Protoevangelium: The First Gospel

The word “protoevangelium” means “first gospel.” We find it very early on in scripture in Genesis 3:15, right after the fall of Adam and Eve. God speaks to the serpent, making the first announcement of the Redeemer’s victory over sin.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; they will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel,” (Genesis 3:15).

Notice that before God describes to the severe consequences of their sin to Adam and Eve, he first confronts the serpent about his pending defeat. 

“After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls him and in a mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall,” (Catechism, 410).

God responds to the sin of Adam and Eve and takes action instead of abandoning them. It's only three chapters into the Bible that God announces the gospel. The remainder of the Bible is about how he has worked in salvation history.

“He went further and from the start manifested Himself to our first parents. Then after their fall His promise of redemption aroused in them the hope of being saved (see Gen. 3:15) and from that time on He ceaselessly kept the human race in His care, to give eternal life to those who perseveringly do good in search of salvation (see Rom. 2:6-7),” (Dei Verbum 3). 

Church Fathers and Doctors of the Church commonly agree that the woman referred to in Genesis 3:15 is Mary, the Mother of God, and the offspring is Jesus. The protoevangelium announces Mary as the "New Eve, just as St. Paul refers to Jesus as the “New Adam” in the New Testament.

St. Irenaeus wrote “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience; what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, the virgin Mary loosened by her faith.”

To end this musing, here is a quote of St. John Paul II during a General Audience on December 17th, 1986: 

"It is a fight that will end with the victory of Christ ('he will crush your head'). But this will be the victory obtained at the price of the sacrifice of the cross ('when you strike his heel').”

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life." (John 3:16)