Post by beckrl on Aug 3, 2020 21:47:57 GMT
THE SERPENT
INTRODUCTION
As we read the account of Genesis of the serpent in the Garden of Eden we come to find many supernatural, mythical indicators through literary devices describing the beginning of this creation story. The serpent is only one and all throughout the Ancient Near East we also can find the use of snakes in their religions and customs from Egypt, Canaanite to Babylon there have been images erected of snakes for worship or for gateways.
However in our study of creation in Genesis concerning this serpent we can deduct that through the many supernatural, mythical indicators that it’s more of a story in which one should understand as symbolical rather than attempt to read this story as an literal event, but to symbolize the condition of the Hebrew people in their land and how they sinned which brought about their being taken captive to Babylon. I would have you to also take into account that Genesis was most probably written during the captivity in Babylon or soon after. This shows that the writes were using allegorical devices to write about their people’s experiences during and through these events.
GENESIS 3 SERPENT
3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
We can see right off from the first verse that “the serpent” is not in reference to all serpents (snakes) but only the prime serpent here in the context and how the serpent spoke to the woman. In which later we read that the woman said that the serpent charmed, entrapped or enticed her to eat of the fruit.
So as mentioned before I see many supernatural, mythical indicators that persuade me to read it more symbolical, allegorical than in any literal sense. For example one prime indicator is that of the serpent saying that their eyes were to be open and they shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Now of course it’s not telling us that by eating this fruit that their literal eyes were just then opened, but its figurative language that now they would have knowledge of good and evil. That same indictor should be applied to the serpent talking and deceiving the woman. We shouldn’t take that as straightforward reading but have the ability to recognize symbolical, allegorical language.
SYMBOL OF THE SERPENT
Here is where I want to give my allegorical view about this serpent in the garden. I won’t go into all of the symbolical, allegorical definitions of the creation story, but just want to focus on the serpent for now.
Leviathan is described in the Hebrew bible as a sea serpent as well as those of Rahab, Lotan and Tiamat of Egyptian, Canaanite and Babylonian/ Mesopotamia.
It is that within all of these Mythologies that a sea serpent is defeated by a god. Isaiah made mentioned that Leviathan would be slain by the Lord God. Rahab is the emblematic name of Egypt and is also used for the sea by Isaiah. Lotan is a servant of the sea god Yam defeated by the storm god Hadad-Baʿal in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle. In the religion of ancient Babylon, Tiamat is a primordial goddess of the salt sea and is defeated by the god Marduk and identifies her with images of a sea serpent or dragon.
In the book of Isaiah 27 is a prime example of the sea serpent , coiled serpent as Leviathan the dragon that has been mentioned as toward Egypt and how the vineyard of God was kept from being destroyed by the nations and how that God would slay the serpent and cause the return of his people .
Isaiah 27 King James Version (KJV) 27” In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and HE SHALL SLAY THE DRAGON THAT IS IN THE SEA. 2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. 3 I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.”
12 “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. 13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.”
Isaiah 51 also mentioned the sea serpent as Rahab which is related to Egypt and how God cause the waters to dry up so that the people to pass over. Here Isaiah is calling on the lord to once again come as he did in ancient times against their oppressors.
Isaiah 51: 9 “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? 10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?”
In the book of Ezekiel we find that similar description of Egypt as a Leviathan in the sea and now the king of Egypt was the cause of much trouble. In which God was going to cast a net to pull him out of the waters onto the land so that the birds and animals might eat his flesh.
Ezekiel 32: English Standard Version “Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: “You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a DRAGON in the seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers. Thus says the Lord God: I will throw my net over you with a host of many peoples and they will haul you up in my dragnet. 4 And I will cast you on the ground; on the open field I will fling you, and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle on you, and I will gorge the beasts of the whole earth with you.”
The mention of “serpent “ or “dragon” in both testaments in Genesis 3:4 and Revelation 12:3, 20:2 that corresponds with the mention of leviathan as the sea serpent of which is a description of the Israelites oppressors. Having these nations dominate and Hellenize the Israelites into their religions and customs.
