Wassup with the Talking Snake? (Part I)

Portraits of Chaos in the Scriptures

When I first became a Christian, I decided to read the Bible cover to cover…but my progress was stunted when I reached Genesis 3. I mean, that’s only page three.

Reading through Genesis 1 flowed pretty smoothly as I could grasp the message that God is the Creator of the universe—cool, got it.

Genesis 2 raised a few questions in my mind like, “Do people come from dirt?” “Why did God put the forbidden tree in the Garden?” “Why would eating the fruit kill the humans, isn’t fruit healthy?” But the idea of a paradise with God still made sense to me to some degree.

But then I turned the page, and Genesis 3 opened with:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman… (v. 1).

Nobody prepared me for the introduction of a talking snake, and this story perplexed me for years to come. I’m assuming that some of you could resonate with that. My understanding of this character began to shift when I was introduced to other Ancient Near Eastern literature, literary features in the text, and more. Following are some things that I’ve been learning that have helped me understand this snake figure.

Who is the Snake?

When I asked my pastors or leaders about the snake’s identity, I was told that it was the devil, the enemy, a fallen angel, or the satan. Yet, I was still curious as to why the figure was portrayed as a snake. Plus, the narrative itself leaves the tension of the snake’s identity unresolved.

Various cultures in the Ancient Near East used snakes to represent chaos and disorder. So, as an Ancient Near Eastern culture, the Israelites also used snake imagery in this way in the Eden story.

The Garden of Eden was the overlap of heaven and earth, it was the ideal. This means that heavenly and earthly creatures were around, living with God in the Garden. How does this give insight into the snake’s potential identity? Is the snake a heavenly or earthly creature?

Let’s look at what happens after the snake and the humans rebel against God to get a better clue.

A Flying Snake?

God says something interesting to the snake in Genesis 3:14:

Because you [the snake] have done this,

Cursed are you more than all cattle

and more than every beast of the field.

On your belly you will go

and dust you will eat

all the days of your life.

Wait…don’t snakes already crawl on their belly? Is it possible that this snake was a flying creature initially? After all, flying snakes were another image used in Ancient Near Eastern cultures — including the Israelites, as we see in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah’s Vision

In Isaiah 6, the prophet Isaiah experiences a vision in God’s throne room. Around God’s throne, Isaiah sees beings that he calls seraphim, which means “serpents, fiery serpents, or venomous serpents” in Hebrew. Isaiah says:

Above him [the Lord] were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. (Isaiah 6:2)

So, we have flying snakes who guard God’s throne, interesting! There’s another prophet who sees spiritual beings around God’s throne but uses a different term to describe them.

Ezekiel’s Visions

When the prophet Ezekiel experiences a vision of spiritual beings surrounding God’s throne, he calls them “living creatures” in Ezekiel 1 and describes them as having multiple faces and wings. Later in Ezekiel 10, he calls these beings cherubim—the plural of cherub.

Later on, Ezekiel parallels the king of Tyre with an ancient rebellious cherub who lived in the Garden of Eden (*wink *wink):

¹² This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“You were the seal of perfection,

full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

¹³ You were in Eden,

the garden of God…

¹⁴ You were anointed as a guardian cherub,

for so I ordained you.

You were on the holy mount of God;

you walked among the fiery stones.

¹⁵ You were blameless in your ways

from the day you were created

till the wickedness was found in you.

¹⁶ Through your widespread trade

you were filled with violence,

and you sinned.

So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,

and I expelled you, guardian cherub,

from among the fiery stones.

¹⁷ Your heart became proud

on account of your beauty,

and you corrupted your wisdom

because of your splendor.

So I threw you to the earth;

I made a spectacle of you before kings.” (Ezekiel 28:12-17)

I know I threw a lot at you. But I bring all that up to state that it’s not absolutely clear if the seraphim, cherubim, and “living creatures” are different ways to describe the same beings. They may or may not be. Nevertheless, all of these spiritual beings surround and guard God’s throne on some level.

So, is it possible that the snake in the Garden is one of the cherubim/seraphim around God’s throne, choosing to rebel? And, what if the Genesis 3 story isn’t just about human rebellion, but also about the rebellion of this spiritual being?

When I first heard this thought, it sent me down a rabbit hole. So, give it some thought, and let me know what you think! If this type of content interests you, consider subscribing to this blog. Thank you for taking the time to read!

Next, we’ll dive into Genesis 3:15 to explore the offspring of the snake.