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> In Genesis, it's pretty clear that we're talking about an actual serpent I’m not sure it is clear. If we are talking about an actual serpent, it’s only in th

> In Genesis, it's pretty clear that we're talking about an actual serpent I’m not sure it is clear. If we are talking about an actual serpent, it’s only in the sense that there’s a familiar “just so”-type story which provides the framework for a cosmic, theological story overlayed on top of it (“how the serpent lost his legs”). But a common reading of it is that the garden in Eden is a “home of the gods” — a mountaintop garden, populated by Yahweh, the snake, and Adam and Eve without their “garments of skin”, and possibly others (the mysterious “they will be like us”). So in this reading, the serpent would be one of the gods/sons of God/divine council. His “being made to crawl in the dirt”, as you put it, would then be a condemnation to live a terrestrial existence, “going to and fro on the earth, and ... walking back and forth on it”.

cygx 6y ago
If you just consider the internal logic of the story, it looks like a fable: The protagonists of the story, First Man and First Woman ('earthling' and 'life-giver') get tempted by a talking animal to eat magical fruit. This upsets God, who had planted the magical tree in his garden, where he likes to take a stroll. The story then goes on to handily explain why snakes have no legs, why childbirth is painful and why only humans wear clothing in one fell swoop. One interpretation would be that this is coded language for cosmological and theological capital-T Truth (such as the serpent being the devil). My interpretation would be that a fable got put into an athology of other stories about man's interaction with God, and that anthology got elevated to Divine Revelation of Unquestionable Truth, leading people to read all kinds of things into it that were never intended.
- nimbleal 6y ago
  Sure, but when you are considering it theologically (and not historically) you are asking about what theologians/the church teaches and understands, and the internal logic of the bible and church teaching, not what the “actual” truth of the story is (an interesting question but a different area of inquiry). As a Christian I’m happy for it to be both a fable in the sense you describe and true in a theological sense (some Christians would disagree with my position of course).
  - cygx 6y ago
    Just note that the message might change depending on your take on the story. For example, there's a difference between being led astray by some malevolent cosmic power, or a mundane trickster...

cygx 6y ago

If you just consider the internal logic of the story, it looks like a fable: The protagonists of the story, First Man and First Woman ('earthling' and 'life-giver') get tempted by a talking animal to eat magical fruit. This upsets God, who had planted the magical tree in his garden, where he likes to take a stroll. The story then goes on to handily explain why snakes have no legs, why childbirth is painful and why only humans wear clothing in one fell swoop. One interpretation would be that this is coded language for cosmological and theological capital-T Truth (such as the serpent being the devil). My interpretation would be that a fable got put into an athology of other stories about man's interaction with God, and that anthology got elevated to Divine Revelation of Unquestionable Truth, leading people to read all kinds of things into it that were never intended.

nimbleal 6y ago
Sure, but when you are considering it theologically (and not historically) you are asking about what theologians/the church teaches and understands, and the internal logic of the bible and church teaching, not what the “actual” truth of the story is (an interesting question but a different area of inquiry). As a Christian I’m happy for it to be both a fable in the sense you describe and true in a theological sense (some Christians would disagree with my position of course).
- cygx 6y ago
  Just note that the message might change depending on your take on the story. For example, there's a difference between being led astray by some malevolent cosmic power, or a mundane trickster...