The tempting serpent of Eden, pawn or multiform devil

In the Garden of Eden, the serpent tempted Eve to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-6). Usually, this serpent is identified as Satan or an intermediary of his, but it is a relationship not present in the few verses in which it is mentioned. So, who was he, why is he identified with the devil, and was he really a serpent?

An ordinary snake

The serpent of Eden must have been one of the animals created by Yahweh to accompany man (Genesis 2:18-20). Although the Bible employs specific terms to refer to serpents in later chapters and books, here is used the generic term (Hebrew: נחש, nāḥāš). This term coincides with verbs and nouns with the root n-ḥ-š related to divination of the future. It was also a name of Israelites (2 Sam 17:25) and Ammonites (1 Sam 11:1-2), present as Naas in the translations.

Attending to the terms used and the grammar, the serpent is considered a prominent animal among the rest, being associated with wisdom. The adjectives used with it are common to those used with foresighted and perspicacious people, capable of stretching the limits of what can be done without crossing them, who have a viperous and deceitful tongue, even without being consummate liars. Yet, in the Old Testament, snakes are not considered evil creatures.

Since it is condemned to crawl and eat dust, it is intuited that it was not so before. However, the text does not suggest the presence of limbs or the use of it. The verb used for walking is also used interchangeably for the displacement of fog, wheels, wind or shadows. Despite this, the means of locomotion was a constant theme in the discussions, which also influenced the representations. Not only was the presence or absence of limbs debated, but also whether the condemnation applied to their descendants. Although the conclusions tended to imply fantastic characteristics, the presence of snakes that could lift part of the body was also taken into account.

More than just a snake

The identification of the serpent as Satan comes from the intertestamental period (200 B.C. - 200 A.D.). This relationship can be seen in the apocryphal gospels, such as the Book of Wisdom of Solomon 2:24, where it is said "Through the devil's envy death entered this world", or in The Life of Adam and Eve 17:4, where she states that "the devil answered me through the mouth of the serpent", seducing her as the Watchers did the women with whom they had the nephilim. The most influential relationship is shown in the Revelation, where it says "the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is called the Devil and Satan". The association between Satan, the devil and the serpent in Eden may have been due to external influences, especially from Zoroastrianism, where there is an absolute duality between good and evil.

An alternative is that the serpent really was an ordinary animal, but was controlled by a superior entity. In Pseudo-Eliezer's The Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer the Great (9th century A.D.), it is the celestial prince Samael who descends with his twelve wings to Earth and observes that the serpent is the most evil of animals. So that it fulfills his will, he tames it by riding it, because he interpreted it with the appearance of a camel. For Andrew of St. Victor, that someone controlled the serpent was the reason why Eve was not frightened when the serpent began to speak to her.

The third option implies that Satan, bound in hell, sends a subordinate to take the form of a serpent. In the Anglo-Norman work Le Jeu d'Adam, the devil first appears in person with a friendly appearance and then speaks to Eve through an artificial serpent. In the St. Alban's Psalter the situation is more bizarre, as the serpent emerges from Satan's mouth to give him the fruit.

The serpent's cunning

When Yahweh forbade Adam to eat from the tree of knowledge, he indicated that he would die for it. In doing so, he did not divest him of immortal life, but ceased an already finite existence. At the moment the serpent asks about the divine warning, Eve answers him by adding the consequences of transgression. Here it is understood that Adam communicated the warning, for neither was present when it was first formulated. Even with that, the cunning of the serpent is shown by the fact that the warning was addressed in the masculine singular. As in other languages, Hebrew should use the masculine plural to refer to both a mixed and an all-male group. Therefore, the veto should not necessarily apply to her. 

A double creation

A small detail of the creation myth is that it is told twice in Genesis because the accounts of different authors were combined. In source P, man and woman are created simultaneously in the image of God. On the contrary, in source J, it is the serpent who leads humans to eat the fruit in order to be like God.

