Who Can Take the Bible Seriously, When It Reports Talking Snakes?
By Bob Siegel
(c) 2021 by Bob Siegel
“How can I take the Bible seriously when right off the bat it portrays a lot of silliness such as a snake talking?”
The Hebrew word used in Genesis 3:1 is nachash. The word can be translated “shining one.”
I do not believe this was a snake, but rather a very beautiful, luminous being, an intelligent being too. After all, there is no indication in the narrative that Eve found it unusual for the shining one to be talking to her. She seemed familiar with this personal entity as though they had talked before, perhaps often. I am convinced that the Serpent and Satan were one and the same person.
“But isn’t Satan supposed to be a fallen angel whose name had once been Lucifer? I heard that the serpent was a mere animal, a creature that the fallen Lucifer possessed.”
That’s a common view. And before I go on, let us agree that the exact origin and make up of Satan is not as important a matter as understanding that whatever he is, he does exist, he is an enemy of God, and he tries to both deceive and tempt human beings with the goal of keeping them from a saving knowledge of God Incarnate, Jesus Christ!
As for Satan (also called, “the Devil”) being an angel who fell from heaven, we do not know that to be true. We do know that Satan was some kind of heavenly being who had a position of authority and who fell because of his pride. We learn this in 1 Timothy 3:6 where Paul is warning the church not to give a new convert a position of authority hastily:
“He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.”
Since angels do inhabit heaven and since Satan is obviously a heavenly entity, the suggestion that he was an angel is certainly possible. However, it is not conclusive. The only Scriptures supposedly conveying this information are Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Isaiah does not even use the word “angel.” Ezekiel does; more on that in a moment.
Let’s start with Isaiah:
12How you have fallen from heaven,
O day star,c son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the ground,
O destroyer of nations.
13You said in your heart:
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God.
I will sit on the mount of assembly,
in the far reaches of the north.d
14I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15But you will be brought down to Sheol,
to the lowest depths of the Pit.
The King James version translates “day star” as “Lucifer” but “day star” (helel) is the correct translation. Far more important, if you go back to the beginning of Chapter 14, you see that Isaiah is actually talking about the fall of the Babylonian King.
3On the day that the LORD gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced, 4you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon:
Isaiah 12:3
It was common for ancient Hebrew prophets to speak with great hyperbole, thus the additional talk about being “cast out of heaven” etc.
The same is true of the Ezekiel passage. The prophet was poetically describing the King of Tyre.
We must allow for Hebrew poetry and metaphor.
However, there is a place in Scripture clearly talking about Satan (rather than some historical human king) and that is a passage from the Book of Revelation. Ironically, Revelation itself is mysterious and abundant with symbolism. Revelation never-the-less breaks form in Chapter 12 and clearly identifies one of the symbols John saw in his vision, the dragon.
“The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” (Revelation 12:9).
As you can see, this is not speculation. Satan, the Serpent and the Devil are one and the same being. Now, the essence of this serpent is not described or classified. Perhaps he was an angel of some sort. It’s not impossible, but all we know for sure is that he was some kind of person who originally lived in heaven holding a position of authority at the time he fell.
Still, angel or not, here is what we do know based on this identification in the Book of Revelation as Satan.
“Serpent” is not the snake like creature we are familiar with, although that creature undoubtedly got its name from the description of Satan’s fall since such a description is part of the oldest
story handed down to human beings. Satan is an intelligent creature, alien to this world who exists, at the moment, in another dimension.
In Genesis 3, I believe we are reading not only the fall of man and the fall of woman, but the fall of Satan. His temptation of Adam and Eve is the very act of rebellion that gets him kicked out of Eden with them.
I base this on reading the three curses of God. All three, Adam, Eve and Satan, are cursed together. The mortality, pain, toil of life etc. are prophesied over the two humans. The Serpent’s prophecy is of another nature; it describes its own kind of fall with vivid imagery.
“On your belly you shall go,
And dust you shall eat
All the days of your life;
15 And I will [c]make enemies
Of you and the woman,
And of your [d]offspring and her [e]Descendant;
He shall [f]bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise Him on the heel” (Genesis 3:15).
Now, consider this…Since, according to the Bible, all peoples were once related, undoubtedly the Garden of Eden story was handed down orally in many places. When people discovered snakes (as we know them) seeing them crawl on the ground, it possibly reminded them of the poetic description of Satan’s fall. What I am suggesting is that snakes may have been named after the narrative rather than the Genesis narrative creating a myth based on a snake. Just another way to look at it, just something to consider.
“But Satan was supposed to have fallen from heaven even if he wasn’t an angel. Here, he’s in Eden. They are not the same place.”
Actually, they are. According to the Bible, heaven, Eden and paradise are all the same place.
Paul called heaven paradise in 2 Corinthians
“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell” (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
John says that the Tree or Life (which we know was in Eden) is in “the paradise of God.”
“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God (Revelation 2:7).
“But the location of Eden is specifically given as being on Earth. Two familiar rivers near the garden, Tigris and Euphrates are even mentioned.”
Yes, this locates the Garden of Eden in the area we would today call Iraq. I doubt that too many people will confuse this middle east region of the world with paradise.
I believe that the beautiful pre-fallen Earth came with a closer access to heaven. This geographical location may have been a portal into another dimension, that dimension being heaven.
After three beings (Satan, Adam and Eve) were driven out, we are told that entrance was now blocked.
24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24).
Conclusion:
Once again, the battle against Satan and resistance of his temptations is far more important than discussions about his background and essence. I put these ideas forth to inspire interesting discussion. But for those who are bothered by stories about talking snakes, you now have at least one firm clarification: It was Satan himself “the shining one” who tempted Eve in the garden.
NOTE: This one article keying in primarily on Satan and the Serpent being the same person is short of much additional, important detail about Satan. I do have a series of podcasts that will provide more information.
Go to cgmradio.com/bob
And look for the following episodes:
The Origin of Demons Ep 127 (The origin of Satan himself and the origin of demons who follow him are two very different events.)
The Many Masks of Satan Ep 146
The Many Masks of Satan: Part Two: Ep 147
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