Ipsum semen conteret caput serpentis, the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.*)
Held in Wittenberg, Monday in the Easter holidays, in the morning, April 2, 1526.
Gen. 3, 15. The seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.
Dear friends, while we are still celebrating and keeping the Easter feast, and celebrating the article of our Christian faith, where we say: Risen from the dead on the third day, through whom Christ, the Son of God, has brought us righteousness, that is, forgiveness of sins, conquest of death, the devil and hell, eternal life and blessedness; as you heard enough yesterday, praise and thanksgiving to God. So let us take before us today the first promise of God, or the first gospel, preached on earth in Paradise to Adam and Eve, when God says to the serpent who deceives Eve: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. The same shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
(2) These are the comforting words which restored and gladdened Adam and Evam; otherwise, in the fear of death, into which they were brought by the serpent the devil, they would have despaired and despaired, dying and perishing forever. And this is their gospel
lium, which they preached to their children. That is why it was called Adam's bosom in the first place, so that all believers were gathered together as in one bosom and were saved and saved by the word. The sermon lasted until Abraham, 2080 years ago, when Abraham wanted to sacrifice Isaac, and God denied Abraham this promise, Gen. 22:18, and said that in his seed all the Gentiles should be redeemed; then it was called Abraham's Bosom, as Christ says Luc. 16:22. But now it is called Christ's Bosom, because he has now come, whom God promised to Adam and Abraham.
(3) Therefore we do not want to discuss the serpent much, as only the words and the punishment go to the physical serpent alone, as the godless Jews fool; but go mainly to the devil, who possesses the serpent and speaks through it, because no creature on earth from the beginning of the world is given the gift of speech, but only man. But because here the serpent speaks to Eve, as with a bodily voice and human language, which Adam and Eve can understand: to this she does not speak only bad words, but speaks of God's word.
*) Luther held this and the following sermon on Easter Monday, April 2, 1526 (not 1525, which the editions offer, misled by the Eisleben edition). Herr v. Enders has already shown in the 17th volume of the Erlangen edition, p. 153 ff-, that the sermon could not have been held in 1525, because Luther was not present in Wittenberg at that time; however, he was not able to determine the correct year. From Poach's index to Luther's sermons, which is in the Zwickau Nathsschulbibliothek, we see that Luther gave this sermon on the day we have indicated. (Buchwald, Andr. Poachs handwritten collection 2c., vol. I, first half, p. XXIV.] These sermons were first published in 1564 by Georg Buchholzer, provost in Berlin, under the title: "Three beautiful glorious sermons of the venerable Lord and Father v. Martini Lutheri, of blessed and holy memory, preached at Wittenberg in the parish church during the Easter holidays. The 1st sermon on the text Gen. 3: Ipsuru ssruuu eontsrot vuput 8srpsntis. The 2nd sermon on the text Gen. 22nd: In ssinins tun ksns(liesntur niunn" Mntss. The 3rd sermon on the text Exod. 3.: Lubuiu, czusiu viäsrut Lloisss them. At the end of the last sermon, that Joseph had also been a figure of Christ in Egypt 2c. In honor of the Roman royal majesty 2c. Now new and never before issued such, and by Georgium Buchholzer, provost of Berlin, in print verfertiget, Anno 1564." Printed this writing was "by Johan Eichorn" at Frankfurt an der Oder. In the collections: Eislebensche, vol.I, p. 198d; Altenburg"", vol.II, p. 878; Leipziger, vol.XII, p.I40; Erlanger (1st), vol. 19, p. 1, and (2nd), vol. 17, p. 153. We give the text according to the Erlanger edition (2nd ed.). The sermon, which is marked as the third in Buchholzer's edition mentioned above, is found in the "Predigten über etliche Capitel des andern Buches Mosis" in this volume after the interpretation of the third chapter.
and commandment, of which the serpent knows nothing; yes, the serpent has not understood what the devil has spoken through his tongue and mouth, as Augustine also says, and falsifies God's word with lies, since he speaks: "You will not die of death"; this cannot be a bad serpent, but must be a high spirit. Just as the devil was a high spirit in the beginning, and a good angel created by God, who possessed the serpent and speaks through it. The objection of the Jews does not help either: If Balaam's donkey has spoken, why should not the serpent also speak here? Answer: But there the angel of the Lord speaks through the donkey, as it is written in the 4th book of Moses at the 22nd, v. 28. ff; but here through the serpent the devil does it.
