Roman Catholic Maryology: Mary in Roman Catholicism, part 9 - Will She “Crush Your Head”?

At a glance:
The mistranslation, misinterpretation and misapplication of Genesis 3:15 has lead to the false teaching that it is Mary who will defeat satan. Here we will see that not only do other biblical texts state that it is Jesus who will do this, but we will see that Vatican approved Bibles render the verse correctly and elucidate by way of footnotes that the He, the seed, is Jesus. Below we cite Affirmations of the Belief that Mary Will Crush satan and Affirmations of the Belief that Jesus Will Crush satan. Under A Faulty Apologetic we will see an attempt by Fr. Nicholas Gruner to prove that the verse should read “she” and “her” rather than the correct “he” and “his.” This last topic is important in that Fr. Gruner makes a lot of accusations, which we must know how to answer.

New American Bible:
Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.”
The footnote to this verse states:

3, 15: He will strike…at his heel: Since the antecedent for he and his is the collective noun offspring, i.e., all the descendants of the woman, a more exact rendering of the sacred writer’s words would be, ‘They will strike…at their heels.’
However, later theology saw in this passage more than unending hostility between snakes and men. The serpent was regarded as the devil (Wis 2, 24; Jn 8, 44; Rv 12, 9; 20, 2), whose eventual defeat seems implied in the contrast between head and heel. Because ‘the Son of God appeared that he might destroy the works of the devil’ (1Jn 3,8) the passage can be understood as the first promise of a Redeemer for fallen mankind. The woman’s offspring then is primarily Jesus Christ.

The Holy Bible with the Confraternity Text-Papal Edition:
Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel.”

The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew text translated by Jewish scholars in the first half of the third century BC, renders Genesis 3:15 as, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman; and between thy seed and her seed. He will wound thy head, and thou wilt wound his heel.”1

New Catholic Edition of the Holy Bible translated from the Latin Vulgate:
Genesis 3:15 “I 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}.”
The footnote to this verse states, “She shall crush: Ipsa, the woman. So many of the fathers read this passage conformably to the Latin; others read it ipsum, i.e., the seed. The sense if the same; for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the woman crushes the serpent’s head.”
This is the only Bible in the world that renders the verse in this incorrect manner. Even the footnote is faulty because the whole point is that the woman will do no such thing rather, her seed wIL We will discuss this further below under A Faulty Apologetic.

Affirmations of the Belief that Mary Will Crush satan:
A great number of Roman Catholic paintings and statues depict Mary with her foot on a serpent, precisely do to the mistranslation, misinterpretation and misapplication of Genesis 3:15.

Catholic dogma claims, “From the moment of her [Mary’s] conception God willed that she should crush the head of the serpent.”2

Pope Pius IX stated (in Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus), “All our hope do we repose in the most Blessed Virgin—in the all fair and immaculate one who has crushed the poisonous head of the most cruel serpent and brought salvation to the world.”

Pope Pius XII wrote, “^{Just as she took part in the struggle of her only-begotten Son with the serpent of hell, so also she shared in his glorious triumph over sin and its sad consequences}.”3

Venerable Mary of Agreda states, “[satan’s] consternation grew, when he heard the sentence, which God pronounced against the guilty ones, in which he himself was implicated. More especially and above all was he tormented by the repetition of that threat: The Woman shall crush thy head (Gen. 3, 15), which he had already heard in heaven….The demons shall fear Her and be subject to Her.”4

Fr. Stefano Gobbi has Mary saying, “At the beginning, I am announced as the enemy of Satan; she who will obtain the complete victory over him. ‘I will put enmity between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers; she shall crush your head, as you will attempt to bite her heel.’ (Gen. 3:15)”5

Regarding the fall into sin, St. Augustine wrote, “All this is the result of Eve’s action which is remedied through Mary.”6

