I have tended to take the view that serpents in creation were able to fly and that after the deception of Adam and Eve, they lost the ability to fly.
I had I guess supposed that the reason the serpent could speak was because the devil had entered the snake...ie possessed the snake. However, I now wonder...
In the Genesis narrative, it's difficult to separate the envy and hatred of Satan from the snake in the garden...is the creation story really talking about the literal snake as we know them today at all or, is this simply a reference to Satan?
On the one hand we can read the Genesis account as illustrating that the devil simply possessed the snake in light of the way in which Genesis 3:1 reads
On the other hand, we can read the account as illustrating the Snake was actually the Devil himself and that he was envious of Adam and Eve.
Then we get thrown another curve ball in that Josephus states in his writings "Antiquities of the Jews" (book 1)
"Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent's roots will come a viper, and its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent."
It seems that one may determine from the above references one of three possibilities:
1. that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was a walking talking snake, a lizard that could fly, a talking flying dragon!
2. The serpent was not a snake but the Devil himself
3. The more traditional view as i understand it, the devil possessed a beautiful flying snake and was speaking through it (which does not quite fit a couple of very specific Genesis statements and Josephus statements about the serpent..."was a very very crafty creature that could talk" and "had legs which were removed by God after the fall of man")
Are the medieval stories of flying dragons a little more realistic than we think?
thoughts?
I had I guess supposed that the reason the serpent could speak was because the devil had entered the snake...ie possessed the snake. However, I now wonder...
In the Genesis narrative, it's difficult to separate the envy and hatred of Satan from the snake in the garden...is the creation story really talking about the literal snake as we know them today at all or, is this simply a reference to Satan?
Genesis 3:1Now the serpenta was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ ”
On the one hand we can read the Genesis account as illustrating that the devil simply possessed the snake in light of the way in which Genesis 3:1 reads
On the other hand, we can read the account as illustrating the Snake was actually the Devil himself and that he was envious of Adam and Eve.
Then we get thrown another curve ball in that Josephus states in his writings "Antiquities of the Jews" (book 1)
He also deprived the Serpent of speech, out of indignation at his malicious disposition towards Adam. And when he had deprived him of the use of his feet, he made him to go rolling all along, and dragging himself upon the ground
Add Isaiah 14:29 into the mix and things really get interesting
"Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent's roots will come a viper, and its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent."
1. that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was a walking talking snake, a lizard that could fly, a talking flying dragon!
2. The serpent was not a snake but the Devil himself
3. The more traditional view as i understand it, the devil possessed a beautiful flying snake and was speaking through it (which does not quite fit a couple of very specific Genesis statements and Josephus statements about the serpent..."was a very very crafty creature that could talk" and "had legs which were removed by God after the fall of man")
Are the medieval stories of flying dragons a little more realistic than we think?
thoughts?
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