He (or it/they ‘hu; autos’) will strike (’sup’) your head
and you will strike (’sup’) his (or its/their) heel

Genesis 3:15

R. A. Martin in The Earliest Messianic Interpretation of Gen 3:15 (published in the Journal of Biblical Literature: 1965), points out that where this relationship between pronoun and antecedent exists in Genesis (over 100 times), the Septuagint translates the Hebrew using the grammatically correct Greek neuter or feminine pronoun, making the translation of Gen 3:15 unique. Martin argues that the translator’s decision to break this rule on this one occasion is deliberate, and therefore evidence of a Messianic interpretation of the woman’s seed (offspring), or at least, as Joseph A. Fitzmyer points out, it is “the earliest Jewish evidence of an individual personal or male interpretation of the offspring.”

Despite this early date for a possible Messianic interpretation of Genesis 3:15, the verse still remains a controversial issue among theologians. According to Victor P. Hamilton, a Christian interpretation of Genesis 3:15 is divided into two theological camps: Those who accept the Messianic implication, while critical theologians interpret the Protevangelium exclusively in etiological terms, as a mythical explanation of the hatred between Humankind and the snake world.

The enmity between the seed and serpent is clearly more than just an etiological “explanation of the hatred between Humankind and the snake.” It is a dynamic mythological symbol, explicitly linked with a new cosmic-chaotic order of reality. In the verses that follow (16-19) we have a clear and direct depiction of this new order of things, describing the new human condition in a world of perpetual suffering and death. A corresponding Patriarchal myth known to Hesiod (Works and Days 90-105), has Pandora (the first woman) lift the lid of Zeus’ terrible jar (like Eve who ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil), thereby unleashing all suffering upon humankind, but whereas hope was said to remain for humankind inside the box, in these verses of Genesis there is only the prophetic message of hopelessness for the whole of humanity.

This is also the continual fate of the seed and the serpent, perpetually engaging each other in battle, with neither combatant inflicting the winning blow.

He (or it/they ‘hu; autos’) will strike (sup’) your head and you will strike (’sup’) his (or its/their) heel

Genesis 3:15

The Hebrew verb sup is used both times, when the ‘it’ (the seed) ‘wounds’ (sup) the serpent’s head, and the serpent ‘wounds (sup) its heel. In more modern translations of the text, as pointed out by Victor P. Hamilton, there is a tendency to translate the verb sup differently, so as to suggest that the seed (i.e., Christ) is not mortally wounded by the serpent (i.e., Satan), rather it is the seed of the woman that strikes the definitive blow. Hamilton comments that due to a lack of any evidence in the Hebrew readings, sup should be translated the same way both times.

The ultimate victory of the seed is not the meaning here intended, but rather a simultaneous double-death, where the fate of the seed and the serpent are inextricably bound together, perpetually wounding and wounded in a kind of cosmic-chaotic symbiosis. The serpent-seed conflict is symbolic of a new and terrible reality of perpetual suffering and death, manifested via the consequences of the primordial parent’s disobedience, beyond the paradise of Eden.

If there was any message of hope relating to these verses, secretly known to the first storytellers of the serpent-seed conflict, as far as the written record is concerned, it remains hidden. Historically and theologically, it is a puzzle that cannot be conclusively solved, unless earlier versions of the Genesis narratives are eventually discovered that reveal otherwise.

All that can be known for certain is that by the time of the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, there was possibly a Messianic tradition in circulation pertaining to Genesis 3:15 (though not explicit in the text itself), and certainly in later Christian and Jewish traditions the Messiah is explicitly guaranteed to achieve the ultimate victory over the serpent.

[What is a myth?] — if you were to ask an American Indian, it is very likely that he would answer: it is a story about the time when humans and animals did not yet distinguish themselves from one another. This definition seems to me to be very profound. (Levi-Strauss & Eribon 1988: 193)

Hierro, Pedro Garcia & Surralles, Alexandre, 2005, ‘The Land Within: Indigenous Territory and the Perception of the Environment’, p.40 (IWGIA)

Any thoughts?

Theme: Mythical Monsters and Otherworldly Entities.

Who’s Participating (so far)

• Between Old and New Moons
• Aquila ka Hecate
• Paleothea: the Ancient Goddess
• Pitch313
• The Dance of the Elements
• Bubo’s Blog
• When Isis Rises
• …

Such a map Yu himself had commissioned: “Pictures were made of all things indigenous to distant places [in the world], and the leaders of the nine provinces sent tributary offerings of metal. Cauldrons/Tripods (ding) were cast [by Yu] representing all things. In this way, the people were given instruction, so they could distinguish between good and evil beings. And so, when the people travelled through the rivers, mashes, mountains and forests, they were able to avoid evil things/spirits.” (Zuo zhuan (My own rendering based on a number of different translations).

