FFT

Genesis 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.



It seems pretty cut and dried to me, although I've seen responses ranging from "Satan just lied is all!" to "you aren't reading the right translation!" I really want to find any instance of Satan eating something, to show contradiction with the "dust" bit, but don't think I will.

/edit: I'm reasonably certain I came upon this on my own, but I may have picked it up somewhere. If anyone finds this to be the case, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.

rhutchin

The claim is not that Satan is a serpent (except in an analogous manner that identifies the poison of one to the other). In Genesis, Satan uses the serpent (otherwise, how could an animal talk) as the means to deceive Eve. So, when Paul says...

2 Corinth 11
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

...we know that he is speaking of Satan and not the animal that Satan used but he incorporates the historical account that involves the animal to make his point.

Interestingly, the animal used by Satan was then punished (even though it was innocent) providing a vivid example of that which waits for those people who are similarly used by Satan (even though it could be argued that they are innocent also). This we find here...

2 Corinth 4
4 ...[Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Aspirin99

Do you really think that the idea of of Satan existed at time of the writing of Genesis?

Jack the Bodiless

The notion that the Genesis Serpent was Satan appears to have been introduced very late, in Revelation (and, even then, it isn't explicitly spelled out IIRC: Satan is described as "that old serpent").

Christians have been trying to project this notion back through the Bible ever since. Note that in the two examples just given, there is no indication that Paul was discussing Satan in 2 Corinthians 11:3, and no indication that Paul was discussing the Serpent in 2 Corinthians 4:4 - it's just that both are accused of deceit.
In Genesis, there is just the Serpent, who is punished for being "guilty". Note that all the descendants of the Serpent are punished too: this is "God's justice".

Nectaris

Well that would depend on when Genesis, or specifically when that part of Genesis was written and also what you mean by "the idea of Satan." I think the character Satan existed, as he appears in Job, and Job is older than Genesis (or so I've been told). I don't think that Satan from Job is the same as the Christian idea of Satan, though.

Dave

CJD

You know, one even more simple reason that ha-satan is not the serpent is this: he is nowhere said to be the serpent in Eden. Yes, he is identified with it later on ("that serpent of old"), but we must not think that the "adversary" literally possessed a snake in the garden. Saint Paul, and others like him to be sure, understood what we now call the "mythical" elements of the creation narrative.

Incidentally, FFT, your reasons for disputing something that isn't even a viable interpretation (just because it's popular certainly doesn't make it viable), are not really convincing. All someone would have to say is that God's judgment in Eden was aimed at the serpent qua serpent, not satan.

CJD

David Vestal

Furthermore, Genesis helpfully explains that the serpent was the mastermind of the whole thing, because "the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made."

gregor

This is a joke, right?

And Aesop's fox was possessed by whom? How about Poe's raven?

post tenebras lux

The verse actually says 'god of this world' rather than directly stating it is Satan. Where in the bible does it explicitly state that 'the god of this world' is Satan?

Further, if you're going to quote 2 Cor 4:4, please don't forget 2 Cor 4:2 - By the way, Rhutchin, are Paul's letters (to the Corinthians and others) 'the word of god'?

Chris Weimer

Actually, the prose intro of Job is supposedly much younger than the poetical heart. How much younger, though, then Genesis I cannot tell.