Here we have Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. explaining a very peculiar occurrence. While the seed of the woman was correctly understood to be Jesus Christ, the Roman Church went on to misapply the text to Mary, apparently she is the woman and she is the seed as well, “the passage in Genesis, where the Lord predicts: ‘I will make you enemies of each other: you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. It will crush your head and you will strike its heel’ (Gn. 3:15).
The seed of the woman was understood as referring to the Savior (autos in the Septuagint), so that the Mother of Christ came to be identified with the woman. As early as the second century, this messianic-marian exegesis was known in Christian tradition, for example, in Ireneus, Epiphanius, Cyprian, and [Pope] Leo the Great. The bull Ineffabilis approves this interpretation and draws from it the conclusion that Mary, because of her intimate relation to Christ, ‘with him and through him had eternal enmity toward the evil spirit, triumphed over him completely, and crushed him with her immaculate foot.’”7

Saint Cyril of Alexandria wrote:

…the most famous marian homily of antiquity…Precious vessel, worthy of the whole world’s reverence, you are an ever-shining light…^{Because of you the holy Trinity is glorified and adored…demons are put to flight; the devil, that tempter, is thrust down from heaven; the fallen race of humanity is taken up on high; all creatures possessed by the madness of idolatry have attained knowledge of the truth; believers receive holy baptism; the oil of gladness is poured out; the Church is established throughout the world; pagans are brought to repentance}.
What more is there to say? Because of you the light of the only-begotten Son of God has shone upon those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death; prophets pronounced the word of God; the apostles preached salvation to the Gentiles; the dead are raised to life, and kings rule by the power of the holy Trinity.”8

A group devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe wrote:

The origin of the name Guadalupe has always been a matter of controversy. It is nevertheless believed that the name came about because of the translation from Nahuatl to Spanish of the words used by the Virgin during the apparition to Juan Bernardino, the ailing uncle of Juan Diego. It is believed that Our Lady used the Aztec Nahuatl word of coatlaxopeuh which is pronounced ‘quatlasupe’ and sounds remarkably like the Spanish word Guadalupe. Coa meaning serpent, tla being the noun ending which can be interpreted as ‘the,’ while xopeuh means to crush or stamp out. So Our Lady must have called herself the one ‘who crushes the serpent.’”9

It is important to note that while the apparition of Guadalupe is alleged to have taken place in 1531, the earliest narration of this event dates from 1649 (see Examples of Extreme Deception for more on Guadalupe). Also see a report of an instance when Our Lady of Guadalupe was referred to as “the goddess of the Americas.”

Affirmations of the Belief that Jesus Will Crush satan:
“the Son of God appeared that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1st John 3:8).

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death’” (Revelation 12:10-11).

Justin Martyr wrote, “Christ is born of the Virgin, in order that the disobedience caused by the serpent might be destroyed.”10

Pope-Saint Leo the Great wrote, “at the beginning of the world [God], foretold the remedy his love had prepared for the restoration of us mortals, giving notice to the serpent that the offspring of the woman would come and, by his power, crush its baneful head as it was raised to strike.”11

A Faulty Apologetic:
Fr. Nicholas Gruner wrote:

The Woman in Gen. 3:15 Who will crush the serpent’s head is the Blessed Virgin Mary Who from the first moment of Her Immaculate Conception triumphed over the devil. Our Lord referred to the Blessed Virgin as ‘Woman,’ from the cross. (John 19:26) We also have the ‘Woman’ spoken of in chapter 12 of the Apocalypse. In Genesis chapter 3 we read: God speaking to the serpent says, ‘I will put enmity between thee and the Woman, between thy seed and Her seed, and you shall lie in wait and she shall crush thy head with Her heel.’ ‘She Shall Crush Thy Head’ St. Jerome, who died about 430 A.D., is still the greatest Biblical scholar. He translated the Bible from the original, inspired Greek and Hebrew text into Latin—into the version which today is called the Vulgate.
It is the Council of Trent that teaches there is no doctrinal error in the Vulgate. St. Jerome, unlike any biblical scholar today, had original texts in Hebrew. One of the early fathers of the Holy Ghost Fathers was a Jewish convert and his father was a rabbi. He points out that the rabbis had changed the scriptures of the Old Testament…about a hundred or two hundred years after the death of Christ, [the Jewish scribes] changed the scripture texts because it became more and more evident that the prophecies could only mean that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. Jesus is the Christ.
And therefore, to maintain their hold on their people, the Jewish scribes changed the text themselves. This is a convert from Judaism whose father was a rabbi, saying this. St. Jerome didn’t have the poisoned texts, and he had access besides that to texts that are no longer available, they are just wiped out with time. And St. Jerome translated that passage, by saying, ‘She shall crush thy head,’ meaning the Woman will crush. And so when ^{Our Lady of Fatima says, ‘Only I can help you,’ in a certain sense, not even God can help us, ‘but only I.’ Does that sound almost blasphemous, and certainly to Protestants it will sound like it…}”12

