Who Dat Serpent?

In Genesis 3:1 we are abruptly introduced to a talking snake with a hidden agenda: Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” No passage in the Old Testament explicitly connects this "serpent" with Satan, although the behavior of "Satan" in Job 1-2 is skin in which the serpent in Genesis 3 would feel quite comfortable.

In the New Testament, the two names are explicitly matched up: And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him (Rev. 12:9). Regardless of whether he is called "Great Dragon," "Serpent of Old," "Devil," "Satan," or "Deceiver," these are all names for the same person. Because of this connection between the tempter in Genesis 3 and "Satan," some have suggested that "the serpent" is a metaphorical expression. In this view, the individual who spoke to Eve was not an actual reptile but merely someone whose manner is low, oily, crafty, and deceptive.

Because these adjectives aptly describe Satan, there is some truth to this view. But there are clear indicators in the text that "the serpent" is real. First, the serpent is positively identified as a member of a larger group, "beasts of the field." Satan is an angelic being, not a beast of the field. Second, the locomotive curse in Gen. 3:14 only makes sense if the serpent is an actual reptile. Prior to the fall, the serpent got around by means other than crawling. Did it walk like a dinosaur?  Maybe! But "belly crawling" became the serpent's normal mode of travel because of its role in the fall of man.

Taken together, these observations suggest that the temptation of Eve involved a dual source, a talking reptile and Satan. An actual reptile did the talking, but that reptile got its script from Satan. I cannot improve on Martin Luther's summary: “The devil was permitted to enter beasts, as he here entered the serpent. For there is no doubt that it was a real serpent in which Satan was and in which he conversed with Eve.”

Comments

[Wendi]

umm nice photo..hahaha