Gen. 3:15 --- "He" or "She" shall crush thy head

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Let’s see the verses from Douay, NIV and NASB versions.

Genesis 3:15
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
15I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

Genesis 3:15
New International Version (NIV)

15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush** your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

Genesis 3:15
New American Standard Bible (NASB)

15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall [a]bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

What is really the original pronoun used in this part of Gen.3:15?**
 
Probably there was intentional poetic ambiguity in the original Hebrew.

(searching) Apparently the pronoun used in Hebrew is “hu”, and it can be used as either referring to physical sex or grammatical gender. The question for the translator is what it’s referring to. Is it “seed” or “woman”? If it’s the “seed”, what gender and number is the “seed”? Should you translate it like in Hebrew, or like in English, or what?

So basically it could be he, she, it, they… the whole shebang. But there’s no way in English (or Latin) to translate it and still preserve the Hebrew ambiguity that’s so suitable for poetry and prophecy. You have to make a decision. Whatever decision you make is based on your traditional understanding of the prophecy.

And yes, there seem to have also been Hebrew sources which read the snake-stomper as being a woman, and even as the Messiah’s mom. (Albeit they thought the Messiah’s mom would be leading troops against the Romans and wielding a bloody sword.)
 
Mintaka said:
Probably there was intentional poetic ambiguity in the original Hebrew.

(searching) Apparently the pronoun used in Hebrew is “hu”, and it can be used as either referring to physical sex or grammatical gender. The question for the translator is what it’s referring to. Is it “seed” or “woman”? If it’s the “seed”, what gender and number is the “seed”? Should you translate it like in Hebrew, or like in English, or what?

So basically it could be he, she, it, they… the whole shebang. But there’s no way in English (or Latin) to translate it and still preserve the Hebrew ambiguity that’s so suitable for poetry and prophecy. You have to make a decision. Whatever decision you make is based on your traditional understanding of the prophecy.

And yes, there seem to have also been Hebrew sources which read the snake-stomper as being a woman, and even as the Messiah’s mom. (Albeit they thought the Messiah’s mom would be leading troops against the Romans and wielding a bloody sword.)
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Gender of verbal action in Biblical Hebrew is indicated in the verb, which is unambiguously masculine ישופך . Independent pronouns are sometimes added for emphasis; “he himself will bruise…” As pointed (vowel markings), the pronoun is unambiguously masculine. One could argue that in an unpointed text the pronoun is ambiguous, but then you have a problem with the pronoun not agreeing with verb in gender.

The word for seed is always masculine in Biblical Hebrew.

Jerome himself translates the subject as “he,” which you can confirm by reading his translation notes for Genesis, happily translated into English here:

amazon.com/Jeromes-Questions-Genesis-Christian-Studies/dp/0198263503/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1333686891&sr=8-2

(Simply flip to the entry on Genesis 3:15.)

The passage in unattested as far as I know in the Dead Sea Scrolls; the Septuagint has an unambiguous “he.”

There are no extant Hebrew manuscripts that have a woman bruising the head.

Interesting that the DRA and NIV change the verb in the last line (crush/strike; crush/lie in wait) when the verb is identical in Hebrew. As far as I know, the verb doesn’t mean “lie in wait.”
 
MarcoPolo said:
You can see the above poster Dave and I discuss this with several references in this thread.

In post 58 of that thread you can read my theology professor’s comment on how the pronoun is ambiguously interpreted.

A related article is How can Mary crush the serpent’s head? A look at Genesis 3:15.
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After reading this blog…I am now going to be a huge advocate for “she” being a better fit for the text. Because after all it is because of “she” through giving birth…that her offspring will crush the serpent. This blog was well done and very informative!
 
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