Far as the curse is found

Genesis 3:1-5

1Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" 2And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" 4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

I’m continuing my miniseries on the significance of the serpent in Gen 3. What would the figure of the serpent have meant to the original audience?

Unbelievers treat this account as a cross between Aesop’s Fables and a just-so story. For modern unbelievers, a snake is just an animal. A talking snake is impossible since snakes lack the vocal cords and brainpower to speak.

But, of course, it’s not as if talking snakes were a normal part of life in the ancient world. So this interpretation is scarcely plausible, even if you deny the inspiration of scripture.

So what would this account signify to an ancient reader? Keep in mind that Genesis in particular, and the Pentateuch as a whole, was addressed to Jews who had resided in Egypt for over 400 years. What was the significance of venomous snakes in ancient Egyptian culture?

Before I proceed any further, a definition is in order:

Uraeus: The Egyptian name for the cobra. A representation of the sacred asp, snake, or serpent, or of its head and necked, employed as an emblem of supreme power, sometimes specifically as worn on the headdress of ancient Egyptian divinities and sovereigns (OED).

Now let’s consider a few examples:

“The Egyptians associated serpents in general with magic. Even Pharaoh's uraeus, itself an embodiment of the cobra goddess Wedjet, was believed to imbue Pharaoh with magical power,” S. Noegel, "Moses and Magic: Notes on the Book of Exodus," Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 24 (1996), 48.

“We may see the snake as the embodiment of the commonest Egyptian word for ‘statement’ (tjd), written as a serpent, a word that appears in Egyptian magical texts as a synonym for ‘spell’," ibid. 50.

“The clearest expression of the dual nature of ‘venom spitting’ is embodied in the symbol of the uraeus, through which the powers of the feared serpent are made to serve gods, the kind, and mankind,” R. Ritner, The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice (Oriental Institute 2008), 83.

“The presence of the goddess Beset conforms to the imagery of the ivory knives where she also appears, with her power over noxious animals indicated by the standard device of the ‘master of animals’ pose, used elsewhere by Heka, Horus, and underworld deities, ibid. 224.

“The animals most commonly held are to snakes, which become two saves crossed upon the chest of Heka,” ibid. 224n1041.

“As a protective image, the uraeus is common,” ibid. 224.

“See the use of four uraei to guard the cardinal points in the temple rituals at Edfu on behalf of the kind and in the ritual of the House of Life on behalf of Osiris. The fire-spitting serpents repel enemies and demons at night,” ibid. 224n1042.

“For the Egyptian bedroom, various protections have already been discussed, but these are supplemented by a formal ritual for ‘4 uraei of pure clay with flames in their mouths,’ placed in each corner of the room in which men and women sleep together.120 Acting as defensive ‘nightlights’ against nightmares and pests, the serpents are noted in written records from Deir el-Medina and Ptolemaic temples, while actual clay serpents have been excavated throughout Egypt, and related serpent imagery even appears on the legs of beds.121 Similar protections for sleep are placed on headrests, where Bes (grasping snakes) is depicted to repel night terrors, noxious animals, etc.122.”

http://proteus.brown.edu/fairburn/admin/download.html?attachid=8661009

As we can see from these examples, the snake often functioned as an occultic being or emblem in ancient Egypt. It’s a symbolic embodiment of a numinous reality.

This background helps to explain why the figure of the serpent in Gen 3 requires so little introduction. A sagacious and malevolent snake would be no ordinary animal. Rather, it would be a visible emblem or omen of an invisible evil force. It moves within the aegis of witchcraft and black magic.

And how would the original audience understand the curse?

Genesis 3:13-15

13Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
14The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock_ and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.15I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

Let’s compare this with Egyptian lore:

“The traditional understanding of these animals as defeated and trampled enemies has been questioned by Quaegebeur…The primary notion of such images, however, is to express the deity’s mastery of the beasts…The animal is shown to be subject/subservient to the god, whether as an assistant or opponent. In either case, the iconologic notion remains ‘superposition=control.’…The primary magical method of neutralizing serpents, et cetera, is to make their attack recoil on themselves…The cobra is first and foremost a dangerous animal; its dangerous force may be controlled and thus directed by a god…The image of a god walking on (‘controlling’) a uraeus is therefore not so surprising…the deity controls and directs the force which the animal incarnates,” The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice, 128n583.

First of all, there’s the generic significance of tramping your enemies underfoot. A symbol of abject subjection by a conquering power.

Added to that is the irony of cursing a creature which is, itself, emblematic of evil spells. An agent of black magic becomes an accursed object. The hex redounds on itself.

This interpretation is reinforced by the fact that the Hebrew name for the serpent already has divinatory and imprecatory connotations.

To that extent, the account of the fall is, among other things, a subtle polemic against the appetite for sorcery and idolatry of the very nation which held the children of Israel captive for centuries. Just to rub it in, Moses will revisit the theme of ophiomancy in the Book of Exodus (cf. Exod 4:2-4; 7:8-12).