I believe this is the allegorical imagery we see in both the books of Genesis and Revelation given the understanding by such books as Isaiah and Ezekiel and others of the serpent. It is not a coincidence that the books of Revelation shows imagery of a dragon and then refer to that dragon as that old serpent. The reader would have immediately thought of the ancient serpent mentioned in the creation story of Genesis. In Revelation 12 the imagery follows the creation story having the same imagery and story line. We see a woman and a serpent , dragon and seed in which the woman symbolize Jerusalem and the serpent, dragon the nations that flood Jerusalem with waters symbolized as religious deceptions that was to carry the woman away. That same allegorical story is what is being expressed in Genesis we see allegorically the woman (Eve) as representing Jerusalem which has being deceived into disobeying and causing the fall of Adam which is allegorically representing Israel. There are many scriptures that have described Jerusalem as a woman often as a whore who defiled herself with fornications of the nations; Ezekiel 16 and Isaiah 66 are some good examples.
It is also not a coincidence that the imagery of the dragon, serpent, satan having waters coming out of its mouth to carry the woman away. This is imagery of how the nations deceived the woman Jerusalem with it deceptions through its religions and customs. So when we read of the serpent in the garden talking to the woman Eve it should be an indicator that it’s shouldn’t be taken literally but allegorically of the serpent representing the nations which came to seduce the woman Jerusalem with its worldly knowledge.
SEED OF THE SERPENT
Some might ask what about how the New Testament spoke of the Scribes and Pharisees as serpents?
I would understand that as those being the seed, offspring or children of the nations. For this reason Jesus align them together because they didn’t believe nor could even see the truth that they were the children of the devil, satan that old serpent. Their thoughts and ways were aligned with the ways and customs of the world according to the nations around them and their influences.
John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speak out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.”
Luke 10” Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.”
Matthew 23:33 “Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of hell?”
Mark 7:6 “And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, But their heart is far from me. 7 But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. 8 Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men. 9 And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your tradition.”
CONCLUSION
So the nations are symbolically allegorically image of “the serpent “that old dragon which deceived the woman Jerusalem. In which brought about Adam being cast out of the garden that is the promise land into dry land of captivity. The imagery of “the serpent “as nations can be deducted from these text from the old to the new testament of which imagery found in Revelation has the dragon, sea serpent having seven heads as representing the seven pagan nations which from the past times had dominated Israel and Hellenized them with their religions and customs. I would understand these as Egypt, Babylon, Median, Persian, Greece, Rome and last the kingdom of darkness. Which at the end would be put down by the gospel of truth as a two edge sword going out into all the world causing the return of the people of Israel back to God.
Roger Beck
INTRODUCTION
As we read the account of Genesis of the serpent in the Garden of Eden we come to find many supernatural, mythical indicators through literary devices describing the beginning of this creation story. The serpent is only one and all throughout the Ancient Near East we also can find the use of snakes in their religions and customs from Egypt, Canaanite to Babylon there have been images erected of snakes for worship or for gateways.
However in our study of creation in Genesis concerning this serpent we can deduct that through the many supernatural, mythical indicators that it’s more of a story in which one should understand as symbolical rather than attempt to read this story as an literal event, but to symbolize the condition of the Hebrew people in their land and how they sinned which brought about their being taken captive to Babylon. I would have you to also take into account that Genesis was most probably written during the captivity in Babylon or soon after. This shows that the writes were using allegorical devices to write about their people’s experiences during and through these events.
GENESIS 3 SERPENT
3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
We can see right off from the first verse that “the serpent” is not in reference to all serpents (snakes) but only the prime serpent here in the context and how the serpent spoke to the woman. In which later we read that the woman said that the serpent charmed, entrapped or enticed her to eat of the fruit.
So as mentioned before I see many supernatural, mythical indicators that persuade me to read it more symbolical, allegorical than in any literal sense. For example one prime indicator is that of the serpent saying that their eyes were to be open and they shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Now of course it’s not telling us that by eating this fruit that their literal eyes were just then opened, but its figurative language that now they would have knowledge of good and evil. That same indictor should be applied to the serpent talking and deceiving the woman. We shouldn’t take that as straightforward reading but have the ability to recognize symbolical, allegorical language.
SYMBOL OF THE SERPENT
Here is where I want to give my allegorical view about this serpent in the garden. I won’t go into all of the symbolical, allegorical definitions of the creation story, but just want to focus on the serpent for now.
Leviathan is described in the Hebrew bible as a sea serpent as well as those of Rahab, Lotan and Tiamat of Egyptian, Canaanite and Babylonian/ Mesopotamia.
