Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 33:4 (Fall 2019)
Article: Jael’s Story As Initial Fulfillment Of Genesis 3:15
Author: Julie Walsh

PP 33:4 (Fall 2019) p. 22

Jael’s Story As Initial Fulfillment Of Genesis 3:15

Julie Walsh

Julie Walsh is a PhD student at Regent University focusing on egalitarian theology. She holds a ThM from Regent University and an MA in ministry from Nashotah House Theological Seminary. She enjoys writing, and her latest book is The Cross and the Tent Peg: How Jesus Retraced Jael's Story. Julie lives in the Washington D.C. area and is currently establishing an activist organization to advocate on women’s issues. You can find her on Twitter @EgalChurch.

This article is a truncated version of ch. 2 of the author’s 2018 book, The Cross and the Tent Peg: How Jesus Retraced Jael’s Story, which shows twelve ways in which the Gospels’ crucifixion and resurrection narratives closely follow the narrative sequence of events of Jael’s story.

“So the Lord God said to the serpent. . . . I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen 3:14–15 NIV)

The promise of Gen 3:15, quoted above, is a “seed—a small promise that will eventually grow into the full-blown tree of God’s good news, the storyline of Scripture.”1 This promise—the greatest promise of all, known for centuries as the protoevangelium (“first gospel,” meaning “first [glimpse of the] gospel”)—runs through the OT as a beacon of hope.

It is clear that the Gospels’ crucifixion and resurrection accounts record the fulfillment of God’s promise in Gen 3:15. This article further argues that Jael’s story in Judg 4–5 provides a glimpse—that is, an initial symbolic fulfillment—of Gen 3:15’s “first gospel” promise. To begin making this argument, the context of the two OT narratives (Gen 3 and Judg 4–5) will first be discussed before looking more fully at the common elements between these narratives and the NT crucifixion and resurrection accounts.

Background Of Genesis 3:15 And The Jael Story

Genesis 3:15

Translations of Gen 3:15 have been problematic. For example, is it “he” that will bruise or crush the Serpent’s head as the ancient Greek Septuagint has it, or “she” as the Latin Vulgate translates it,...