Genesis 3:15: The Protoevangelium

Full Gen 3:14–15. Hebrew zera (זֶרַע) is grammatically singular (like English "sheep"). The descendant who crushes the serpent is born of a woman, unusual in Hebrew genealogy, which runs through fathers. Bereshit Rabbah 23 (Jewish midrash, compiled c. 300–500 AD but preserving earlier oral tradition): "Eve had respect to that seed which is to come from another place, and who is he? He is the Messiah the King." As with the Targums, the written date is later than the New Testament, so this is corroborating reception rather than pre-Christian proof, but it shows the Christian reading standing inside an older Jewish interpretive current, not manufacturing one from nothing.