THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, Yea, has God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? (Genesis 3:1 KJV).

These are the first words of the Bible that provide us with a description of the serpent that influenced Eve to take action that corrupted the universe not long after the 6-day creation that God had described as “very good.” Are there other hints in the Bible regarding what the serpent looked like?

In this article I will attempt to come up with a best suggestion for the likely appearance of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Was the serpent a snake? Was the serpent snake-like, lizard-like, or like some other lifeform? Let’s see what we can find elsewhere in God’s Word that might help with a physical description for this evil being.

And the LORD God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life. (Genesis 3:14 KJV).

So, in the book of Genesis these two verses in chapter 3 are all we have to describe the physical characteristics of the serpent. However we can access other scriptures that indicate that Satan was inside of or controlling the serpent. These verses are Ezekiel 28:13, Revelation 12:9, 12:15, 20:2, and 2 Corinthians 11:3. A study of these verses indicates to me that the serpent (i.e. Satan) would have presented itself to Eve in some sort of an anthropomorphic posture.

I remember that in most of the many physical dealings in the Bible between angels and men, the angels took on man-like physical characteristics. It also makes sense that a face-to-face interaction between the serpent and Eve would have been most effective for getting her attention.

That leads me to speculate that the many artistic depictions of the serpent as simply a snake are likely totally inaccurate. Three of these depictions are shown in the following images.

Henry Morris wrote in the notes of his Defender’s Study Bible for Genesis verse 3:1 the following: “subtil. The physical serpent was clever, and possibly originally able to stand upright, eye-to-eye with man, (the Hebrew word is nachash, possibly originally meaning a shining, upright creature.)” Dr. Morris also wrote in his notes: “God allowed Satan to use the serpent’s throat (as He later allowed Balaam’s ass to speak – Numbers 22:28) and Eve was, in her innocence, not yet aware of the strangeness of it.”

God condemned the serpent in Genesis 3:14 to crawl on its belly as a part of the curse. From that we can speculate that the serpent had legs prior to the curse, otherwise the description doesn’t make any sense. Here next is a non-snake interpretation of the serpent.

And here below is the Institute for Creation Research Discovery Center reconstruction of the serpent in the Garden of Eden at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

A lot of effort has gone into the ICR model, and I don’t have a better idea, so I will choose it as my favorite depiction for the present time. Please feel free to send me any depictions of the serpent that you prefer. Thanks.

J.D. Mitchell

Please feel free to share...Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin