Monday, September 28, 2020

Paul R. Williamson on Genesis 3:15 and the Serpent

 

 

. . . even when one acknowledges that the author is referring here to a genuine serpent, it is clearly a most unusual example, possessing some extraordinary characteristics. [7] The most striking such feature is its communicative ability—this creature can verbalize its thoughts and converse rationally with human beings. [8] Moreover, it has astonishing knowledge—as well as being aware of God’s prohibition concerning the tree in the center of the garden, this snake knows what will happen when its forbidden fruit is consumed. [9] The uncanny intelligence of this serpent, along with the fact that both God and the woman speak to it, [10] thus suggests that—as with Balaam’s talking donkey—something extraordinary and unnatural is depicted here. Moreover, as the narrative progresses, the snake’s “cleverness” (ערום) is portrayed in an unambiguously sinister and negative light: not only does this creature impugn Yahweh’s motives and trustworthiness (3:5); he flatly contradicts what God has said, intentionally “deceives” (Hiphil נשא) the woman (3:13), [11] and is consequently cursed by God (3:14).

 

Accordingly, many interpreters reasonably conclude that the author is describing more than an encounter between the woman and an ordinary creature—even though a natural wild animal is undeniably involved. [12] For example, Delitzsch infers that “An animal is intended, but an animal not speaking of its own accord, but as made the instrument of itself by the evil principle . . . subsequently spoken of as Satan and his angels.” [13] Others likewise conclude that some “Dark Power,” [14] operating “behind the scene,” is manipulating each of the other characters (i.e., the woman, the man, and the snake) for its own malevolent purposes. Thus understood, “the Father of lies” (John 8:44) is here communicating with humans through the agency of a physical serpent, much as God subsequently communicated with Balaam through the mouth of the seer’s donkey. Admittedly, no such identification of the serpent with the devil is expressly made either here or elsewhere in Genesis, nor is this snake associated or equated with Satan anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Therefore, such explicit identification of the serpent with an evil power seems to transcend the boundaries of OT exegesis. Nevertheless, as already noted, there are several exegetical grounds for deducing that there is more to this creature than a naturalistic reading permits. The snake is not only surprisingly articulate, but also vilifies God and is deceitful with respect to the woman. Rather than simply explaining these extraordinary aspects in terms of ancient Near Eastern mythology, [15] we should arguably find in them a legitimate basis for subsequent Jewish and Christian interpretation. That is to say, while ancient readers might initially have thought in terms of a physical or even a mythological snake, by its deviant behavior the biblical author is at least implicitly portraying it as something quite sinister. Thus, however much we should avoid reading the later, more developed understanding of Satan back into the text of Genesis, we must nevertheless pick up the textual cues that direct us beyond a naturalistic interpretation. Accordingly, while it is correct to understand the strange creature depicted here in terms of a genuine, physical serpent, it is apparently one that is being manipulated or controlled by an unidentified supernatural intelligence.

 

Thus understood, the ensuing enmity referred to in v. 15 almost certainly alludes to something more significant than the mutual dread or animosity that exists between humans and snakes. While such a concept is undeniably present in the text, it arguably serves as a metaphor or symbol for something less mundane: the conflict between the woman and the serpent’s diabolical “puppet-master” that would evolve and reach its climax in their respective “seed.” Such a climatic understanding of verse 15b is indisputably controversial, but “it must be remembered that this is a curse on the serpent, not on mankind, and something less than a draw would be expected” [16] Construing the reference to the woman’s “seed” here as noting more than a collective more than a collective noun, many fail to discern any hint of a Protoevangelium in this text. However, the use of singular pronouns in association with זרע (“seed”) in Genesis arguably alludes to a single descendant. [17] Moreover, the fact that the singular “seed” of the woman will crush the head of the serpent (הוא ישופך ראש)—rather than the heads of the serpent’s seed—may be a further indication than a climactic engagement is in view. [18] Once again, it would be exegetically mistaken to infer from this more than the text of Genesis specifically suggests but even here there seems to be at least some hint of the climactic battle that is subsequently and most graphically recounted in Rev 12.

 

Notes for the Above

 

[7] One of the serpent’s extraordinary features that has traditionally been inferred from God’s curse in v. 14 (cf. Josephus, Antiquities 1.1.4; Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Gen 3:14; Midrash Genesis Rabbah 20;5) is the presence of limbs, an inference drawn also by some modern scholars (e.g. James Charlesworth, The Good and Evil Serpent, AYBRL [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010], 87-88). However, as Day (“The Serpent in the Garden,” n.p.) more cautiously observes, “since nothing explicitly is said of the serpent’s having feet and legs and being deprived of them here it is perhaps preferable to think of the serpent as originally having a good sense of balance so that it could move upright without legs.”

 

[8] The fact that the woman expresses no shock or surprise does not imply that talking animals were considered normal by her; such is clear from Balaam’s equally unstartled response to his speaking donkey—which the biblical narrator clearly attributes to supernatural intervention (Num 23:28a). As Collins insightfully points out, “This is what the notion that we have here a ‘mythological world’ in which animals talk . . . misses the point badly.” C. John Collins, Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literature, and Theological Commentary (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2006), 171.

 

[9] It is clear from vv. 7 and 22 that the snake’s claim—that their eyes would be opened, and that they would become like God, knowing good and evil—was not entirely inaccurate. Rather, it was his positive spin on this—along with maligning God’s motivations and denying that they would die—that was deceptive, as the woman subsequently recognizes (v. 13).

 

[10] Significantly, in the case of Balaam’s donkey, with which this account is often compared, it is only after Balaam is addressed by his donkey that he actually speaks to it. Conversing with dumb animals was evidently not considered normal in either biblical account.

 

[11] God does not disregard the woman’s excuse, but immediately responds by cursing the snake.

 

[12] I.e., rather than a figurative depiction of a supernatural being who may or may not have appeared to the woman in serpentine form, a real snake is involved.

 

[13] Franz Delitzsch, A New Commentary on Genesis (Minneapolis: Klock & Klock 1978 [orig. T&T Clark, 1888]), 1:149. Such an interpretation can be traced back as far as the intertestamental era (see below).

 

[14] Collins, Genesis 1-4, 171.

 

[15]For the possible echoes of such ancient Near Eastern thought in Gen 3, see John H. Walton, The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2015), 128-39; idem, Demons and Spirits, 128-29.

 

[16] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, WBC 1 (Waco, TX: Word, 1987, 80. Wenham further notes that “the serpent is in a tactically weaker situation, being able only to strike at man’s heel, while man can crush its head.” Moreover, while the same root (שוף “batter, crush, bruise”) is probably used in each line, “[o]nce admitted that the serpent symbolizes sin, death, and the power of evil, it becomes much more likely that the curse [on the serpent] envisages . . . mankind eventually triumphing” (Wenham, Genesis 1-15, 80).

 

[17] So Jack Collins, “A Syntactical Note on Genesis 3:15: Is the Woman’s Seed Singular or Plural?” TynBul 48.1 (1997):141-48. See also T. Desmond Alexander, “Further Observations on the Term ‘Seed’ in Genesis,” TynBul 48.2 (1997):363-67, and James M. Hamilton, ch. 1 above (a slightly revised version of “The Skull Crushing Seed of the Woman: Inner-Biblical Interpretation of Genesis 3:15,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 10:2 [2006]: 30-54 [32]).

 

[18] If the reference to the serpent’s collective “seed,” the second person pronominal suffix on the verb here is arguably confusing and unnecessary (cf. Gen 49:10).

 

Source: Paul R. Williamson, “Snakes and Dragons: A Neglected Theological Trajectory of Genesis 3:15 in Scripture?” in Paul R. Williamson and Rita F. Cefalu, eds., The Seed of Promise: The Sufferings and Glory of the Messiah (GlossaHouse Festschrift 3; Wilmore, Ky.: GlossaHouse, 2020), 332-52, here, pp. 334-37

 

Further Reading

 

Robert Sungenis on Favouring "He" instead of "She" in Genesis 3:15