Considering the other Catholic Bibles consulted above, we should wonder why the Vatican would resort to the poisoned texts, which reads He and His.

The Ancient Rabbis Affirm that the Seed is Indeed the Messiah:
In the Targum Pseudo Jonathan, while responsibility is placed on God’s people to keep his commandments, we also learn that the defeat of the serpent will take place when the Messiah comes. In this quote God is speaking to satan-the serpent:

And it shall be that when the sons of the woman study the Torah diligently and obey its injunctions, they will direct themselves to smite you on the head and slay you; but when the sons of the woman forsake the commandments of the Torah and do not obey its injunctions, you will direct yourself to bite them on the heel and afflict them. However, there will be a remedy for the sons of the woman, but for you, serpent, there will be no remedy. They shall make peace with one another in the end, in the very end of days, in the days of the King Messiah.13

Targum Onkelos, “This is that Seed that is coming from another place, and who is this? This is the King Messiah.”

Pesikta Rabbati, p. 161a, and; Yalkut on Isaiah 60:

Satan said before the Holy One, blessed be He, ‘Master of the World! The light which is hidden under your throne of Glory, for whom is it?’ He said to him, ‘For him who will turn you back and disgrace you, and shame your face.’ He [Satan] said to him, ‘Master of the World! Show him to me.’ He said to him, ‘Come and see him.’ When Satan saw the Messiah, he trembled and fell upon his face and said, ‘Surely this is the Messiah who in the future will cast me and all the princes of the nations of the world into Gehenna.’14

Midrash Rabbah-Genesis XX:5, “R. Levi said: In the Messianic age all will be healed(1) save the serpent.”
Footnote: (1) I.e. freed of their disabilities.

Midrash Rabbah-Genesis XXIII:5, “AND SHE CALLED HIS NAME SETH: FOR GOD HATH APPOINTED ME ANOTHER SEED, etc. R. Tanhuma said in the name of Samuel Kozith(1): [She hinted at] that seed which would arise from another source(2), viz. The king Messiah.”
Footnotes: (1) The meaning of the word is doubtful; ‘Ar. Treats it as a surname, and it is so translated here. (2) I.e. not from Jewish stock, Messiah being descended from Ruth the Moabites; v. infra, LI, 8.

Midrash Rabbah-Ruth VIII:1, “^{R. Huna said: It is written For God hath appointed me another seed (Gen. IV, 25), that is, seed from another place, referring to the Messiah} [V. Gen. R. XXIII, 5; LI, 8].”

Midrash Rabbah-Ruth VII:15, “R. Tanhuma said in the name of R. Samuel: Elsewhere it is written, That we may preserve seed of our father (Gen. XIX, 32). It is not written ‘son’, but ‘seed’; that seed which comes from another place. Who is thus referred to? The Messiah [Descendant through Ruth of Moab, of whose incestuous birth the verse speaks].”

Rabbi David Kimchi (1160 - 1235), “As thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people by the hands of Meshiah, the Son of David, who shall wound satan, who is the head, the king and prince of the house of the wicked.”