It is that within all of these Mythologies that a sea serpent is defeated by a god. Isaiah made mentioned that Leviathan would be slain by the Lord God. Rahab is the emblematic name of Egypt and is also used for the sea by Isaiah. Lotan is a servant of the sea god Yam defeated by the storm god Hadad-Baʿal in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle. In the religion of ancient Babylon, Tiamat is a primordial goddess of the salt sea and is defeated by the god Marduk and identifies her with images of a sea serpent or dragon.
In the book of Isaiah 27 is a prime example of the sea serpent , coiled serpent as Leviathan the dragon that has been mentioned as toward Egypt and how the vineyard of God was kept from being destroyed by the nations and how that God would slay the serpent and cause the return of his people .
Isaiah 27 King James Version (KJV) 27” In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and HE SHALL SLAY THE DRAGON THAT IS IN THE SEA. 2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. 3 I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.”
12 “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. 13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.”
Isaiah 51 also mentioned the sea serpent as Rahab which is related to Egypt and how God cause the waters to dry up so that the people to pass over. Here Isaiah is calling on the lord to once again come as he did in ancient times against their oppressors.
Isaiah 51: 9 “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? 10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?”
In the book of Ezekiel we find that similar description of Egypt as a Leviathan in the sea and now the king of Egypt was the cause of much trouble. In which God was going to cast a net to pull him out of the waters onto the land so that the birds and animals might eat his flesh.
Ezekiel 32: English Standard Version “Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: “You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a DRAGON in the seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers. Thus says the Lord God: I will throw my net over you with a host of many peoples and they will haul you up in my dragnet. 4 And I will cast you on the ground; on the open field I will fling you, and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle on you, and I will gorge the beasts of the whole earth with you.”
The mention of “serpent “ or “dragon” in both testaments in Genesis 3:4 and Revelation 12:3, 20:2 that corresponds with the mention of leviathan as the sea serpent of which is a description of the Israelites oppressors. Having these nations dominate and Hellenize the Israelites into their religions and customs.
I believe this is the allegorical imagery we see in both the books of Genesis and Revelation given the understanding by such books as Isaiah and Ezekiel and others of the serpent. It is not a coincidence that the books of Revelation shows imagery of a dragon and then refer to that dragon as that old serpent. The reader would have immediately thought of the ancient serpent mentioned in the creation story of Genesis. In Revelation 12 the imagery follows the creation story having the same imagery and story line. We see a woman and a serpent , dragon and seed in which the woman symbolize Jerusalem and the serpent, dragon the nations that flood Jerusalem with waters symbolized as religious deceptions that was to carry the woman away. That same allegorical story is what is being expressed in Genesis we see allegorically the woman (Eve) as representing Jerusalem which has being deceived into disobeying and causing the fall of Adam which is allegorically representing Israel. There are many scriptures that have described Jerusalem as a woman often as a whore who defiled herself with fornications of the nations; Ezekiel 16 and Isaiah 66 are some good examples.
It is also not a coincidence that the imagery of the dragon, serpent, satan having waters coming out of its mouth to carry the woman away. This is imagery of how the nations deceived the woman Jerusalem with it deceptions through its religions and customs. So when we read of the serpent in the garden talking to the woman Eve it should be an indicator that it’s shouldn’t be taken literally but allegorically of the serpent representing the nations which came to seduce the woman Jerusalem with its worldly knowledge.
SEED OF THE SERPENT
Some might ask what about how the New Testament spoke of the Scribes and Pharisees as serpents?
I would understand that as those being the seed, offspring or children of the nations. For this reason Jesus align them together because they didn’t believe nor could even see the truth that they were the children of the devil, satan that old serpent. Their thoughts and ways were aligned with the ways and customs of the world according to the nations around them and their influences.
John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speak out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.”
Luke 10” Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.”
Matthew 23:33 “Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of hell?”
Mark 7:6 “And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, But their heart is far from me. 7 But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. 8 Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men. 9 And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your tradition.”
CONCLUSION
So the nations are symbolically allegorically image of “the serpent “that old dragon which deceived the woman Jerusalem. In which brought about Adam being cast out of the garden that is the promise land into dry land of captivity. The imagery of “the serpent “as nations can be deducted from these text from the old to the new testament of which imagery found in Revelation has the dragon, sea serpent having seven heads as representing the seven pagan nations which from the past times had dominated Israel and Hellenized them with their religions and customs. I would understand these as Egypt, Babylon, Median, Persian, Greece, Rome and last the kingdom of darkness. Which at the end would be put down by the gospel of truth as a two edge sword going out into all the world causing the return of the people of Israel back to God.
Roger Beck