| BEFORE Genesis 3:15 DRV | AFTER Genesis 3:15 RSV-CE |
| I will put enmities 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. | I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. |
Why is this change important?
This text change is a perfect example of how text changes can be very substantial. “She” is not “He”. Also, “She” is not equal to the serpent. The serpent is clearly inferior in the DRV translation. She crushes — not merely bruises — and the serpent does not bruise her heel; he is compelled by God not to bruise, but to “lie in wait” for the crushing to come. Because Satan now knows that Jesus Christ is God, if Jesus crushes the serpent’s head, Satan’s pride would not be nearly as destroyed as having a fellow creature and, not only a fellow creature, but a lower form in the hierarchy of created beings, a human being, and, not only a human being, but a woman. This is how God delivers poetic justice. Mary, the greatest heroine of all holy men, women and angels, is now the Queen of all creation. Mary’s humility crushes Satan’s pride.
Additional Notes
St. Jerome , who is the author of the Latin Vulgate and who had access to many Hebrew and Greek texts that have been lost to history, used the Latin term “ipsa” which means she, not “ipso” which means he. The DRV version translates St. Jerome’s term, “ipsa”, correctly to “she”. The Latin Vulgate was asiduously translated into english at the time of the reformation resulting int the Douay Rheims Version (DRV).