The Seed of The Serpent and The Seed of The Woman
Spiritual conflict is not, as so often appears, between the ways of God and the ways of this world, but between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman (38.13). The woman is Eve, the first woman. The serpent is the reprobate angel who "was thrown down into this perishing world, where his desired kingdom of god-like government was prepared for him" (5.19). Eve was defiled by the serpent entering into her private parts there to make an end of himself by mixing with her womanliness and to launch a new career of evil in this world. As a result, a man-child was born to her, Cain, whose father was not Adam. The fall was none of Adam and Eve's fault. Had they possessed the power to preserve their original condition, they would have used it (30.20). Eve is to be considered as an exemplar of everything innocence should be, not as an easily-deluded girl.
What, then, is all the fuss about an apple? "You cannot be so weak," says Reeve, "as to think that the law of eternal life and death depended on the eating of an apple from a natural tree." (33.22). It is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of his heart. Thus, the tale of the apple is a mere euphemism as ancient Jewish writers were pained by overt reference to the genitals.
The curse upon Eve is temporal. That upon the serpent is eternal. The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head. The sins of humankind are the frailties of free-will and are pardonable. That of the serpent is the sin against the Holy Ghost which is without absolution. But if Eve is not to blame, why is she cursed at all? Because that is what a knowledge between good and evil is. As to the serpent, what does it matter to him if he is cursed, seeing he was the devil in the first place?
Read more about this topic: A Divine Looking-Glass
Famous quotes containing the words the woman, seed, serpent and/or woman:
“Age becomes reality when you hear someone refer to “that attractive young woman standing next to the woman in the green dress,” and you find that you’re the one in the green dress.”
—Lois Wyse (20th century)
“A candle in the thighs
Warms youth and seed and burns the seeds of age;”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: the way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.”
—Bible: Hebrew Proverbs, 30:18-19.
From the oracle of Agur, son of Jakeh.
“Slowly ... the truth is dawning upon women, and still more slowly upon men, that woman is no stepchild of nature, no Cinderella of fate to be dowered only by fairies and the Prince; but that for her and in her, as truly as for and in man, life has wrought its great experiences, its master attainments, its supreme human revelations of the stuff of which worlds are made.”
—Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)