Was The Serpent a Snake?

Was The Devil a Serpent?

In the book of Genesis, we see a very interesting character known as the snake or serpent. We find later, in Revelations, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him," (Revelations 12:9 KJV). We can currently say the Devil was this being in the garden, but was he a literal snake?

In Genesis 3:1, the Hebrew word "וְהַנָּחָשׁ֙" is used meaning "and(וְ) the(הַ) snake(נָּחָשׁ֙). Early Hebrew did not have written vowels or niqqud, and even most modern Hebrew neglect adding these vowels. Niqqud are the dots, and lines one can see on a Hebrew word. When we realize this fact, the term נחש in a way grows in meaning. The scholar Dr. Michael S. Heiser, who has a Ph.D. in Hebrew and Semitic studies, writes in his book "The Unseen Realm": "The pivotal character of Genesis 3 is the serpent. The Hebrew word translated serpent is nachash. The word is both plain and elastic." (Heiser). He later states, "What I'm suggesting is that, since there are immediate clues in the story that the serpent is more than a mere snake, that he may be a divine adversary, the term nachash is a triple entendre," (Heiser). A triple entendre is a word with three meanings, here, Heiser correlates the word "נחש" with three definitions: serpent, diviner, and shining one. 

The Bible also suggests the serpent is not a normal beast: "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Genesis 3:1 KJV). The wording seems to suggest that the נָּחָשׁ֙ is greater than the beasts the Lord had made in some way, implying the snake is different. It too is strange that the snake speaks to Eve, yet Eve shows no surprise by this. If this was literal, a snake began to just speak, we would expect a sort of shock shown. Some may counter this by referencing Balaam and the donkey to say this is just a mythological text, but we must remember that the donkey could only speak because the Lord allowed the donkey to do as such(Numbers 22:28) and it seems his anger hid any normal reaction(Numbers 22:29). All this too implies that the נחש was not some normal animal. 

The Devil's Curse:

This is a rather strange curse, to be forced to lie on one's belly for all its life with two interpretations. The first being, in Genesis, the Devil took the form of a snake where when he was cursed, it literally affected the snake species, causing them to lose their limbs. This literal interpretation is extremely bizarre and is usually rare compared to the latter option. This being we must use the triple entendre. It shows the Devil was Devine, shining(see Ezekiel 28), and perhaps is also a descriptive name. That some angels are in a snake-like shape. The quote, "...upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life," (Genesis 3:14 KJV) likely refers to a sense of loss of power. In our modern phrase, bite the dust(representing death or a great loss) may have a similar connotation. An idea of being cast down before God. In the Pyramid Texts of Unas, In the sarcophagus chamber of the West Gable, we read: "To say the words: "A serpent is entwined by a serpent, when a young hippopotamus coming on the pasture is entwined. Earth, swallow that which came out of you! Monster, lie down, glide away!" (Utterance 226). This comes from an Egyptian spell that tells these beings to lie down. Based on these comparisons of ancient texts, it seems to show that it means to send away and be humbled and not a literal loss of limbs. 

Eating dust too obviously does not refer to diet. No ancient person believed snakes ate dust or dirt. According to Dr. Heiser, "The curse also had him “eating dirt,” clearly a metaphorical reference, since snakes don't really eat dirt as food for nutrition," (Heiser). We see the concept of eating dirt in many ancient texts such as The Epic of Gilgamesh: "There is the house whose people sit in darkness; dust is their food and clay their meat. ... they sit in darkness. I entered the house of dust and I saw the kings of the earth, ... They who had stood in the place of the gods like Anu and Enlil, stood now like servants to fetch baked meats in the house of dust, to carry cooked meat and cold water from the water-skin ... But Gilgamesh said to Siduri, the young woman, “How can I be silent, how can I rest, when Enkidu whom I love is dust."' The house of dust is a sort of underworld and those who die are dust as Gilgamesh tells us.

We see this idea as well in the Bible in the book of Job: "They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust," (Job 17:16 KJV). 

It would seem that eating dust is a sort of idiom, one that means beings cast out. When pertains to the late epic, one is cast out to the underworld. For the Bible, it seems to be those who go to the grave or Sheol. 

Works Cited:

Brown, Vincent. Trans. J.D. Degreef "Pyramid Texts Online." Pyramid Texts Online, www.pyramidtextsonline.com/translation.html.

Heiser, Michael S.. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. United States, Faithlife Corporation, 2015.