4 Therefore these words of God to Adam and Eve against the devil and his kingdom, sin, death, the wrath of God, and hell, are spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, how man shall be, and after that how the devil shall lay hold on him, and kill him, and murder him. But the Lord Christ shall arise again, overcome the devil, take away his power*, redeem Adam and Eve and all believers, bring them righteousness, life and salvation again; as we then want to hear through the grace of God.
5. First of all, it has been an abominable idolatry in the church that this beautiful, glorious text of Christ has been interpreted and drawn to the tender, chaste, pure Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, as if she were the one who is to crush the head of the serpent, that is, to take away the power of the devil, to destroy sin, to overcome death, to bring back life and blessedness, and have perverted the word Ipsum, that is, the one, and made it Ipsa, that is, the one, as Mary; as she is sung of in all churches, which is not her office. Nor has she been honored by this, as was meant, but has been profaned to the highest degree, that what is due and belongs to her Son should be attributed to her. Therefore let us leave the devilish error, and remain with our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom Moses and all the prophets wrote; as Christ said to his disciples yesterday on Easter Day, as Luke read in the last [v. 44].
Therefore this seed of the woman Christ is our Lord, and the Hebrew language calls the children born of women, woman's seed, that is, as we say in German, a quite natural child of the woman, or of a woman. And here is the first part, that our Lord Christ should become a true, natural, pure human being, born of woman, or not of man; as if God said: "Now, you devil, who through woman, Evam (who was created and came from man while he was asleep, but without man's doing and work), brought sin, death and eternal damnation into the world: So I will bring you happiness again through a child, which shall come and be born from a woman and not from a man; this same child or woman's seed shall avenge everything on you; what you have brought about only through her shall come and go over your head. But if this child is to come and be born from a woman and not from a man, the woman or mother must be a virgin.
(7) Adam and Eve did not yet understand that the mother should be a virgin and give birth without the help of a man. As Moses writes in Chapter 4, v. 1, when Eve gave birth to her first son Cain, she does not think otherwise, that he is the man whom God promised and promised to her, who would avenge her on the serpent. Therefore she also says: "I have gotten the man, the Lord", the God Jehovah, the seed of the woman. So also, since Noah is born, after 1057 years, the patriarch or old father Lamech also does not mean differently, his Noah would be the seed of the woman, or the child. Therefore he says: "He will comfort us in our toil and labor on earth, which the Lord has cursed," as written in Genesis 5:29.
8. but the man or the child must not be begotten by Adam or Lamech, but only come from a woman, that is, from a virgin. As God had the prophet Isaiah Cap. 7, 14. say publicly in 1244: "Behold, a virgin is with child, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Then it became quite obvious and loud that this
The son's mother must be a virgin, and must not be the son of a man, but of a virgin. For all that is born of man and woman is conceived and born in iniquity and sin, as the 51st Psalm, v. 7, says. Now if this son is to be born without sin, he must not come from man and woman, but from a woman alone, that is, from a virgin.
(9) For if his conception and birth had been impure, as all men are, he could not have saved us from sins and death. For one sinner or thief cannot save another from the gallows; it must be done by a pious, innocent man. Now if Christ is to help us, His conception and birth must be pure and holy, the Holy Spirit must accomplish this through a virgin: as we confess in our faith that this is how it happened, and is described in the New Testament by St. Matthew [Cap. 1, 18] and St. Lincoln [Cap. 1, 35], the evangelists. Therefore, Adam and Eve believed that Christ, the Son of God, would come and become man, redeeming and saving them from sin, death, the devil and hell. But whether he should be born of a virgin, they did not know, because it was also not so publicly and so clearly indicated to them. Therefore, they did not worry so much about it, but remained simple-minded about the promise of God that the seed of the woman, our Lord Christ, God and Son of God, would come and be born, bringing them righteousness, forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.
