Prooftext 1d – Serpent Symbolism – Postscript

[This was first posted in 2012, reposted 2014, a good time to review a basic MISinterpretation of this figure in Genesis 3.  

If you haven’t done so, dear reader, please read through the whole series about the ‘Serpent’ symbolism in the Christian Bible and be further enlightened so that you can make an informed decision on whether you will continue to think ‘devil’ or ‘satan’ and link it with the serpent of Genesis 3.  

This is part of the answer to the post:  Q&A: “If the devil doesn’t exist, how come the snake/serpent in the story was punished by the Creator for tempting Eve?”  

Check these previous posts:

• Prooftext 1c – Gen. 3:15 – Who are the “seed,” “offspring”?
• Prooftext 1b – Genesis 3:15 – Who is the “serpent”?
• The Serpent, the Tree, and the ‘I’
• Shedding without blood . . .

 —Admin1]

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Four characters are introduced in Genesis 1-3 in this order:

• Creator
• Adam [‘adamah’, representative humanity]
• Eve [‘havah’, mother of all living]
• serpent

In past discussions, we have suggested that the first 3 are literal while the last, the serpent, is both figurative and literal.

The first three continue in the narratives that follow:

• We increasingly get to know about the Creator as He continues to communicate and interact with specific individuals through generations and even more so when He forms and sets apart a people to whom He gives a one-time historic revelation and with whom He makes a covenant;
• The offspring of the first man and woman multiply and fumble through the meaning of life, even after a specific people is formed and develops into a distinct nation chosen to live a particular lifestyle required by the Creator God.

The serpent is the perfect animal symbol for Genesis 3 for reasons already discussed in Prooftext 1b and 1c but here are more connections:

• After the creation of living things to inhabit the earth, sky, water, Adam is assigned to name them; the serpent is singled out to take part in this narrative about the first violation of a specific commandment given by the Creator.
• Careless readers miss this point:  among the animals, the serpent is the first named, not necessarily the first animal to be given a name but the very first animal we readers get to know in this book of beginnings.
• The serpent is among the species that moult, shed its skin to regenerate. . . one Jewish interpretation suggests that when Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves to cover their nakedness and  God made garments of skin to clothe them, the one animal whose skin God can use without the shedding of blood is guess who? This interpretation is so unexpected yet it is not far-fetched and in fact it works perfectly with the serpent symbolism.
• The antidote to the poison released in a snake bite is snake venom, just as the antidote to the bite of a rabid dog is the blood serum of the endangering animal, used particularly to provide immunity to a pathogen or toxin by inoculation or as a diagnostic agent.

The remedy for giving in to the “serpent” in us—that baser nature that wants to get its way— is the antidote.  What is the antidote?  

• First, the realization that there is potential ‘poison’ in our system that could be unleashed,  though  we could avoid its potential harm by not giving in to it however,  if we have succumbed to it,
• the second part of the antidote is the same realization that we have done wrong,  gone against God’s will,  learn our lesson from it and overcome any future temptation to repeat the sin.

Judgment [of sin] is not the last word from a merciful God who has wisely designed that from failure we learn and gain wisdom, grow and mature, and regenerate should we fall from grace; the last word is . . . forgiveness, that it is not only available but accessible, except that God requires repentance [that 180° turnabout in direction] to return to the path from which we strayed, that leads back to Him.  

It is the chosen pattern of committing sins, habitual sinfulness, that reaches a point of no return, only because God releases us to the path we insist on taking out of our own exercise of free will. Disobedience to specific instructions, commandments, laws have natural if not automatic consequences; not all disobedience is ‘sin’ but all will have specific consequence(s) related to the violation.  Sample: eat unclean animals and in due time, your health will suffer.  

TheTorah-Giver is serious when He says “choose life” and that “life” is connected with obedience to instructions, principles, laws and commandments that are life-nurturing, life-extending, life-preserving, etc.  Stress in life is a killer, and guess what are the sources of stress? Ultimately, violations or ignorance of basic Torah principles, particularly in connection with relationships in whatever setting — marriage, family, workplace, community.

 Ignorance is excusable only if there is no access to truth;  but when verifiable truth stares us in the face and the choice is to remain ignorant or to refuse to believe it, God releases us to our chosen belief and willful ignorance and the consequences of that choice.

This is reinforced in another episode involving fiery serpents in Numbers 21:4-9

Image from www.the-big-picture.org

Serpent – bite – poison – death – antidote – bronze serpent – God’s specific command [“look at it and live.”]  

The real antidote is not the bronze serpent; rather it is God’s word, the specific commandment to look at the bronze serpent.  If the bitten person believes the “antidote” [faith in God’s word and obedience to divine instruction],  he lives.  It is not really the bronze serpent that reverses the poison’s effect; rather it is God — the One who placed within human nature the potential to do right as well as the potential to do wrong and the free will to choose between the two; and if the wrong choice is made, the freedom to right the wrong a second time around or as many times as needed.  

As the Giver and Sustainer of Life, He has given instructions regarding right choice but He leaves it to mankind to “choose life” which is associated with choosing right.   Belief in His word and faith that He will do as He says is never enough, one has to act on that belief.  Ultimately it is our action that defines us; what we do as a result of what and how we think.  Our deeds are observable, not our thoughts, not our intentions.  You are what you do.  

Whatever “serpent” you are facing now which God’s true revelation is warning you about, if it’s a ‘serpent’ in the guise of a wrong belief system that has poisoned your thinking and influenced the way you have lived your life, then take the antidote—the True word of God, the TNK, but specifically the TORAH,  and repent of your former choice that led you to worship someone else other than the true God—-His Name is YHWH.