Gentile scholar Risto Santala commenting on rabbinic writings:

But who is this ‘seed of the woman’? Why is the personal pronoun hû, ‘he,’ used of it? Is ‘seed’ to be considered a singular or a collective noun? The Targum certainly associates ‘him’ with the Messiah King. But does the ‘seed’ concept have Messianic implications in other contexts too? Indeed it does: the Rabbis discuss this very issue at great length. In Gen. 4:25 we read (in the Hebrew and in the AV): ‘God has granted me another seed in place of Abel.’
^{Rabbi Tanhuma—of whom it was said that he was ‘the seal of the Midrashim’—mentions that ‘here we are dealing with another seed who is from another place. And who is he? He is the Messiah-King.’} [Bereshit Rabbah 23] Rabbi Huna says that ‘God prepared another seed from another place, and he is the Messiah-King.’ [Ruth Rabbah 8]15

Again Risto Santala:

This method [gematria] is founded upon the statement in the Wisdom of Solomon 11:22 that, ‘God has prepared everything according to measure, number, and weight.’ But what did the sages find out about the ‘Shilo’ idea with the help of their gematria? The numeric value of ‘Shilo will come,’ yavô shilôh, is 358, which corresponds exactly to that of mashiah, ‘Messiah.’ The gematria value of nahash, ‘snake,’ is also 358.
Gottlieb Klein wrote that in terms of the Jewish mystical Qabbalah this meant that ‘the Messiah is to crush the head of the serpent.’ Such observations have no scientific basis, but they illustrate the Rabbis’ understanding that the Messiah will overthrow the corruption of sin. This same expectation is reflected in 1 John 3:8, ‘The reason the Son of God appeared was to destray the works of the devil.’16

Since St. Jerome died around 430 AD and the Jewish scribes allegedly changed the scripture about 100 or 200 AD, he must have used the poisoned texts.
What we are not told by Fr. Gruner is what was changed. If the original text said, “She shall crush thy head” why would the scribes change it to “He shall crush thy head,” which would be a clearer indication of Jesus? And if the original text said, “He shall crush thy head” and the scribes change it to “She shall crush thy head” why are we told that She is the original reading? Jerome’s Vulgate is the one Bible known to us that translated the verse as she and her. It is interesting to note that Catholic Answers, a Catholic apologetics ministry, stated on their radio show that it is thought that the original Vulgate did not translate the verse in this incorrect manner but that it was later inserted into the Vulgate.17

Further, we are told that St. Jerome “unlike any biblical scholar today, had original texts in Hebrew.” In reality the original Hebrew texts were not available to St. Jerome, having disintegrated centuries before, he had copies as we do today.

For the Old Testament we have the Masoretic Text which dates to circa 800 to 1,000 AD and which is accepted as standard in traditional Judaism. We have the Dead Sea Scrolls that date to the time of Jesus and which were not found until 1947 AD. In addition we have the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation from the Hebrew text. Although we do not have the Hebrew text from which the Septuagint was translated, we do have the translated Greek text. This is very important in defending against Fr. Gruner’s charge that Jewish scribes corrupted their own scripture (or the Jewish charge that Christians corrupted Jewish scripture).
Note that the Encyclopedia Judaica 14:1178 states, “it can be inferred that the Pentateuch was translated into Greek in Alexandria during the first half of the third century B.C.E. The designation Septuagint was extended to the rest of the Bible and the non-canonical books that were translated into Greek during the following two centuries.”
This is well before Christianity, before the time in which both sides made allegations of purposeful corruption. The oldest manuscript for the Septuagint dates from circa 400 AD, although it is quoted extensively in the New Testament whose manuscripts date from centuries earlier. We find that the Septuagint renders Genesis 3:15 as, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman; and between thy seed and her seed. He will wound thy head, and thou wilt wound his heel.”18
Thus, we see that even if it is true that St. Jerome had manuscripts that we today do not have, we today have manuscripts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls that he did not have.