The other piece here is: How will the woman's seed, the Lord Christ, fare? Thus God says to the serpent, "And you will prick him in the heel," that is, you devil will kill and murder him. For to prick the heel means that the devil will murder and kill this child. But pay attention to the words, as God says; does not say: You serpent, or devil, will crush or crush the head of the woman's seed: No, no, he shall leave him whole, but badly "prick the heel". If a man is pricked in the heel, he is hurt and wounded, but his head, heart and body remain completely unharmed, so there is no need.
So also here with the seed of the woman, the devil shall bring about so much that Christ shall be murdered and strangled, and stab him in the heel, but he shall not accomplish anything with it, but Christ shall keep the head completely, lift it up and come forth, that is, rise again from death, as one whom the devil's stab in the heel has not harmed, but who triumphs, and keeps the victory, and rises from death. This is what is said of the other part, how the seed of the woman, the Lord Christ, should fare.
11. now follows the third part, what now the seed of the woman, that is, Christ, when he shall arise again from the devil's sting, that is, from death, shall accomplish, when namely thus says God: "And the same seed of the woman shall bruise thy head." This is the right consolation that restored Adam and Eve, pleased and refreshed them, that in such great fear and anguish of their conscience they hear how the seed of the woman, Christ, the devil or the serpent, shall not take off a piece of the tail, but shall crush the very head. For it is said that if a large piece of a snake's tail is cut off, or if it is severely wounded in the body, and only the head remains whole, it has no trouble with it, heals itself again, and remains alive. Therefore, if one wants to strike a snake, it coils itself into one another, and does all diligence to preserve only the head; if it brings the head away unhewn, then it is healed. If one cuts or smashes its head, it is finished and has lost its power; and even if the body and tail are still cruel and horrible to look at, it has no more power, because the head is gone. Therefore God also says here: Christ, the seed of the woman, shall turn it back, shall not tear the tail of the devil, the old serpent, or wound the body, but shall trample and crush his head.
(12) Now what is the devil's head? First of all, it is sin, which Adam and Eve, by their fall, inherited and brought upon all men, who are descended and born of their flesh and blood, so that they are all conceived and born in sins. Through sin, God's wrath and death come upon them, devouring all people, as holy as they are.
After that comes hell and the devil, who condemn eternally. Therefore Christ, as John the Baptist says, as the true paschal lamb of God, shall bear the sin of the whole world by his death and suffering [Joh. 1, 29.] and graciously deliver from God's wrath, death, hell and the devil, and by his resurrection bring again righteousness, forgiveness of sins, life and blessedness, and all that Adam and Eve lost in paradise, and shall the Christ say, Behold, sin, death, hell and the devil, ye have stabbed me in the heel, killed and murdered me, but have wronged me, for I am not the man that is under your kingdom; therefore ye shall be my prisoners. And cast them under him, and trampled them under foot, and caused to be cried out and proclaimed in all the world by his gospel, that all who are under the enemies and under the burden of the devil should cleave unto him, and believe in him, that they should be justified, that is, delivered and set free from sin, the wrath of God, death, hell, and the devil, as St. Paul says Rom. 4:25: "Christ died for our sins, and rose again for our righteousness."
This is what God says here: The seed of the woman shall crush the head of the devil, the old, evil, poisonous serpent. For thus David speaks of Christ in the 68th Psalm, v. 21: "We have a God, 1) who helps, and the LORD HERN, who saves from death." So also St. Paul says 2 Tim. 1, 10: "Christ hath taken away the power of death, and life, and hath brought to light an incorruptible being through the gospel." How finely sweet, clear and brightly David and Paul speak from one mouth, and yet they have lived from one another for 1100 years. This is what Adam and Eve believed, as God promised them, and this is how they were saved and became blessed. So we must also be saved. This is now the third thing that Christ is to do to the devil, as his enemy and the enemy of all Christianity. Ah! Who would now fear the enemy, the devil, and would not cheerfully desire to die with old Simeon?
1) "GOtt" added by us.
the [Luc. 2, 29. ff.]? "But thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" [1 Cor. 15:57].
