Snakes in the Bible

Eve tempted by the serpent (William Blake, 1799-1800)

Quotes about snakes in the Bible.

Quotes:

• Adam was simply a human being and that explains everything. He didn't want the apple for the apple's sake. He only wanted it because it was forbidden. The mistake was not to forbid him the snake, because then he would have eaten the snake. (Mark Twain)
• Anyone with a minimum of familiarity with the goddess of the ancient oriental worlds cannot fail to recognize recurring characters in those various cultures in the Bible, even if more or less transfigured. For example, in the scene of Eve and the tree, nothing indicates that the tempting serpent was itself a deity who had been venerated in the Levant for at least seven thousand years before the composition of the Book of Genesis. (Joseph Campbell)
• And the serpent that speaks with Eve, what language will we say he used? Of the human one? How then do these things differ from the fantasies of the Greeks? (Flavius ​​Claudius Julianus)
• The serpent of the third chapter of Genesis is not at all its own creation, exclusive to the biblical story. The concept of the principle of evil and pain, represented in the figure of a monstrous reptile, which lurks against the Divinity and against the well-being of all created works of the visible cosmos, but even more against the human race, is obvious and fundamental in the Babylonian religion. We recall in the aforementioned creation poem the struggle of Marduk against Tiamat and the other powers of darkness, in the form of dragons and similar wriggling monstrous reptiles; to linger in the multiform plastic and literary expressions that the dragon, the monstrous reptile, the principle of evil, in short, assumes in the ideal Babylonian world, seems superfluous to us. (Salvatore Minocchi)
• The serpent is a symbol of temptation, of human thought that is satisfied with itself and does not recognize any law outside of itself, which in short wants everything that talents. And as the personification of this seductive and rebellious thought he is cursed by God and ^[sic] with perpetual humiliation: "you will walk on your chest, and you will eat dust." (David Castelli)
• The serpent was then a beast that walked vertically like all the others and it was condemned to crawl on its belly in the dust, to be despised and killed by man. Furthermore, having been an instrument in the hands of Lucifer, it became the symbol of fraud and represents the Devil. (Joseph Franklin Rutherford)
• In essence, God forbade [...] men to enjoy science, which is something than which nothing can be dearer to them. In fact, even imbeciles understand that distinguishing good from bad is the proper function of science. Therefore the serpent was rather the benefactor, than the enemy of the human race. And God could therefore be called jealous. (Flavius ​​Claudius Julianus)

Bible:

• The serpent was the most cunning of all the wild beasts made by the Lord God. He said to the woman: "Is it true that God said: You must not eat from any tree of the garden?". The woman replied to the serpent: "We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden: You must not eat it and you must not touch it, otherwise you will die." But the serpent said to the woman: "You will not die at all! In fact, God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will become like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis)
• Then the Lord God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, | cursed are you above all livestock | and above all wild animals; | you will walk on your belly | and you will eat dust | all the days of your life. | I will put enmity between you and the woman, | between your lineage | and her lineage: | this one will crush your head | and you will undermine her heel".
• Let Dan be a serpent in the road, | a horned viper on the path, | that bites the hocks of the horse | and the knight falls backwards.

(Genesis)

• Moses replied: "Behold, they will not believe me, they will not listen to my voice, but they will say: The Lord has not appeared to you!". The Lord said to him: "What do you have in your hand?". He replied: "A staff". He resumed: "Throw him to the ground!". He threw it to the ground and the stick became a serpent, before which Moses began to flee. The Lord said to Moses: "Stretch out your hand and take him by the tail!". He stretched out his hand, took it, and it became a stick in his hand again. "This is so that they may believe that the Lord has appeared to you." (Book of Exodus)
• The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: "When Pharaoh asks you: Perform a miracle to help you! you will say to Aaron: Take Aaron's staff and throw it before Pharaoh and it will become a serpent! ". Moses and Aaron then came to Pharaoh and did what the Lord had commanded them: Aaron threw the staff before Pharaoh and before his servants and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the enchanters, and the magicians of Egypt also did the same thing with their magic. They each threw down his staff and the staffs became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. (Book of Exodus)
• The people said against God and against Moses: "Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in this desert? Because here there is neither bread nor water and we are nauseated by this light food". Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, which bit the people, and a large number of Israelites died. Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to remove these serpents from us." Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses: "Make a serpent and put it on a pole; whoever looks at it after being bitten will remain alive." Moses then made a brazen serpent and put it on the pole; when a snake had bitten someone, if he looked at the copper snake, he remained alive. (Numbers)
• The wolf and the lamb will feed together, | the lion will eat straw like an ox, | but the serpent will eat dust. (Book of Isaiah)
• Behold: I send you as sheep among wolves; therefore be prudent as serpents and simple as doves. (Jesus, Gospel according to Matthew)

See also

• Leviathan
• Necustan
• Rahab