The word seed comes from the Latin sementis and refers both to the seed of a fruit and to any cause that allows something to be created. In the Christian religious tradition, the term seed is very present in the Old Testament.
The seed in the processes of nature
If we take any fruit as a reference, the seed it contains is the seed, that is, that which will allow a new fruit to be born after a natural process of development. The idea of seed is equally applicable to the semen of mammals, the liquid that intervenes in the origin of a new living being.
The term seed applied to the creation of life, of a fruit or of an individual, is not used in a strictly biological sense but to imply the origin of vital processes and to indicate that in the cycles of nature there is always a original cause, that is, a germ.
The seed in the Bible
In the book of Genesis 3.15 there is a verse that refers to the enmity between two seeds, that of the woman and that of the serpent. The seed of the woman alludes to her ability to generate life and even the life of the Messiah who is to come. The seed of the serpent expresses the germ of evil and in this sense it must be remembered that a serpent was the one that deceived Eve to introduce the seed of evil into humanity. These two biblical seeds have a double meaning:
1) are a narrative element through which humans can know the origin of humanity from the Christian perspective and
2) there is a clear distinction between good and evil, two realities that can also grow as if they were a seed.
The seed of good and evil
Although in the Old Testament there is an explicit reference to the two seeds, that of good and that of evil, these two concepts go beyond the Christian religion, as they are essential in all religions and worldviews.
By using the idea of the seed of good or evil, it is indicating that the good or bad things in life do not appear spontaneously but that there is a sowing of good things as opposed to the sowing of bad things and it is the very being human who brings to term one seed or another. As the Spanish saying puts it, whoever sows winds reaps storms.
Photos: iStock - thorbjorn66 / Mordolff
