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Summary
- Genesis brings in the serpent as one of the animals God made and never names Satan. Revelation calls the devil “that old serpent,” and both the Catholic Catechism and the Westminster Confession read the tempter of Eden as Satan.
- The Catechism calls Genesis 3:15 the Protoevangelium, the “first gospel,” which announces the victory of the woman’s descendant, and with “many Fathers and Doctors of the Church” it sees the woman as Mary, the “new Eve.”
- In Numbers 21 God sent “fiery serpents” as judgment and then had Moses set a serpent of brass on a pole, so that anyone bitten who looked at it lived. King Hezekiah later broke it because Israel burned incense to it.
- Jesus compared his own lifting up to the bronze serpent (John 3:14–15), and he told his disciples to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
- The Bible never gives an ordinary snake a colour; the only coloured serpent in Scripture is the “great red dragon” of Revelation 12:3. Nor does it give a key to snake dreams: no dream in the books found in Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Bibles alike mentions a snake, and Joseph asked, “Do not interpretations belong to God?”
- The Bible never makes a snake in a house a message about the people who live there. The Law forbids reading omens (Leviticus 19:26), and the clearest picture of a snake indoors, Amos 5:19, is an image of the day of the LORD.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture is quoted from the King James Version: Genesis 1:25; 2:25–3:4; 3:13–15; 40:8; Exodus 4:3–5; 7:12; Leviticus 19:26; Numbers 21:6–9; 2 Kings 18:4; Psalms 91:13; 104:26; 140:3; Proverbs 22:3; Isaiah 11:8–9; 27:1; Daniel 2:28; Amos 5:19; Matthew 3:7; 10:16; Luke 10:19; John 3:14–15; Acts 16:16–18; 28:3–6; Romans 16:20; 2 Corinthians 11:3; Revelation 12:3, 9; 20:2, 10. Also cited: Jeremiah 8:17, Psalm 74:14 and Matthew 12:34 and 23:33. The Douay-Rheims Bible (1899 American edition) is quoted for Genesis 3:15, Wisdom 2:24 and 16:7, and Esther 10:7 and 11:6. All from BibleGateway.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 391 and 410–411 (the fall; the Protoevangelium) and paragraph 120 (the canon of Scripture).
- Orthodox Church in America, Canon of Scripture, Questions and Answers (the longer Old Testament canon, including Wisdom and the further chapters of Esther).
- Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 6.1, as published by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
- New American Bible, revised edition (2010), notes on Genesis 3:1 and 3:15, Numbers 21:6 and 21:9 and Acts 16:16, and its text of Acts 28:1 (Malta).
- Augustine, The City of God, Book 14, chapter 11, trans. Marcus Dods, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 2 (1887), via New Advent.
- Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 12, trans. John Gibb, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 7 (1888), via New Advent.
- Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, chapter 13, trans. Gerald Friedlander (1916), via Sefaria; date of editing from Sefaria’s index record.
- Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 57a, William Davidson Edition, with commentary by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, via Sefaria.
- Emil G. Hirsch and I. M. Casanowicz, “Serpent,” The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 11 (1906).
- Francis E. Gigot, “Book of Wisdom,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 15 (1912).
- Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, via Bible Hub: 5175, nachash (serpent), 5172, nachash (to practise divination) and 6175, arum (crafty, prudent).
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