It is sad that people think that a person’s background is viable as credentials, such as this statement by Fr. Gruner, “One of the early fathers of the Holy Ghost Fathers was a Jewish convert and his father was a rabbi” and repeated to make the point “This is a convert from Judaism whose father was a rabbi, saying this.” The fact that a Jewish convert said it and that he is a son of a rabbi is absolutely meaningless in light of the facts. In fact some Jewish converts were personally responsible for giving rise to anti-Semitic attitudes within the church. Such was the case with Jewish converts who disclosed the places in the Talmud and other Rabbinic writings in which Jesus was referred to in a derogatory manner, which caused persecution, forced censorship and destruction of Rabbinic writings.

^{And so what is the point in the issue of he/his or she/her? The point is that mere men give Mary power and exaltation that is not rightly hers}. Fr. Gruner states that “when Our Lady of Fatima says, ‘Only I can help you,’ in a certain sense, not even God can help us, ‘but only I.’ Does that sound almost blasphemous, and certainly to Protestants it will sound like it.”
It is very sad that he attempts to drive a wedge between Protestants and Catholics, when in truth not just Protestants but all and any monotheist would and should consider such statements as blatant blasphemy, whether Jewish, Christian, Muslim, etc. In order to believe that a mere human being (however blessed) can do something, anything, which God cannot do is to abandon monotheism, it is to abandon the doctrine of the omnipotence of God. It is to bestow upon the creature more sovereignty than that of the creator; it is idolatry. Indeed, to believe that that most blessed woman, Mary, defeated satan, that she crushed the serpent’s head, is not just a matter of the corruption of one word it is a teaching that goes against the Judeo-Christian scriptures and against Rabbinic writings. Scripture teaches us, “the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you” (1st John 3:8 & Romans 16:20).

Alternate Readings:
The following Bibles also read he and his for Genesis 3:15,
The Septuagint, The Living Bible-Paraphrased, Genesis-Translated and Commentary by Robert Alter, The Holy Bible an American Translation, The Living Bible, Authorized King James Version, New King James Version, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, The Answer-New Century Version, The Revised Berkeley Version in Modern English, New International Version, Holy Bible Contemporary English Version, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, The Book, Complete Jewish Bible, Robert Young’s Literal Translation, J.N. Darby Translation, American Standard Version, Hebrew Names Version.

The alternative readings are as follows,
The Torah-The Five Books of Moses-A New Translation of the Holy Scripture According to the Traditional (Masoretic) Hebrew Text has “offspring” instead of “seed” and “they-their” instead of “he-his.” The Bible in Living English has “issue” instead of “seed” and “it-its” instead of “he-his.” New English Bible has “brood” instead of “seed” and “they-their” instead of “he-his.” Good News Bible Today’s English Version has “offspring” instead of “seed” and “her offspring-their” instead of “he-his” the footnote on the word “their” states, “their; or his.” Noah Webster Version has “it-his” instead of “he-his.”

