zeraʿ

Semantic range

1. 1sown seed; grain
2. 2descendants — collective, usually singular in form
3. 3a line or family

Hebrew zeraʿ is grammatically singular but ordinarily collective, which lets it hover between one descendant and a whole posterity. Genesis 3:15 exploits the ambiguity — the seed of the woman who bruises the serpent's head — and Paul presses it in Galatians 3:16, arguing that the promise to Abraham's "seed" was to one, Christ.

The Abrahamic covenant is transmitted in this word: seed as numerous as the stars and the sand (Genesis 22:17), and in Abraham 2:9–11 the promise widens to include those who receive the gospel, who are "accounted" his seed. Latter-day Saints understand covenant Israel this way — a lineage that adoption genuinely joins.

See also

• בְּרִיתbərît
• יִשְׂרָאֵלyiśrāʾēl
• υἱοθεσίαhuiothesia