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▶ Watch — The Wider Web

A Guided Walkthrough: Genesis 3:14-15

Let's explore one of the richest verses in the Bible together. You'll make just one move, twice over: read the passage, then follow what it connects to. Click each link as you go.

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Step 1: Read It in The Bible

Start where most reading should start — in The Bible, the paragraph view, with the "Read as" strip along the top. Here every connection is a coloured, underlined phrase.

Click: Genesis 3 in The Bible

Read the chapter through and watch for the underlined phrases: red + solid means a quotation, blue + dashed means an allusion, green + dotted means a fainter echo. Every coloured phrase is a clickable link to an Intertextuality Pair showing how that snippet connects to another passage in Scripture. On this Old Testament chapter you'll also see small coloured † crosses — those point forward, marking where the New Testament takes the verse up.

Notice especially verses 14 and 15 — God curses the serpent and promises that a descendant of the woman will crush the serpent's head. This is the protoevangelium, the first gospel promise, and the markers around it light up because so much of the rest of the Bible reaches back to it.

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Step 2: Open the Wider Web

Now follow where the verse reaches. Switch your lens to Threads (the verse-by-verse view), or open the "In the wider web" panel — either gives you the verse's full set of connections, grouped by kind.

Here is Genesis 3:14 exactly as it appears in Threads, with its inline link row:

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life. | IP¹ | IP² | IP³ | C¹ | C² | TOSK | TT¹ | TT² | TT³ | TT⁴ | TT⁵ |

Look at how much one verse holds: 3 Intertextuality Pairs, 2 Chiasms, TOSK cross-references, and 5 Trajectory Tables. The Bible showed you the verse in its narrative flow; the wider web shows you every thread running through it.

Let's follow a few of these threads.

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Step 3: Follow an Intertextuality Pair (IP)

Click: IP¹ — Genesis 3:14 → Isaiah 65:25

What you'll find: Isaiah wrote about a "new creation" — a future world where the wolf and lamb lie down together, where there's no more death or suffering. But one detail stands out: "dust shall be the serpent's food."

Why it matters: Isaiah removes every curse from the Fall except one — the serpent's. The ground is no longer cursed. Childbirth is no longer painful. But the serpent? Still eating dust. Isaiah understood that God's rescue would reverse the curse on creation while the serpent's defeat remains permanent.

What this shows you: a prophet writing 700 years after Moses read Genesis 3:14 and built on it. This is Scripture interpreting Scripture — and the IP makes the connection visible.

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Step 4: Follow a Chiasm (C)

Click: C² — Genesis 3:1-24

What you'll find: the entire Fall narrative — all 24 verses — is structured as an 8-level mirror pattern. Here's what it actually looks like on the site, with colour-coded keywords connecting the matching pairs:

• A. 1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
  • B. 2-3 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
    • C. 4-5 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
      • D. 6-7 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
        • E. 8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
          • F. 9-12 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
            • G. 13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
              • H. CENTER 14-15 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
            • G'. 16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
          • F'. 17-19 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
        • E'. 20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
      • D'. 21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
    • C'. 22a And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:
  • B'. 22b and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
• A'. 23-24 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Take a moment to look at that. Notice the colour-coded keywords — they connect the matching pairs. A and A' both mention serpent, garden, tree. D and D' both deal with covering nakedness. The structure is unmistakable. (These chiasm-level colours are the chiasm's own palette for marking matched pairs — distinct from the connection colours you met on the previous page.)

Why it matters:

• The center is the main point. Moses designed the chapter so that God's promise to crush the serpent sits at the exact center (H). The Fall is devastating — but the promise of rescue is the heart of the story.
• D and D' are stunning. Humans try to cover their shame with fig leaves (their own effort). God replaces them with coats of skins (the first death in the Bible, the first sacrifice). Human solution vs. God's solution — embedded in the structure itself.
• E and E' show transformation. Adam goes from hiding in fear (E) to naming his wife "Eve" — mother of all living (E'). He's heard God's promise in the center and he believes it. Despite the death sentence, he trusts that life will continue through the promised seed.

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Step 5: Follow a Trajectory Table (TT)

Click: TT¹ — Adam (The First and Last Adam)

What you'll find: an 11-stage table tracing the Adam theme from Genesis to Romans. Here's the arc:

1. Creation — Adam made in God's image, given dominion (Genesis 1:26-28)
2. The Fall — Adam disobeys, sin and death enter (Genesis 3)
3. The Promise — God promises a serpent-crusher (Genesis 3:15)
4. Seed Preserved — Seth born to carry the line (Genesis 4:25)
5. Prophetic Meditation — Psalm 8 asks "What is man?" and envisions humanity's destiny
6. Last Adam — Jesus is the "Last Adam," a life-giving spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45)
7. Representative Headship — Adam brought death to all; Christ brings life to all (Romans 5:12-21)
8. Crowned Through Suffering — Jesus fulfills humanity's calling through the cross (Hebrews 2:5-9)
9. Dominion Restored — All things put under Christ's feet (1 Corinthians 15:27)
10. Creation Liberated — Creation itself will be set free (Romans 8:20-21)
11. Satan Crushed — "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Romans 16:20)

Why it matters: this is the Bible's big story in miniature. One type — Adam — and you can trace the entire arc: creation, fall, promise, failure, fulfillment, consummation. The TT makes the whole trajectory visible from a single verse.

