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Strictly speaking these are the last words of positive doctrine in Romans. All leads up
to this.
In Rom. 1:, Christ is seen as coming of the Seed of David according to the flesh, and
at the last, together with His redeemed, fulfilling the primal promise that the seed of the
woman should bruise the serpent's head.
The doctrines of Justification and
Reconciliation, together with the two key characters, Adam and Abraham, links these
two references to the `Seed'. This climax is comparable with `the end' which shall be
attained according to I Cor. 15: 24-28, the last enemy there being, not Satan, but that
power which Satan wields through sin, namely death. The passage has in common with
Rom. 16: 20 the words "under . . . . . feet". These words, quoted in I Cor. 15:, in
Eph. 1: and in Heb. 2: in the phrase "Thou hast put all things under His feet" are cited
from the eighth Psalm, which has as its subscription "Upon Muth-labben".
Psa. 8: looks in two directions, back to Adam and the limited dominion given to
him, and forward to Christ and the universal dominion which shall be His. In Heb. 2:
the reference to the eighth Psalm is associated with His suffering and death, and to the
`world to come' oikoumene; in I Cor. 15:, the reference to the eighth Psalm looks
beyond the limitations of the habitable world, to the goal when God shall be all in all;
while Eph. 1: alludes to Psa. 8:, when speaking of the principalities and powers that
are subjected beneath the feet of Christ, in His capacity as Head over all things to the
church. In the Berean Expositor of May 1951, Psa. 8: and its subscription is shown to
speak of the "secrets of the Son", and the reader's attention is drawn to this article
because of the extreme importance of the subject.
The bruising of the serpent's head was not accomplished however without suffering
on the part of the Great Deliverer. "He shall bruise His heel".
It is not surprising that this primeval prophecy should have been known to the ancient
world. The ancients confounded the name Zero-ashta "The seed of the woman",
interpreting the word ashta to mean fire, and so giving the name Zoroaster. Throughout
the mythology of the ancient world, the struggle between the Serpent and a Deliverer is
well known:
"And while sublime his awful hands are spread,
Beneath him rolls the dragon's horrid head,
And his right foot unmoved appears to rest,
Fixed on the writhing monster's burnished crest" (Landseer, Researches).
In Greek mythology the constellation that sets forth the crushing of the serpent's head
is called Engonasis `the Kneeler' but this is owing to the confusion of tongues. In
Chaldee E represents `the', nko `to crush, nahash a serpent; and so enkonahash became
in Greek engonasis. The story of Achilles `vulnerable only in his heel', is also a most
evident echo of Gen. 3: 15.