Biblical Hebrew Forum

["John Ronning" <ronning AT ilink.nis.za>]

Closer to Gen 3:15, Hagar (Gen 16:10) and Rebekah (Gen 24:60) are also promised "seed" i.e. offspring.  There is obviously no suggestion of the miraculous involved.  Since seed is a collective, it would be best in general to use a collective term in translation, such as "offspring" rather than the singular "child" or plural "descendants."

 

It is not necessarily of any significance that Abel's conception is not stated to be natural.  Note that Hanah is said to give birth to five more children after Samuel, yet only one conception is stated (1 Sam 2:21).

 

Re. seed of the serpent as original sin; the context (Genesis 4) reveals the identity of the serpent's seed (Cain as example), overthrowing the literal interpretation (snakes), as well as other potential figurative meanings (original sin, demons, etc.).

 

The meaning of "seed of the serpent" as "wicked people" is confirmed elsewhere in both testaments, and the Cain-Abel pattern continues through Genesis with other brothers such as Ishmael-Isaac, Esa-Jacob, and Joseph and his brothers.

 

John Ronning