The Old Serpent

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made” (Gen 3:1).

“And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, 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).

I’ve discussed the identity of the Serpent in Gen 3 on more than one occasion. However, I’m going to be bringing some additional documentation to bear.

To recap, both liberal and conservative Bible scholars tend to be puzzled by how the serpentine figure in Gen 3 evolved into the diabolical figure in Rev 12.

Beyond that, liberals regard Gen 3 as an etiological fable of how the snake lost its legs while conservatives generally interpret the figure in Gen 3 as a case of animal possession.

I think the interpretive problem that a modern reader is apt to have is that he doesn’t understand the cultural code language of the ancient text. Instead, he uses his own cultural markers as his reference point.

But the question we need to ask ourselves is how the ancient Near Eastern audience to whom this text was originally addressed would have heard it. What associations would the depiction of a rational, articulate serpent trigger in their minds?

Let’s turn to a standard reference work:

snake-dragon
The snake-dragon (with horns, snake’s body and neck, lion’s forelegs and bird’s hindlegs) is represented from the Akkadian Period down to the Hellenistic Period as a symbol of various gods or as a generally magically protective hybrid not associated specifically with any deity.

snake gods
The snake gods of ancient Mesopotamia, especially Nirah, seem to be the only fully animalian, non-anthropomorphic, deities (although la-Tarak may have had a leonine face and worn a lion’s skin). The snake god Nirah was worshipped at the city of Der, located on the northern border between Mesopotamia and Elam, as the minister of Istaran, the city god of Der (see local gods). His cult there is attested from the earliest times and was long-lived. He was also worshipped until Middle Babylonian times in the E-kur, the temple of Ellil (Enlil) in Nippur, where he was regarded as a protective deity of the temple and a protective presence. The cult of Irhan, a deity of the city of Ur and probably in origin a god representing the river Euphrates, remained independent until the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur, but was later syncretised with the cult of Nirah. It is possible that the snake symbol found on kudurrus [inscribed stones] represents the god Nirah (see snakes).

An anthropomorphic god with the lower body of a snake, shown on cylinder seals of the Old Akkadian Period, may also represent Nirah.

On the cylinder seal of Gudea, prince of Lagas, the ruler is introduced into the presence of a superior deity by a god from each of whose shoulders a horned snake rises. This is probably intended to represent Ningiszida, regarded by Gudea as his personal protective deity (see personal gods).

snakes
Representations of snakes are naturally frequent in iconography from the prehistoric periods onwards, but it is not always easy to decide whether or not they carried any religious value. When depicted as attributes of deities they are seen associated with both gods and goddesses. And independent symbol of the snake appears on kudurrus and is identified by the inscription on one as symbolizing the minister of the god Istaran (and so is possibly Nirah; see snake gods). Snakes continued to be portrayed in religious and secular art in later periods. As a divine symbol in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian art, the snake can be identified from ritual texts directly as the god Nirah.

The horned viper (Cerastes cerastes), a mildly venomous snake native to the Middle East, has a pair of spike-like folds of skin on its head. In art, the form of a snake with a pair of horns rising from the forehead occurs as a symbol on Kassite kudurrus and in Neo-Assyrian art as an element of seal designs and in the form of magically protective figurines…A variant horned snake with forelegs was apparently regarded as a different creature…Originally one of the trophies of Ninurta (see Slain Heroes), it was later—when the snake-dragon became Marduk’s animals—the symbol of various gods formerly associated with the snake-dragon, including Ningiszida.

J. Black & Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary (U. of Texas 1997), 166-68.

This reference work concerns itself with Mesopotamia, but, of course, snake-gods and snake cults weren’t limited to Mesopotamia. For example, you can find the same phenomenon in ancient Egypt.

This identification would explain the preternatural powers of the snake in Gen 3. It’s not a snake at all. Rather, it’s a serpentine symbol of a numinous being.

Of course, we need to draw a further distinction. This text was addressed, not merely to an ancient Near Eastern audience, but to a Jewish audience in particular. They wouldn’t view the “snake” in quite the same terms. It would still be a numinous being, but a demonic or diabolical being.

Paganism didn’t really have a distinct category for the demonic. In paganism, all the gods are corrupt and malicious in varying degrees.

Biblical theism has a more complex classification scheme. God is in a class by himself. He is the Creator. And there are good spirits (heavenly angels, saints) as well as evil spirits (fallen angels, damned souls)—all of whom are creatures.

This interpretation has the further advantage that it doesn’t require any historical or theological development from the snake to the devil. The “snake” in Gen 3 was always emblematic of an evil spirit.

Symbolic consistency carries over to the curse (3:14-15). The same serpentine imagery. And, as Walton explains in his commentary, this is not a just-so story of how the snake lost its legs. Rather, it’s a standard imprecation, of the sort often employed for venomous snakes.