“…the paces of the Yubu, revolve endlessly in a space-time dance of death and life.”

Yu was also credited with the discovery of the Luoshu: a cosmic diagram (or board) comprised of 9 squares, upon which, Daoist masters would perform Yu’s limping cyclic cosmic dance. These cosmic diagrams may also contain the trigrams foundational to the I Ching/Yijing.

To quote from my unfinished book The Cosmic Double-Death (And Cyclic re-creation through the Dying God):

These trigrams, are representative of dynamic elemental forces (which in Daoist cosmology function much like the Five Phases/Agents/Elements (Wuxing) of water, fire, wood, metal and earth). According to Jo Riley, the trigrams may also be placed upon the squares of the Luoshu diagram. In the diagram provided by Riley, the central square, functioning as an axis-mundi, is marked with a zero, while each of the surrounding squares contain eight opposing trigrams (Heaven-Earth, Fire-Water, etc.), that, we are told, represent all things in the cosmos. Each trigram on each square corresponding with the paces of the Yubu, revolve endlessly in a space-time dance of death and life. Together the Eight Trigrams represent the fluidic cosmic interplay and transformation that exists between yin and yang: the cyclic patterns of decay and renewal, that Jo Riley describes as “the pattern of all life.”

The Cosmic Double-Death: Diarmaid and the Boar of Beann Gulbain: Cosmic Footsteps

The Yubu (the cyclic Pace of Yu the Great superimposed on the Luoshu Cosmic Diagram)

This idea of yin and yang in a constant cyclic state, is the means by which divination is achieved, freezing in time (I could say) a little piece the fluidic map of the universe into one point in space and time, that may provide another piece of the cosmic map, at least a guiding path through the dangers of the unknown .

I posted much more about this a couple of months back in Learning How to Navigate Reality:

Dangers surround and permeates us, but (and this is my desire and prayer for myself and everyone): “Let us seek the guidance of the divine, however you may perceive it.” The divine alone holds a map (and we but fragments) and is ever-willing to unfold it for us, so we may also ourselves learn how to navigate reality (understand the order and chaos both within us and around us and accept the necessity of it) and become what we are truly meant to be: beings who live in a state of complete awareness that is known as “the Living Freedom.”

Between Old and New Moons: Learning How to Navigate Reality

I also alluded to the cosmic dance in my latest myth:

Nunas smiled, “But Uncle, I have learned the dance of nine coils right here inside the serpent’s belly! See those strange carvings upon the serpent’s ribs. They represent the magic steps of the serpent. I thought I had mastered them, but to no avail. We need your skill uncle. Despite your wounds, you are our only hope.”

Between Old and New Moons: Ker and Sidur (A Myth of the Nehar-Shanar)

This post was originally a comment over at Jeff Lily’s Druid Journal.

The Topic for the Mythology Synchroblog is Mythical Monsters and Otherworldly Entities.

The Mythology Synchroblog is open to anyone who has an interest in mythology and/or Paganism. So, Pagans, if you wish to draw upon your own experiences if you have ever encountered such beings, that fine. Personally, I’ll be coming from a purely mythological stand point.

It would be a great help if would leave a comment, letting us know you would like to participate. Thanks!

Deadline 1st December

Please post your contributions on the 1st December and include a list of everyone’s posts somewhere in your entry.

Previous Mythology Synchrobloggers

• Dream Builders
• Quaker Pagan Reflections
• Executive Pagan
• Mythphile
• Aquila ka Hecate
• Symbolic Meanings
• ReligionThink
• Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism
• When Isis Rises
• Pitch313
• FULL CIRCLE CENTRAL
• Druid’s Apprentice
• Paleothea: the Ancient Goddess
• the dance of the elements
• Manzanita, Redwoods and Laurel
• Druid Journal
• Goddess in a Teapot
• Politics and Polytheism
• Hawk’s Cry: The voice of a witch
• Pagan Dad
• Gorgon Resurfaces
• Bubo’s Blog
• Many Questions

Who’s Participating So Far…

You can check out our previous Synchroblogs on the Mythology Synchroblog Page

Beaver

Meme Guidelines

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Random Fact One

I’m currently reading Anne Rice’s Lives of the Mayfair Witches Trilogy

I haven’t read much fiction over the past ten or fifteen years. I found it a waste of precious time better spent, reading about the ancient world, religion and mythology. I intend to read more fiction in the future as I am a writer of fiction myself, although I have neglected my gift as a writer over the years, I hope one day to write a series of fantasy novels.