The fourth part: If Christ is to rise again from death, crush the devil's head, redeem from sin, God's wrath, death, hell, and bring back righteousness, life and salvation, then he must and cannot be the seed of the woman alone, that is, a bad, natural man. For then he would have been far too weak for the devil and death. For sin, God's wrath, death, hell and the devil are such a heavy burden that they oppress all people to death, no matter how holy they are. Yes, if all angels, all creatures, sun, moon and stars, as written in Job [Cap. 31, 23], were to bear this burden before God, they could not stand. Therefore, if the seed of the woman is to bear this burden, it must also be eternal, almighty God. For to bear such burdens is only God's work, as Isaiah, Cap. 43, 24. 25. clearly says. Therefore this woman's seed, Christ, is eternal, almighty God and Creator, through whom, as John says [Cap. 1, 3], all creatures are made and created, what is made and created.
(15) Adam and Eve looked at this and saw with the eyes of the heart in faith that this seed of the woman would also be a true natural God, like the father, but a different person. That is why Eve, when she gives birth to Cain, says in Genesis 4:1: "I have gotten the man, the LORD," the God Jehovah; does not mean the seed of the woman, but "the man, the God," who will now show himself to be a right man against the evil serpent of the devil that brought us into trouble, who is the right God.
16 Thus David also says Ps. 68, 21: "We have a God who helps, and Jehovah, the LORD, who redeems from death." Yes, dear David, who then is the GOtt? Thus he answers in the 68th Psalm, v. 8. 9. "GOD, thou that wentest before thy people, when thou walkedest in the wilderness, the earth shook, and the heavens trembled before this GOD in Sinai, before the GOD who is Israel's GOD." This is clear and bright enough that the God who descended from heaven to earth, as Paul says Eph. 4, 8. 9, died, rose from the dead, and returned to the earth.
ascended on high, capturing the prison and saving from death, is the eternal, almighty God who gave the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai to the children of Israel. This is a powerful testimony that this Christ is eternal God. Thus also Jeremiah speaks on 23, v. 6, and Cap. 33, 15, 16: "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise up unto David a plant of righteousness, and he shall be a king that shall reign, and do judgment and justice in the earth. In that day Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this shall be his name, that they shall call him: LORD, who makes us righteous."
It is also clearly stated that David's offspring united in one person should have two natures: one human, from David's flesh and blood, the other divine, which he had from eternity from the Father. And here stands the great name of God Jehovah, which all Jews must confess that it belongs to the divine majesty alone. I have also often held this text up to the Jews, that David's son, Christ, would be the almighty, eternal God; for here it says Jehovah; they could not answer me. Therefore, this Son of David or Mary is not a bad man, but at the same time true, almighty God, who has eternal power to create and maintain heaven and earth and everything; therefore, humanity and divinity are One Person, and is also true God. Is also the God who makes us righteous, who therefore became "David's offspring", that is, a righteous man, that through his suffering, death, bloodshed and resurrection he wants to restore and acquire righteousness, which Adam and Eve lost, to give and give us forgiveness of sin, God's grace, life and blessedness; for this is called "making righteous".
This is what Adam and Eve believed. For all our blessedness lies in the fact that we do not separate these two natures from each other, but let them remain united in one person. As St. Paul also says in 1 Cor. 2:8: "They have crucified the Lord of glory"; not the bad man Christ, but the righteous God; not according to the Godhead, but according to the human nature. As the church sang on the good
Fridays: Dum fabricator mundi mortis supplicium pateretur in cruce etc. And on the holy feast of Easter: Crucifixum in cruce laudate etc. As also Peter speaks, 1. Ep. 4, 1. f.
19 But God hid this from the devil. For if he had known that this Christ, the son of the Virgin Mary, the seed of the woman, had been the eternal, almighty God, he would not have laid his hands on him and burned him. For he has well seen in heaven how he was God the Father's one heart, into whom God the Father poured all his divine essence and substance. That is why he experienced his divine power when he was pushed out of heaven into the abyss of hell because of the Son, Is. 14, 12. Luc. 10, 18. because Satan was after the Son's honor and wanted to be like him. God could not stand that. Therefore God hid it from the devil, that he wanted to see him in the Son who had become man, and did like a fisherman who wants to catch fish: he tied a line to a pole, and at the bottom of the line a sharp rod; he hung a little worm on it and threw it into the water. Then the fish comes, sees the poor little worm, but does not see the sharp rod hidden in the little worm, and bites into it, thinking that he will get a good cute little bite: but the rod gets stuck in his mouth or throat, and is thus caught and seized. God the Father does the same: He takes His only begotten, beloved Son, hangs Him on the line of the patriarchs and prophets, must take on Adam's, Abraham's, David's flesh and blood, and lets Him come into the world from high heaven; because the devil sees Christ as a poor, miserable worm, as he is described in the 22nd Psalm, v. 7. Psalm, v. 7, that is, as a poor, afflicted man, suffering hunger, thirst, cold, frost and heat, crying and having misery and sorrow in this world, dressed like another man.
