The Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman in the Standard Works

The curse of the serpent in Genesis 3:15 is presented as an archetype for the battle between good and evil. An ancient Hebrew literary form that ties together multiple stories through a common set of images, situations, repeated words, and phrases, is termed a leitmotif. A biblical leitmotif based on the curse of the serpent in Genesis 3 and the curse of Cain in Genesis 4 is found throughout both the Old and New Testaments and is referred to as the seed of the serpent leitmotif. Hebrew prophets, early Christians, and protestant reformers all found the seed of the serpent leitmotif to be a compelling theme containing prophecies about the coming of the Messiah and the ultimate destruction of the wicked. Writers in the Book of Mormon and other Restoration scriptures appear to have used the same seed of the serpent leitmotif to clearly identify the protagonist of a given story as the true seed of the woman and to brand the antagonist of the story as the seed of the serpent. The paper begins with a discussion of the leitmotif in Genesis. It then extends to the rest of the Bible, using the story of Abimelech as an archetype. Following this foundation, it then shows how the leitmotif occurs in a variety of sermons and stories throughout the standard works and, in particular, the Book of Mormon. The paper concludes with a discussion of the explanatory power of this literary device for the understanding and edification of modern-day readers.