Random Fact Two

I prefer to read stories out of sequence.

This goes back to the time when I read a a great deal of DC comics for mature readers (later renamed Vertigo), including titles such as Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, The Books of Magic, Shade the Changing Man, Animal Man, Sandman, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Invisibles, Preacher, etc.

The first two comics I bought were an issue of Sandman from the Fables and Reflections collection of stories, titled ‘Thermidor,’ and an issue of Hellblazer, somewhere near the end of the ‘Dangerous Habits’ storyline. Years (or so) later I picked up a couple more Sandman and Hellblazer titles and began to buy them religiously every month (although by this time Neil Gamain’s The Kindly Ones storyline usually took each issue longer than a month to produce). I became enthralled by the main characters of both the Sandman and Hellblazer titles and so I would spend all my available cash on back issues and graphic novels to uncover the history behind these characters, which to me was part of the thrill and excitement.

I have similar fascination towards Greek Mythology. I love learning about a character and then uncovering his or her back story; how they were related to other famous mythic figures, the royal houses they were connected to, etc. I think there may be something of an historian inside of me.

Random Fact Three

I currently writing a book on mythology called The Cosmic Double Death (And Cyclic re-creation through the Dying God)

This quote is basically the basis and structure of the whole book:

Hermann Gunkel, in his commentary on the book of Genesis, mentions the possibility of a “faded myth [that] underlies this battle between human and serpent.” As an example he cites the Greek myth of Herakles, whose second labour involved battling and defeating the Lernaean Hydra, which ultimately led to Herakles’ own death.

The Greek myth of Herakles’ conflict with the Hydra also shares a number of parallels with two other narratives from Norse and Celtic mythology: Respectively, Thor’s apocalyptic battle with the Midgard Serpent and Diarmaid’s encounter with the Boar of Beann Gulbain. In all three hero-monster conflicts the double-death of both the hero (killed by the creature’s venom/poison) and the serpentine monster (substituted by a boar in the Celtic variant). Both Herakles and Diarmaid suffered injuries to the feet (while injuring the head/s of the monster), whereas Thor is said to have stepped back nine paces (foot symbolism probably stepping away from the serpent‘s head) after striking the fatal blow. Furthermore, the double-death was foretold concerning all three heroes.

Given that these striking correspondences share a structural resemblance to the second clause of the Protevangelium (“He/It will crush your head, and you will strike his/its heel”), as well as a prophecy relating the events that have not yet come to fruition, the inevitable serpent-seed conflict, resulting in the wounding of both parties…

The Cosmic Double Death: The Genesis Protevangelium: The Double-Death

Image generated by Wordle

Random Fact Four

My best mate from my early teenage years contacted me on Facebook yesterday

It’s the first contact we’ve had in around twenty years. He had quite an impact on my life and I’ve really missed him and the adventures we had together.

Random Fact Five

My surname is ‘Duffy’

It’s an Irish name (I’m Irish-English) meaning something like the dark ones. I find it to be such a mysterious and romantic name and would love to uncover the origins of such a people that referred to themselves as “Dark Ones.”

Duffy Family Crest taken from www.heraldry.ws

Random Fact Six

The first myth I remember…

…was the flight of Icarus, who climbed near to the sun melting his wings of wax, sending him plummeting down to the ocean waves below. I was probably no more than five. My second most memorable encounter with Greek mythology was the myth of King Midas, who, upon returning the drunken Silenus to Dionysos was rewarded with the gift of transforming gold merely by touch. This was the first time I had ever encountered the god of wine. I was probably around eleven or so. It would be another ten years before my study of mythology took off in a big way.

I Invite my readers and fellow bloggers to participate

I can’t think who I should pass this meme on too. If you would like to participate, that would be great. Sod that…

I pick, Morninghawk Apollo of Hawk’s Cry, Kavitha of Indian Temples and Iconography, Nettle over at Druid’s Apprentice, Erik at Executive Pagan, Ali of Meadowsweet & Myrrh and Yvonne over at Nemeton.

Not sure If I’m up for it this time round. I consulted the Tarot and decided not to submit my blog for the previous round. I’ll be consulting the Tarot later today.

I’d love to become part of the 9rules community, but my personal stuff may cause problems if I’m to be an active member of the community.

One things certain. Since I set up this blog two years ago (with related websites back to 1994), I have continually strived to make Between Old and New Moons a better blog. And this shall continually be an ongoing process.