God literally sent Mary to earth to confirm Catholic positions

I have immense respect for Jimmy Akin and I certainly think he gets it right most of the time. I believe he is wrong on Genesis 3:15. You know what? So does the Mother of Jesus. More on that in a minute.

In a recent article about the cause of the war in heaven, I made the case that Genesis 3:15 can only be properly translated the way that the Douai Rheems translates it-

15 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.

Conceding up front that I am no student of historical documents, I understand that there have been and are some conflicting renderings of the original texts, including the Hebrew. Modern apologists will often say it clearly should be rendered as "He" and that Jerome made an error in translating it to "She".

If it's so clear, explain to me why the current King James version renders the word as "it''.

15 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.

At best, the evidence seems conflicting and a case can be made for "He", based on the Hebrew word in some of the manuscripts. That is until you apply context, which Jerome clearly did. This caused Jerome to translate the word into the Latin Ipsa meaning "she".

Was he mistaken? It's hard to imagine that Jerome- a doctor of the church- could make such an egregious mistake as is suggested while translating the Bible in the caves of Bethlehem. Further, as noted before, the translation of the Hebrew word is not cut and dry. It doesn't always mean "He", it can be translated as "it" or "that" depending on the context.

In this particular case, the translation of either "He" or "It" of the Hebrew word "Hu" would depend on the specific context of whether the word "Zarah" for ''seed'' or ''offspring'' should be translated as singular or plural.

Ironically enough, here is a rare occasion where the King James version comes down on our side.... well...sort of.

In the first part, it goes with "it" but it goes with "He" in the second part. King James hedging his bet?

Most modern translations assume the singular, concluding only Jesus can crush the head of the serpent. They literally project that interpretation on to the text. However, Scripture itself takes us in a different direction.

Romans 16

20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

This dispatches the notion that "her offspring" must be singular because only Jesus' heel can do the serpent head crushing. Clearly, God can empower others to do this, as Romans 16 clearly shows.

What we are left with is two enmities. The first is clearly enunciated, the 2nd less so. Clearly, the first enmity is "The Woman" vs "The Serpent". The second is "offspring" vs "offspring".

Necessity dictates that we confront the passage as it is written and use simple logic to follow it.

Who crushes the serpent's head? The one who God made his enemy.

Who is that? The Woman.

15 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.

Jerome was right in his translation and the councils of Hippo, Carthage and Trent all upheld it.

The idea that hundreds of years of Catholic iconography are all wrong because Jerome made a mistake is untenable and Catholics today should hold firmly against this concession to the protestants.

Remember, the body of Catherine Laboure is incorrupt. I know, I took a picture of it myself.

This, and hundreds of miracles, attest to the reality that the Mother of Jesus truly appeared to her in 1830, standing on the head of the serpent. In John 10, Jesus famously challenged us that if we don't first believe in Him because of His words, we should be convinced by His signs. Mary didn't fly down to earth on her own accord. She was sent by God to Catherine Laboure to confirm that God made her the serpent crusher.

In the same way, God sent her to Bernadette Soubirous to confirm that she is the Immaculate conception, and to Juan Diego to confirm that she is the Woman clothed with the Sun.

God has a way of making His position known.