Serpent (The)
In the beginning God created the world and everything in it – including the serpent.1 God’s creation is described as “very good”2 which strongly indicates that at this point there was no “sin” or evil beings marring it. The serpent is introduced soon after creation and is described as being “more subtle3” (crafty) than any other creature. This is significant, as the serpent as an animal did not know good or evil – not even Adam and Eve were aware of good and evil at that time4. The serpent challenges Eve and tests her obedience by contradicting God’s statement that eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would lead to death5. It mixes this lie with a correct observation that eating would lead Eve be “like God”6 in the sense that they would then know the difference between Good and Evil.
Eve fails the challenge and also draws her husband Adam into her sin. As a result of the part that it played in this failure, God curses the serpent to be “cursed above all livestock.7” God also gives the first of His great promises:
I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
(Gen 3:15)
Superficially, this would appear to be the cause for the common loathing of snakes in humans and possibly the fear of humans in snakes but if we pay close attention, the second part of the verse makes it clear that the “seed of the woman” is singular due to its reference to “”He will bruise…” (singular). The hostility then is only against a single offspring of Eve but it would be pointless if this individual was only a reference to Cain, Abel or Seth, the literal offspring of Eve since they had no notable interaction with the serpent or it’s seed. Instead, we know from the later promises to Abraham and the explanation of Paul in Galatians 3 that the singular seed is an early reference to Jesus8.
Genesis 3 does not explicity state whether the “seed of the serpent” is singular or plural. Interestingly, the “battle” between Jesus is described as being against the serpent – not its offspring. We know from the New Testament that Jesus did not literally fight against the serpent or some distant ancestor of the serpent, instead his battle was against temptation and ultimately mortality.9
This suggests that the serpent and it’s “seed” were symbolic for termptation, sin and the natural consequence of sin – death.
This idea is supported later in an important event that transpired when the Israelites were in the land of Edom in Numbers 21:4-9. The Israelites had become tired of the “manna” that God has sent to feed them in the wilderness and were running short of water. They complained against God who sent poisonous snakes to punish them. When the people cried out for help, God instructed Moses to create a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Anyone who looked up to the snake on the pole was saved.10 Jesus explicitly links himself to this symbol in John 3:14-15:
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
(Joh 3:14-15)
Jesus was clearly not the serpent, since as mentioned early, he fought against the serpent. The explanation for Jesus’ connection to the bronze serpent is that Jesus accomplished his defeat (bruising it’s head) of the “serpent” was by putting his sinful (serpent) nature to death on the cross. -More evidence for this can be found in Galation 5:24 and elsewhere11.
Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
(Gal 5:24)
Jesus himself uses the word “serpent” as a symbol for wickedness when he accuses the Pharisees in Matthew 23 of being a “brood of vipers” (v. 33) because of the evil and misleading things they taught.
The other notable appearance of a serpent was in the book of Acts when a viper bit Paul in Acts 28:1-6. Remarkably, Paul suffered no harm from the bite which could be interpreted as God’s protection from sin but requires more detailed exposition to fit into the overall picture.
Is the Serpent “Satan”?
Some have taken the interpretation in Genesis much more literally, believing that the serpent became (or possibly already was) some kind of quasi-immortal creature that carried on it’s crusade against God and His creation.
The doctine of the pre-existence of some kind supernatural being from before the creation completely lacks any biblical evidence and so can be rejected out of hand. Other theories like that the serpent ate of the tree of knowledge and hence became an intentional adversary also fail the logic test since it would have been evicted just as Adam and Eve were and presumably we’d also have much more moral (and intelligent?) snakes co-existing with us today.
Instead the evidence for a supernatural “devil” or “satan” relies on connecting the serpent to a handful of references found later in the Bible to the devil or satan, comprising a suprisingly small amount of information considering the threat such a being would present if that interpretation is accurate. This theory is further undermined by many of these references being to a specific person or entity that is clearly not the snake or some other form of a supernatural being.
There are two reference in Revelation that mentioned the “serpent” that connect the serpent to the devil and Satan:
The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
(Rev 12:9)
And:
He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,
(Rev 20:2)
It is important to note that these references are from Revelation, a book of symbol. A closer examination of the relevant chapters proves that this is consistent since they are both full of symbols. For example: In chapter 12: One third of all the stars are cast to earth and there is a woman who wears stars for a crown, is clothed in the sun and who lives for more than 1260 years. Even the dragon (aka the serpent) is described as having seven heads and 10 crowns which is very consistent with the symbolic creatures in Daniel 7 where similarly odd creatures are described with very unusual features such as 10 horns and who are very clearly symbols for empires, not literal animals. It is therefore logical to assume that since all the other aspects of the chapter are symbolic, then so is the references to the serpent/devil/Satan. This is consistent with the other references to serpent in the Bible where it is referring to a literal snake or a symbol of something sinful.