1. 1. The Septuagint Bible, the Oldest Version of the Old Testament in the Translation of Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress of the U.S.A. 1774-1789. As Edited and Revised by C.A. Muses M.A., Ph.D. (Indian Hills, Colorado: The Falcon’s Wing Press, 1954)
2. 2. Arranged and Explained by Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D., Saint Joseph New American Catechism No. 3, According to the “Basic Teachings for Catholic Education” (Issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops) Vatican II Documents and Holy Scripture (New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1985-1977), Nihil Obstat: John P. Meier, S.S.L., S.T.L. Censor Librorum, Imprimatur: James P. Mahoney, D.D. Vicar General, Archdiocese of New York. p. 213-214, Ch. 24, No. 170
3. 3. Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.; a leading authority in his field, he is also a professor in the Institute for Advanced Studies in Catholic Doctrine, The Catholic Catechism, A Contemporary Catechism of the Teachings of the Catholic Church (New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1966) Nihil Obstat: Daniel V. Flynn, J.C.D., Censor Librorum. Imprimatur: James P. Mahoney, D.D. Vicar General Archdiocese of New York 12-13-74. p. 162 quoting Pius XII, encyclical Fulgens Corona, 21
4. 4. Venerable Mary of Agreda, Fiscar Marison (Rev. George J. Blatter) trans., The Mystical City of God, Popular Abridgment of the Divine History and Life of the Virgin Mother of God (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1978, written in 1902) Imprimatur: Edwin V. Byrne, D.D., Archbishop of Santa Fe. The 1902 edition carried the Imprimatur of His Excellency, Most Reverend H. J. Alerding Bishop of Fort Wayne. pp. 49 & 569
5. 5. Fr. Stefano Gobbi; who while praying at the Chapel of the apparitions at Fatima the Mother of God impressed upon him her desire that he start the Marian Movement of Priests, To the Priests Our Lady’s Beloved Sons, The Marian Movement of Priests (originally titled Our Lady Speaks to Her Beloved Priests) (St. Francis, Maine: The Marian Movement of Priests, 1998) Imprimatur: Donald W. Montrose, D.D. 2-2-98 and Bernardino Cardinal Echeverria Ruiz, OFM Archbishop Emeritus of Guayaquil Apostolic Administrator of Ibarra 2-2-98. “It is hereby stated that the messages contained in this book must be understood not as words spoken directly by Our Lady, but received, in the form of interior locutions, by Don Stefano Gobbi. Their publication is in conformity with the directives published by Pope Paul VI on the 14th of October, 1996.” p. 625, Section 414
6. 6. John Rotelle, O.S.A., ed., Mary’s Yes, Meditations on Mary through the ages (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Redeemer Books, Servant Publications, 1988), p. 30 quoting Saint Augustine (354-430) Bishop of Hippo, his writings have shaped Christian thought for centuries. Sermon attributed to Augustine
7. 7. Fr. John A. Hardon, p. 157
8. 8. John Rotelle, pp. 32-33 quoting Saint Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444) who presided as papal legate at the Third Ecumenical Council 431 AD which condemned Nestorius and solemnly recognized the title of Theotokos, Mother of God. Hominl 4
9. 9. Our Lady of Guadalupe—Patroness of the Americas, sancta.org
10. 10. John Rotelle, p. 19 quoting Justin the Martyr (110-165), a layman, was a professor of philosophy and wrote a famous treatise on Christianity. Dialogue with Trypho 100-101
11. 11. John Rotelle, p. 38 quoting Saint Leo the Great (400-461) who was elected Pope in 440 and had a part in the Council of Chalcedon. Christmas Sermon II, 1-2.5
12. 12. Fr. Nicholas Gruner, B. Comm., S.T.L., S.T.D. (Cand.), The Fatima Crusader—The Calm Before the Storm Part III (Constable, NY: Servants of Jesus and Mary-Fatima Center, Autumn 1998, Issue 58) Bold print and italics in original
13. 13. “the Aramaic word for ‘making peace,’ shefiyuta, resembles the Hebrew word for ‘crush,’ yeshufchah, and some Aramaicists would accept the translation, ‘Finally, in the days of the Messiah King, he will be wounded in the heel.’” From Risto Santala, Translated from Finnish by William Kinnaird, 1992, The Messiah in the Old Testament in the Light of Rabbinical Writings—ch. The Proto Evangel
14. 14. See; Alfred Edersheim, The life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1977), p. 728
15. 15. Risto Santala, ch. The Messiah in the Pentateuch
16. 16. Risto Santala, ch. The Messiah Who Will Rule the Nations
17. 17. The show aired 11-15-01 on 1000 AM in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
18. 18. The Septuagint Bible, the Oldest Version of the Old Testament in the Translation of Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress of the U.S.A. 1774-1789. Edited and revised by C.A. Muses M.A., Ph.D. (Indian Hills, Colorado: The Falcon’s Wing Press, 1954)