Edenic Serpent vs. Baalam's Donkey compare and contrast

[Brickjectivity]

There are only 2 talking animals in the bible books. The first is the serpent from Genesis chapter 3. The second is the donkey from Numbers chapter 22. These may appear in different books, but they are actually part of a single volume of five books. These are the first five books in any bible, and they are called the Pentateuch. I think that every book in the Pentateuch (The Five) relates to every other book in it. I would not presume the same about every book in the bible. For example Jonah has no relation to Ruth that I am aware of. Therefore the story of the serpent and the story of the donkey are in a way in the same volume, and I am curious about the significance of animals speaking.

I have no a point to make in this thread. (That could change in another thread, if I feel like there is some point to make.) Right now I'm looking for ideas as to a connection between these two or an anti-connection. I have one bias and that is to presume it unlikely that these two are unrelated, but they could be unrelated. Why don't the other animals talk, and could there be some dotted line between the serpent and the donkey? Are they opposites in some way? Should we compare them? These two may have more in common than words...or not. What about angels and people? We talk, too; but I tend to think the serpent and donkey are in a different class from us -- at least to the authors. Feel free to disagree about that. We aren't debating just brainstorming.

Feel free to bring in information from other sources if it seems relevant. Q'uran, Vedas, old Native American info etc. Its interfaith, after all. It just needs to be on the subject of why these two animals talk and their relation to each other in the scriptures I've mentioned.

 

[Brickjectivity]

The serpent is punished for its words. Its legs are taken, and it is cursed to lick the dirt. The donkey is not punished for its words, and she keeps her legs. The serpent has no gender, but the donkey does. The donkey is enabled to speak by the L-RD. The serpent speaks perhaps on its own, but the scripture does not tell directly who enables the serpent to speak.

A Christian scripture in the NT calls the serpent "Devil," sometimes which means it may consider the motivation of the serpent to be evil. It depends.

In both stories someone is caused to sin. Eve claims she has been deceived by the serpent which speaks voluntarily. Balaam beats his donkey three times before she speaks and says she's just trying to protect him, but she's unable to keep him from sinning.

Random? Related?

 

[crossfire]

This in not in the Torah, but there is this:

Revelation 8:13

13 As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”
​

Interestingly, some manuscripts say angel instead of eagle. Animals can be messengers, which is what the word angel means.

 

[amorphous_constellation]

The 'beast' in revelation also talks, as it utters 'proud words.'

I want you to read the 2nd blue quote in post #13 in this old thread I made, which is a quote from the saga of the volsungs: Comparing Norse mythology to the Bible, why the similarites?

I perceive this as a variation on the story of adam eating the apple. Only this time, 'adam' ate the snake's heart, and this triggered his ability to hear animals speak. I think what this means, is that animals always are speaking, but most people just don't have the 'knowledge' or ability to understand them. Like when a horse neighs, or a pig oinks, or a cat meows, we humans just register it mostly as a blunt vocalization. But I guess that doesn't mean, that the neigh doesn't have a deep meaning, that we don't get.

In the saga of the volsungs, like in the eden account, the snake creature is associated with words and verbalization. It guards something, or has something, or will give something that can enhance man's facility with words, in terms of both using and understanding them.

So presumably, the adam of the bible would also have been able to understand all of the animals - if we are to infer that the one myth can 'fill in the blanks' for the other, assuming that one agrees that the myth had variation in geographic distribution.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I want you to read the 2nd blue quote in post #13 in this old thread I made, which is a quote from the saga of the volsungs: Comparing Norse mythology to the Bible, why the similarites?

Thanks. I will also reply in that thread.

 

[dybmh]

As far as contrasting, Bilam's donkey is on the list as one of the great miracles created at the twilight of creation.

Pirkei Avot 5:6

But the serpent isn't on the list. I kind of like to imagine that Adam and Eve could understand all the animals while they were in Eden. That's why Eve was so comfortable talking to it. So, the serpent wasn't all that unique in regards to speech.

edit to add: something fun about the serpent story. The word it uses to interject in Hebrew is "Ach", with the hard gutteral sounding "ch" at the end. It means "but", or "however". That's the first word in the conversation. "But / However isn't true you can't eat from any tree..." The word has unknown origins, but the Jastrow dictionary connects it to another word "Hicah". It has a similar sort of sound to it. It means "strike".

So I like to think that the serpent "strikes" Eve with a question. Strikes like a serpent. Or perhaps "strikes" up a conversation. Bilaam strikes the donkey. So that's a tiny little wierd connection.