Depictions

The first representations come from sarcophagi and catacombs of the II-III centuries A.D., as in the baptistery of Dura Europos. Its first images may have been influenced by pagan art showing the garden of the Hesperides, with the golden apples and the dragon Ladon. The motif would later be shown in altarpieces, illustrated bibles, theological manuscripts, medieval literature, murals, stained glass, sculptures and gold and silver work. Although the asymmetrical composition, with humans on one side and the tree on the other, was the oldest and may predate Christianity, the symmetrical composition predominated from the beginning of the Middle Ages. In this, the tree and the serpent were the center of the composition, with Adam and Eve on the sides and, punctually, the devil apart from the serpent. As in Hans Baldung's work, death personified could appear instead.

At the beginning, since Adam and Eve were covered with fig leaves, it was assumed that the tree belonged to the same species. Contemporarily it was shown as a vine, since, as it happened with Noah's drunkenness, it was a plant that brought misfortune to men. Moreover, the wine allowed it to be related to the blood of Christ. From the 4th century onwards, in Gaul, the identification with the apple tree originated, where these trees were more common than fig trees. Added to this is the confusion between apple (mālum) and evil (mălum) in Latin and perhaps possible pagan mythological influences. In the Middle Ages, the tree could be a cherry tree or a citrus tree, either a lemon or an orange tree.

In the tree, the serpent is usually coiled to the trunk, either whispering to Eva or handing her the fruit. Now, the biggest problem is to represent it before being condemned to crawl on the ground. The Bible does not describe it physically or how it moved, so the solutions to this problem were imaginative to say the least. Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar reasoned that it had the sinuous appearance of a camel, but that condemnation stripped it of its legs and the gift of language. This appearance is illustrated in the Byzantine octateucos of the twelfth century. Some medieval representations gave it wings, which could be accompanied by a human skull or ears and paws of a dog, as in the Huntingfield Psalter. This responded to the observation of Isidore of Seville in Etymologies, for whom snakes and dragons eventually recovered their wings and legs. This characteristic also affected the representations of the basilisk, the amphysbena, the asp or the beast of the Apocalypse of John from the 10th century onwards. Another more conservative option, since it did not involve incorporating limbs, was to place the serpent upright, holding onto the tip from his tail, as seen in Grandval's Bible. On the other hand, the most radical aspect is that of the serpent with the appearance of the sphinx with a tail ending in the head of an ophidian, like the chimera. One motivation for reinterpreting the serpent concerned the naturalness with which Eve spoke to her. That presented two options: Either Eve looked like a snake, or the snake looked like a woman. In this way, the serpent would share attitudes and physical qualities of the mermaids and Melusina, whose lower halves used to be interchanged. This representation was introduced at the beginning of the 13th century, influenced by the Historia Scholastica by Petrus Comestor, and it may appear with an Eve with reptilian features. Although this form is popularly associated with Lilith, it does not appear to have had much influence on medieval art. In fact, only in the Zohar is it compared to a snake.

Commonalities with the Epic of Gilgamesh

In the epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu is a man who lives in the wild, but is tamed by a prostitute, becoming civilized and wearing clothes. From then on he ceases to have any relationship with animals. When he dies after several adventures with Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh seeks a rejuvenating herb to revive him, but an aquatic serpent steals it. In both cases, a snake intervenes in relation to a plant and a woman is involved in the loss of the man's innocence.

Sources

• Zevit, Z. (2013). What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden?. Yale University Press.
• Wray, T. J., & Mobley, G. (2014). The birth of Satan: tracing the devil's biblical roots. St. Martin's Press.
• Friedman, R. E. (2003). The Bible with sources revealed (p. 400). HarperSanFrancisco.
• van Leeuwen, I. A. (2021). Evil woman? She-devil? Monster? A study on the cultural context of the snake with a woman’s head in the iconography of the Fall (Master's thesis).
• Kelly, H. A. (1972). The metamorphoses of the Eden serpent during the Middle Ages and Renaissance (pp. 301-328). University of California Press.
• Forsyth, N. (1989). The Old Enemy: Satan and the combat myth. Princeton University Press.