happyboy

can't forget that serpents had legs at one point, people! that's why we constantly find fossils of legged snakes.....

a very amused happyboy

MaximusDementis

Lizards you mean. Legged snakes are lizards, methinks. And yes modern snakes and lizards had a legged ancestors. :notworthy

MrDarwin

Hey Magus, did the Dead Sea Scrolls tell you that?

Bobzammel

Snakes are commonly used in Middle Eastern myth. The creature Levithian-used in the Old Testament and also probably the inspiration for the Revelation dragon-is also mentioned, and is also a part of common Middle Eastern myth.
In addition the Zoroastarian/Mithraic entity Ahriman is also identified on occassion with a snake.

Some Christians think that the curse on the snake contains a prophecy of Jesus, who is the "seed" of a Woman and "Crushed the serpent's head". Paul eludes to this although he does not state it flatly("Jesus will crush Satan's head shortly"). As for the Seed part, this should be translated descendant or offspring, and does not mean a virgin birth. Other women with 'seeds' are described in the bible but are not virgins. And the Bashing the serpents head/striking heels is simply a reference to the emnity between snakes and humans. Snakes strike heels, ancient people probably smashed Serpent's skulls.

Sojourner553

Most Christians are taught that it was the DEVIL who tempted Eve to eat
from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. However, a close reading
of Genesis will show that the serpent is NEVER identified as the Devil, or
Satan--nor is there any reference made to the serpent being a "fallen angel".--
Instead Genesis describes the serpent as "more subtle than any beast of the
field which the Lord God had made". (see Gen. 3:1).

Around the late first and second centuries C.E., early Christian Fathers
determined the serpent and Satan HAD to be one and the same, and this
interpretation has carried down to modern times.

In the earliest books of the Old Testament (ie the Books of Moses, etc
which were written BEFORE the Babylonian Exile) there is NEVER any mention
of a powerful divine being of Evil—i.e., a Devil. Instead, the early hebrews
viewed their God (then a national, or local god) as the creator of both
GOOD AND EVIL. This is explicitly stated in several passages in the Old
Testament. For example, consider these verses:

* "I form the light, and create the darkness: I make peace, and create
evil: I the Lord do all these things." (The RSV Bible softens this last
sentence somewhat, translating it as "I make weal and create woe, I am the
Lord, who do all these things) (Isaiah 45:7)

*"And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his
people" (Exodus 32:14 KJV)

There is a passage where God is said to have put a "lying spirit" in the
mouth of false prophets:

* "You see, then how the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all
these prophets of yours, because he has decreed disaster for you
(1 Kings 22:23, 2 Chron, 18:22)

And God deceives:

* "And I said, O LORD GOD, thou surely didst deceive this people and Jerusalem
in saying, 'You shall have peace', while the sword is at our throats."
(Jer. 4:10)

All acts of punishment are performed either by Yahweh himself or by an
angel acting under His direct orders, including:

* tempting Abraham to sacrifice his son
* the slaughter of the first-born of Egypt
* turning of Lot's wife into a "pillar of salt" for disobeying the warning
not to look back at the brimstone and fire rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
(Gen 19:17,26),
* the evil spirit which came upon Saul
* the death of David's illegitimate son by Bathsheba (as punishment for
David's murder and adultery) (2 Sam 12:13-4)
* dispatching an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem
(jud. 9:23, 1 Sam. 16:14, 1 Kings 22:19-23)
*destroying the northern Kingdom of Israel via Assyria (2 Kings 17:18)

http://mac-2001.com/philo/crit/UNIVERSE.TXT
http://mac-2001.com/philo/crit/index.html

Jack the Bodiless

Magus:

No, the Serpent isn't Satan.

In addition to the points made previously: there is the fact that, according to Genesis, God punished the race of serpents for what that first serpent did.

Would this make any sense if Satan was an angel who merely assumed the form of a serpent? Of course not. If I wore a black wig and mirror shades while performing a crime, but the cops knew it was me: would they pass laws against all dark-haired people with glasses?

It makes perfect sense once you realize that the Bible is only a story, and one written by multiple authors over a long period. The authors of those later books lacked either the will or the means to go back and re-write Genesis to make Satan the villain.

Throughout the OT, Satan is a loyal servant of God: he is God's tester. The later authors reinvented him as the "lord of evil" when they decided that God should be entirely good: this was their attempt to crack the Problem of Evil. Hence the early Christian heresies in which God and Satan were comparable in power. Later, the doctrine of God's "omnipotence", and hence power over Satan, re-opened that can of worms.

Have you checked out the thread why is it that satan, as depicted in the new testament, just doesn't exist in the OT?

jmborr

Originally posted by happyboy
Now that you mention it, it is interested to observe that the "serpent" had legs until Genesis 3:14, that is, after man's fall.