mariologydogmati00pohl - Carmel Apologetics

HER IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 43
The Bull "Ineffabilis" cites two important texts,
which certainly point to the Blessed Virgin as the
recipient of some extraordinary spiritual favor,
—a favor which cannot be fully explained by any-
thing short of the dogma of her Immaculate Conception.
True, the exegetical argument from
these texts, taken by itself, scarcely exceeds the
limits of probability; but the lack of Scriptural
evidence can be abundantly supplied from the
writings of the Fathers.
a) The so-called Protevangelium (Gen. Ill, 14
sq.) runs as follows: "Et ait Dominus Deus ad
serpentem: . . . Inimicitias ponam inter te et
mulierem ( n ?^7), et semen tuum et semen illius:
ipsa conteret caput tuum, et tu insidiaberis cal-
caneo eins—And the Lord God said to the ser-
pent: ... I will put enmity between thee and
the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall
crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her
heel." The Hebrew text has: "he [jan] shall
crush thy head, and thou shalt crush his heel.' 5
The only difference between the two versions is
that, whereas the Vulgate describes "the woman"
as crushing the serpent, the original Hebrew text,
by employing a male pronoun, ascribes this act to
"the seed of the woman." The Septuagint
agrees with the Hebrew, rendering the passage
as follows : avro