Genesis: The Fall
The Serpent: Part 1
Those of you who are from antiquity, as I am, remember the good old days of black and white television. One of the classic comedies of that time was Mr. Ed, the talking horse:
A horse is a horse, of course, of course.
And no one can talk to a horse, of course,
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed!
Go straight to the source and ask the horse.
He’ll give you the answer that you endorse.
He’s always on a steady course,
Talk to Mister Ed!
Boy, we could sure use Mister Ed nowadays, given all the craziness you hear on a minute to minute basis. Bluesky? Twitter? MSNBC? Fox? Facebook? Politics? And on. And on. And on.
But I digress.
In the book of Genesis, the book of origins both good and evil, we read about the six days of creation; God’s seventh day of rest; the creation of foliage and animals: the creation of man in God's image; his placement in the garden of Eden; the derivative creation of Eve; and God's warning to avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
An austere warning, to be sure. Did Adam even understand what it meant to “die?”
Do we??
More on this, later. We now arrive at chapter 3:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
The Hebrew word for “crafty” is aruwm, per Strong’s, 6175, “passive participle of 06191; cunning (usually in a bad sense): crafty, subtle.”
What then do we learn about this serpent? First, he is a “beast of the field”, created by God. But several things don't make sense: beasts aren’t “crafty” or “cunning” (although cats may be an exception to this rule). To be crafty or cunning, implies reason – the ability to plan, deceive, design, usually for the purpose of evil. This requires a mind, spirit, or soul which is higher than the animals. Yet he (or it) is referred to as a “beast of the field,” created by God, a description specific to the animal kingdom. We soon learn this “beast” represents Satan. Is Satan masquerading as a reptile? How cunning, how crafty — how, weird, no?
And this reptile speaks.
Now, I don't know about you, but I haven't (at least recently) run into any talking snakes. In fact, never have, now that I think about it. Yet Eve, wandering through the garden, runs into a talking snake, and does not appear in the least nonplussed. Was there, before the Fall, some means of communicating in language between man and animals, which we no longer have? Did no one warn Eve, “If you run into a talking snake, you might want to consider counseling, or at least checking with Adam before having a chat with such a critter? There are meds for that, ya’ know.”
Apparently not.
But she was just checking out the pretty fruit, thinking about what a tasty pie you could make with it. And you know how Adam just loves pies…
And now, like any good soap opera or Project Runway episode, we have to wait a bit before getting to the actual conversation. Coming soon to a Substack near you…