20 But Satan does not know that this is hidden in this Christ, that he is the eternal, almighty God, like the Father, but a different person. Therefore he thinks, "Although Christ performs miraculous signs, the prophets also performed miraculous signs; but I have eaten them all up, how high and holy they were.
and thinks that he wants to have a cute little bite of the man; he lifts up, eats the Christ and devours him. But it gets him like the grass gets the dog. For the Christ gets stuck in his throat and has to spit him out again, like the whale spat out the prophet Jonah, Jonah 2:11, and just with the eating the devil murders and strangles himself and is caught by Christ. For this man, Christ, is real, true God, who cannot remain in death, but must come forth again, resurrect and live, and thus catch the devil. And here the word of the prophet Hosea, who lived 760 years before Christ, becomes true, who speaks of Christ in the 13th chapter, v. 14: "I will redeem them from hell and save them from death. Death, I will be a poison to you; hell, I will be a pestilence to you." Therefore also the prophet Hosea says before, Cap. 6, 1-3. that the Christians at the time of Christ will say: "Come, let us go again to the Lord; for he has torn us in pieces, he will heal us; he has smitten us, he will also bind us up; he will make us alive after two days, he will refresh us on the third day, that we may live before him. Then shall we take heed, and be diligent to know the Lord." All this was fulfilled and accomplished yesterday through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who rose from the dead on the third day; we were redeemed from our sins, justified, healed, restored and made whole; we were refreshed and made alive from eternal death; and we lack nothing, except to believe these things in our hearts, to know the Lord Jesus Christ, and to sing with joy: "Let us all be glad, Christ will be our comfort, Kyrieleis."
This is the great wisdom of God, which must come from the Holy Spirit alone. For no human being can understand by human reason that this woman's seed, our Lord Christ, is not only man, but almighty God, like the Father and the Holy Spirit, in One Person, not in two Persons, as the two heretics, Nestorius and Eutyches, have deceived, but is only One Person, as a man with body and soul is only One Person.
22. but nevertheless this some person is,
Christ, right, true, almighty God and man, is not the Father or the Holy Spirit, but the Son, the other person in the Godhead; and yet the same God with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the divine essence or substance. The Jews of Christ's time did not understand this, nor do they understand it yet; neither do the Gentiles and the Turks, nor the Pope and his comrades; they must become mad and foolish about it, because they want to speculate and investigate it with their reason. But nothing will come of it, it must come from heaven alone, as Christ Matth. 16, 17. says to Petro: "Blessed are you, Simon, Jonah's son, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven has." Therefore it must be grasped by faith through the word, as Adam and Eve had to do; otherwise it is lost.
23. Therefore, between Adam and Eve's faith and ours, 1) there is no difference; only this, 2) that they believed that Christ, the Son of God, as true, almighty God, should become the seed of the woman, that is, a right man, and come into the world: the devil would stab him in the heel, that is, kill and murder him; but he would rise from death, and crush the devil's head, redeem from sins, God's wrath, death and hell, bring back righteousness, life, blessedness. But we now believe that it is not yet future, and that it shall come to pass, but that it has already come to pass, and that everything has been accomplished and fulfilled, as God promised and promised to Adam and Eve, and lacks nowhere, except that we wait for the resurrection of the body or of our flesh. Therefore, let us faithfully pray to God that we may remain in firm faith in this article, that Christ, as the true God, became man, died, and rose from the dead on the third day, bringing righteousness, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation again, as Adam and Eve did. If we do this, it will be well with us; if not, woe to us all! But that we may remain steadfast therein unto the end of our days, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit help us, Amen.
1) Erlanger: Adam and Eve, their faith and ours 2c.
2) Erlanger: this.