<p>16:20 <i>And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly</i><i>. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you</i><i>- </i>The &lsquo;satan&rsquo; in view is I suggest the Jewish opposition, which was to be shortly destroyed in the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem elite in AD70. The Jewish system ceased to be a serious adversary or Satan to the Christians in the aftermath of its destruction in A.D. 70, as Paul prophesied here. A closer study of the context reveals more precisely the mentality of the Judaizer Satan. Satan being bruised underfoot alludes back to the seed of the serpent being bruised in Genesis 3:15. The Jews are therefore likened to the Satan-serpent in Genesis (as they are in Jn. 8:44), in their causing &ldquo;divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned&rdquo; (Rom. 16:17). Other details in Romans 16 now fall into the Genesis 3:15 context: &ldquo;they that are such serve... their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple&rdquo; (:18). The fair speeches of the Judaizers were like those of the serpent. Instead of &lsquo;Why not eat the fruit?&rsquo; it was &lsquo;Why not keep the law?&rsquo;. Is. 24:6 had earlier made the point that because of the sin of the priesthood &ldquo;therefore hath the curse devoured the earth / land&rdquo;; &ldquo;their poison is like the poison of a serpent&rdquo; (Ps. 59:4).<br /></p><p>The tree of knowledge thus comes to represent the Law &ndash; because &ldquo;by the law is the knowledge of sin&rdquo; (Rom. 3:20). The fig leaves which Adam and Eve covered themselves with also represented the Law, seeing they were replaced by the slain lamb. Their initially glossy appearance typifies well the apparent covering of sin by the Law, which faded in time. The fig tree is a symbol of Israel. It seems reasonable to speculate that having eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge, they made their aprons out of its leaves, thus making the tree of knowledge a fig tree. Both the tree and the leaves thus represent the Law and Jewish system; it is therefore fitting if the leaves were from the same tree. It is also noteworthy that when Christ described the Pharisees as appearing &ldquo;beautiful&rdquo; outwardly, he used a word which in the Septuagint was used concerning the tree of knowledge, as if they were somehow connected with it (Mt. 23:27).</p><p>It was as if the Judaizers were saying: &lsquo;Yea, hath God said you cannot keep the law? Why then has He put it there? It will do you good, it will give you greater spiritual knowledge&rsquo;. Colossians 2:3&ndash;4 shows this kind of reasoning was going on: &ldquo;In (Christ) are hid <i>all</i> the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words&rdquo;. Here is another allusion to the serpent. Because all spiritual knowledge is in Christ, Paul says, don&rsquo;t be beguiled by offers of deeper knowledge. Thus Adam and Eve&rsquo;s relationship with God in Eden which the serpent envied and broke is parallel to us being &ldquo;in Christ&rdquo; with all the spiritual knowledge that is there. Hence Paul warned Corinth: &ldquo;I fear, lest... as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ&rdquo; (2 Cor. 11:3). The &lsquo;simplicity in Christ&rsquo; was therefore the same as man&rsquo;s relationship with God in Eden. So again we see the Judaist false teachers equated with the Satan-serpent of Genesis. Titus 1:10 and 2 Peter 2:1 &ndash; 3 specifically define these men who used an abundance of words and sophistry as &ldquo;they of the circumcision&rdquo;, i.e. Jewish false teachers. Those in 2 Peter 2 are described as speaking evil of Angels (:12 cp. Jude 8) &ndash; in the same way as the serpent spoke evil of the Angelic commands given in Eden. It&rsquo;s been pointed out that there&rsquo;s an Aramaic pun which connects the serpent <i>hewya</i> with the idea of instruction <i>hawa</i> and also Eve, the false teacher of Adam <i>Hawah</i>.</p><p>Back in Romans 16, the Judaizer Satans/ adversaries are spoken of as serving &ldquo;their own belly&rdquo; (:18) like the serpent did. Maybe the serpent liked the look of the fruit and wanted to justify his own eating of it; to do this he persuaded Eve to eat it. Because he served his belly, he had to crawl on it. Similarly the Judaizers wanted to be justified in their own keeping of the Law, and therefore persuaded Eve, the Christian bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:1&ndash;3), to do the same. &ldquo;Yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple (AV mg. &ldquo;harmless&rdquo;) concerning evil&rdquo; (Rom. 16:19) &ndash; &ldquo;be wise as serpents, (primarily referring to the Pharisees?) and harmless as doves&rdquo;, Jesus had said (Mt. 10:16).</p>