It is certainly, however, not a matter of chance that the posterity of the woman is not broken up into a plurality, but that, in order to designate it, expressions in the singular (זרע and הוא) are chosen. This unity, which, in the meanwhile, it is true, is only _ideal_, was chosen with regard to the person of the Redeemer, who comprehends within Himself the whole human race. And it is not less significant, and has certainly a deeper ground, that the victory over the serpent is assigned to the seed of the woman, not to the posterity of Adam; and though, indeed, [Pg 30] the circumstance that the woman was first deceived may have been the proximate cause of it, yet it cannot be exclusively referred to, and derived from, it. By these remarks we come still nearer to the view of the ancient Church. Footnote 1: So, _e.g._ _Cramer_ in the _Nebenarbeiten zur Theologischen Literatur_, St. 2. Footnote 2: The positive reasons by which I there proved the reference to Satan, have not been invalidated by the objections of _Hofmann_ in his _Schriftbeweis_ i. 379. He says: As an adjective formed in a manner similar to קלקל (Num. xxi. 6) must have an intransitive signification, it cannot mean "separated," but according to its derivation from עזל = אזל, it means: "altogether gone away." But this argument has no force. The real import of the form of the word is gradation, and frequent repetition. Instances of a passive signification are given in _Ewald's Lehrbuch der Hebr. Sprache_, § 157 c.: compare, _e.g._, Deut. xxxii. 5. There is so much the stronger reason for adopting the passive signification, that in Arabic also,--which alone can be consulted, as the comparison with the Hebrew אזל has no sure foundation on which to rest,--the root has the signification: _remotus, sepositus fuit_, and the participle: _a ceteris se sejungens_. Compare _Egypt and the B. M._, p. 169. Footnote 3: He says,--This, therefore, is the sense of the passage: "The human race, whom Satan had endeavoured to destroy, shall at length be victorious. But, meanwhile, we must bear in mind the mode in which, according to Scripture, that victory is to be achieved. According to his own pleasure, Satan has, through all centuries, led captive the sons of men, and even to this day he continues that sad victory. But, since a stronger one has come down from heaven to subdue him, the whole Church of God shall, under her Head, and like Him, be victorious."