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Step 6: Sweep the Cross-References (TOSK)

Click: TOSK — Genesis 3:15

What you'll find: R.A. Torrey's comprehensive cross-references for this verse, organized by keyword:

• "enmity" → Numbers 21:6-7, Mark 16:18, Luke 10:19, Acts 28:3-6
• "thy seed" → Matthew 3:7, Matthew 12:34, John 8:44, 1 John 3:8
• "her seed" → Psalm 132:11, Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:3, Galatians 4:4
• "it shall bruise" → Romans 16:20, Colossians 2:15, Hebrews 2:14-15, Revelation 12:7-8

Why it matters: one verse, dozens of connections. TOSK shows you the full web of relationships — every place in the Bible that touches the same concepts. It's the widest-angle lens on this site.

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What You Just Did

In six steps, you:

1. Read the chapter in The Bible and let the coloured, underlined phrases show you which words connect to the rest of Scripture
2. Opened the wider web of Genesis 3:14 to see its full set of connections
3. Followed an IP to see how Isaiah took up Genesis 700 years later
4. Followed a chiasm to see how Moses structured the entire chapter around the promise of rescue
5. Traced a trajectory to watch the Adam theme develop from Genesis to Romans
6. Swept TOSK to see the full web of cross-references

That's the whole site in one habit. Read a passage. Let the colours catch your eye. Then open the wider web and follow a thread — as far as it runs, until it brings you to Christ.

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Getting Back

Every page has a link back at the top — click the book name, the Home link, or your browser's back button to retrace your steps. If you ever feel lost, open Home: that's the top of the site, and every path leads back to it within a click or two.

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Try More Examples

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Practice Exercises

Now it's your turn. Four exercises, each working a different part of the site.

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Exercise 1: Trace a Theme Through a Trajectory Table

Goal: follow the "Seed Promise" from Genesis to Revelation and see how one thread runs through the entire Bible.

1. Open the wider web of Genesis 3:14-15
2. Follow TT⁴ → Seed Promise Trajectory
3. Read the Trajectory Summary at the top — this is the big picture
4. Browse the OT to OT connections — see how later OT authors developed the seed promise
5. Browse the NT to OT connections — see how the NT identifies Christ as THE seed

What you'll discover: a single promise in Genesis 3:15 becomes the thread tying all of Scripture together. It narrows from Eve's offspring → Abraham's seed → Judah's line → David's house → and arrives at Paul's declaration in Galatians 3:16: "The promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring... who is Christ."

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Exercise 2: Read a Chiasm and Find the Main Point

Goal: learn to identify the center of a chiasm and compare the matching pairs to uncover meaning.

1. Open Chiasm — Genesis 3:1-24
2. Find the center — look for the most deeply indented level (H here)
3. Read the center carefully — this is what Moses wanted you to focus on
4. Compare A with A' — serpent in the garden vs. expelled from the garden
5. Compare D with D' — fig leaves (human effort) vs. coats of skins (God's provision)
6. Compare E with E' — hiding in fear vs. naming Eve "mother of all living" (faith!)
7. Ask yourself: what is Moses emphasizing by structuring the chapter this way?

What you'll discover:

• The Fall narrative isn't primarily about the sin — it's about the promise of rescue at the center
• D/D' shows human effort vs. divine provision — the first sacrifice, the first covering by God
• E/E' shows Adam's movement from fear to faith — he heard God's promise and believed it

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Exercise 3: Compare an Intertextuality Pair

Goal: see how a later biblical author read and built on an earlier text — Scripture interpreting Scripture.

1. Read Genesis 3:14 — the serpent cursed to eat dust
2. Follow IP¹ → Genesis 3:14 → Isaiah 65:25
3. Read how Isaiah uses this text in his new creation vision
4. Notice what Isaiah keeps and what he removes from the original curse
5. Ask yourself: what does this tell us about Isaiah's understanding of Genesis 3?

What you'll discover: Isaiah understood that God's new creation would reverse the curse on humanity and the ground — no more pain, no more death, no more thorns. But the serpent's curse remains: "dust shall be the serpent's food." Rescue means reversing the Fall's effects on creation while ensuring the serpent's permanent defeat. Evil isn't rehabilitated — it's crushed.

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Exercise 4: Go Into the Original Languages

Goal: go deep into the original words on a key passage — see how Hebrew and Greek reveal layers of meaning, with no language training required.

1. Open Adam (The First and Last Adam) Trajectory Table
2. Scroll to the first row and follow the Text Analysis link → Genesis 1:26-28 Foundation Text
3. Study the Hebrew terms for "image" (tselem), "likeness" (demuth), and "dominion" (radah) — and try the same passage in the Interlinear lens, clicking a word through to its Lexicon entry
4. See how these concepts develop in the New Testament
5. Ask yourself: what does it mean for humans to be made in God's "image"? And what does it mean that Christ is called "the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4)?

What you'll discover: the Hebrew words reveal that humanity was created as God's royal representative — a priest-king in God's temple-garden, tasked with extending God's presence throughout the earth. Adam failed this calling. Christ — "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15) — fulfills it perfectly. The same Hebrew tselem that describes Adam in Genesis 1:26 connects through the Greek eikōn to Paul's description of Christ as the true Image-bearer.

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→ Next: Seven ways the Old Testament connects to Jesus →

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