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May 14, 2022 Post a Comment

How the Serpent in the Garden Became Satan

Adam, Eve and the ophidian in the Garden of Eden

Shawna Dolansky January 04, 2022 172 Comments 252591 views

Introduced as "the most clever of all of the beasts of the field that YHWH God had made," the serpent in the Garden of Eden is portrayed equally just that: a serpent. Satan does non make an appearance in Genesis 2–3, for the unproblematic reason that when the story was written, the concept of the devil had not even so been invented. Explaining the serpent in the Garden of Eden as Satan would take been every bit strange a concept to the ancient authors of the text as referring to Ezekiel'due south vision every bit a UFO (but Google "Ezekiel's vision" now, and y'all'll run into that enough of people today have fabricated that connection!). In fact, while the word satan appears elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, information technology is never a proper name; since there is no devil in ancient State of israel's worldview, there tin can't notwithstanding have been a proper name for such a animate being.

adam-eve-and-the-serpent

Depicted here are God the Father, cherubim, angels, Adam, Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden in Domenichino's painting The Rebuke of Adam and Eve (1626). Photo: Patrons' Permanent Fund, National Gallery of Fine art.

The noun satan, Hebrew for "adversary" or "accuser," occurs nine times in the Hebrew Bible: five times to describe a human military, political or legal opponent, and 4 times with reference to a divine being. In Numbers 22, the prophet Balaam, hired to curse the Israelites, is stopped by a messenger from Israel's God YHWH, described as "the satan" acting on God's behalf. In Job, "the satan" is a fellow member of God's heavenly council—i of the divine beings, whose role in Job's story is to be an "accuser," a status caused by people in ancient State of israel and Mesopotamia for the purposes of particular legal proceedings. In Job's case, what'southward on trial is God's assertion that Chore is completely "blameless and upright" vs. the satan'due south contention that Job but behaves himself because God has rewarded him. God argues that Job is rewarded because he is adept, and not good considering he is rewarded. The satan challenges God to a wager that if everything is taken away from poor Job, he won't be then adept anymore, and God accepts. Though a perception of "the satan" as Satan would make this portrait of God easier to swallow, the story demonstrates otherwise; similar Yahweh'southward messenger in Numbers 22, this satan acts on YHWH'south instructions (and every bit a result of God's braggadocio) and is non an independent forcefulness of evil.

In Zechariah 3, the prophet describes a vision of the loftier priest Joshua continuing in a like divine council, also performance equally a tribunal. Before him stand YHWH's messenger and the satan, who is there to accuse him. This vision is Zechariah's manner of pronouncing YHWH's approval of Joshua'due south appointment to the high priesthood in the face of adversarial community members, represented past the satan. The messenger rebukes the satan and orders that Joshua's dirty wear exist replaced, equally he promises Joshua continuing access to the divine council. Once again, the satan is not Satan who we read virtually in the New Testament.

The word satan appears only in one case without "the" in front end of information technology in the entire Hebrew Bible: in one Chronicles 21:1. Is information technology possible that we finally have Satan here portrayed? ane Chronicles 21 parallels the story of David's census in 2 Samuel 24, in which God orders David to "become number State of israel and Judah" so punishes king and kingdom for doing then. The Chronicler changes this story, as he does others, to portray the relationship between God and David every bit uncompromised; he writes that "a satan stood upwards confronting State of israel and he provoked David to number State of israel" (1 Chronicles 21:6–7; 27:24). Although it is possible to read "Satan" here instead of "a satan" (Hebrew uses neither capital letters, nor indefinite articles, e.g., "a"), nil else in this story or in any texts for another 300 years indicates that the idea of an evil prince of darkness exists in the consciousness of the Israelites.

So if there's no Satan in the Hebrew Bible, how does the serpent in the garden go Satan?

The worldview of Jewish readers of Genesis ii–three greatly inverse in the centuries since the story was start written. Later on the canon of the Hebrew Bible closed,¹ beliefs in angels, demons and a final apocalyptic battle arose in a divided and turbulent Jewish community. In lite of this impending end, many turned to a renewed agreement of the beginning, and the Garden of Eden was re-read—and re-written—to reflect the changing ideas of a inverse world. Ii carve up things happened and then merged: Satan became the proper name of the devil, a supernatural power now seen to oppose God as the leader of demons and the forces of evil; and the serpent in the Garden of Eden came to be identified with him. While nosotros begin to see the first thought occurring in texts 2 centuries before the New Attestation, the second won't happen until later; the serpent in the Garden is not identified with Satan anywhere in the Hebrew Bible or New Testament.

The concept of the devil begins to appear in second and outset centuries B.C.E. Jewish texts. In 1 Enoch, the "angel" who "led Eve astray" and "showed the weapons of death to the children of men" was chosen Gadreel (not Satan). Around the aforementioned time, the Wisdom of Solomon taught that "through the devil's green-eyed expiry entered the world, and those who are on his side suffer it." Though this may very well exist the primeval reference to Eden's serpent as the devil, in neither text, nor in any document we have until afterward the New Testament, is satan clearly understood equally the serpent in Eden. At Qumran, though, Satan is the leader of the forces of darkness; his power is said to threaten humanity, and it was believed that salvation would bring the absence of Satan and evil.

By the first century C.East., Satan is adopted into the nascent Christian movement, as ruler over a kingdom of darkness, an opponent and deceiver of Jesus (Marker one:thirteen), prince of the devils and opposing force to God (Luke 11:15–nineteen; Matthew 12:24–27; Marking three:22–23:26); Jesus' ministry puts a temporary stop to Satan'south reign (Luke 10:18) and the conversion of the gentiles leads them from Satan to God (Acts 26:eighteen). Near famously, Satan endangers the Christian communities but will fall in Christ'due south terminal act of conservancy, described in detail in the book of Revelation.

Merely curiously, although the author of Revelation describes Satan as "the aboriginal snake" (Revelation 12:ix; twenty:2), there is no clear link anywhere in the Bible between Satan and the serpent in the garden . The ancient About Eastern combat myth motif, exemplified in the battle between Marduk and Tiamat in Enuma Elish and Baal and Yam/Mot in aboriginal Canaan, typically depicted the bad guy every bit a serpent. The label of Leviathan in Isaiah 27 reflects such myths nicely:

On that day YHWH will punish
With his hard and big and potent sword
Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
Leviathan the twisted serpent,
And he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

Then the reference in Revelation 12:9 to Satan as "the ancient ophidian" probably reflects mythical monsters similar Leviathan rather than the clever, legged, talking creature in Eden.

In the New Attestation, Satan and his demons accept the power to enter and possess people; this is what is said to have happened to Judas (Luke 22:3; John thirteen:27; cf. Mark 5:12–13; Luke 8:30–32). But when Paul re-tells the story of Adam and Eve, he places the blame on the humans (Romans 5:xviii; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:21–22) and not on fallen angels, or on the serpent every bit Satan. Still, the conflation begged to be fabricated, and it volition seem natural for subsequently Christian authors—Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Cyprian, Irenaeus and Augustine, for case—to assume Satan's clan with Eden'south talking snake. Near famously, in the 17th century, John Milton elaborates Satan'due south role in the Garden poetically, in keen item in Paradise Lost. But this connection is non forged anywhere in the Bible.

Shawna Dolansky is Adjunct Research Professor and Instructor in the program in Organized religion at the Higher of Humanities, Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. She coauthored the well-known The Bible At present (Oxford Univ. Printing, 2011) with Richard Friedman.