Is the "serpent" God?

[gnostic]

This is just a little theory I have.

In Genesis, there is a serpent that talk and dupe Eve into eating the fruit that God forbidden.

Christians have equated this serpent to Satan, even today.

There is no direct link between the serpent and Satan. Satan is never named, in this episode. In fact, he (Satan) is never named in the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy), not even in his later incarnation of Devil, Lucifer, etc.

My theory is that the serpent is not Satan, but God.

I don't think God wanted to Adam and Eve to stay in the garden, and he tested them. He deliberately put the tree there, knowing that they would fail, even though he had warned Adam against eating it.

I don't think the serpent was Satan, but God.

 

[gnostic]

Oops!

This topic should have been in the Biblical Debate.

:sorry1:

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

Makes sense to me. I just wish that the serpent would have never been identified as Satan in the first place. Thats part of the reason so many people are unecessarily terrified of snakes, and purposefully swerve to hit them and stuff. That whole thing with snakes and satan really grinds me.

I wish there was some other scripture in there somewhere to back up that theory. Have you tried looking for one?

 

[blackout]

I am finding more and more that everything in existance can have multiple symbolic meanings.

Serpents certainly are "twisted" and "slithery" and have "double forked tongues".
Sneaky twisted liars?

If your conception of God is a Sneaky twisted liar, then that works.

OR

perhaps you might offer up a different set of snake symbolisms for us?
I'd be interested. Don't really know too much about snakes.

My own personal metaphorical understanding of the whole garden story
has the Serpent representing the knowledgable (elite) twisted sneaky liars in GENERAL.
With Eve as the whole segment of the population who is TRICKED by twisted sneaky liars,
and Adam as the other segment of man(s)kind who FOLLOW BLINDLY.

Thus the fall.
Down through every generation.
Same old same old.

That's my own take.

 

[kadzbiz]

....My theory is that the serpent is not Satan, but God. ......

If I believed in the Bible, that's what I would believe too.

 

[blackout]

I wish you all would explain your line of thinking more.

Why didn't God want Adam and Eve to stay in the garden?
What's the "story behind the story" so to speak?

 

[Sola'lor]

Modern revelation and scripture has reinforced the principle that the serpent in the garden is Satan. I personally don't believe that it was a literal serpent but was actually Satan himself.

 

[Mister Emu]

In the Bible, Satan is reffered to as "that old serpent"(Rev. 12:9, 20:2)...

 

[gnostic]

I wish you all would explain your line of thinking more.

Why didn't God want Adam and Eve to stay in the garden?
What's the "story behind the story" so to speak?

I have written some of my explanation in other topics before.

Ok, here is one.

There are two versions of the creation in the Genesis.

The 2nd version you know already in Genesis 2-3, Adam, Eve, God's warning, the tree of knowledge of good and bad, snake, ate the wrong fruit.

In the 1st version (in Genesis 1), we have the creation of the world in 6 days. God created man (and woman) on the 6th day, and said it was all good. He also told them to be fruitful and multiply like rabbits....:foot: :sorry1:, the "rabbits" part my doing; I just couldn't help myself. In any case, he wanted man to rule the world, because god made man superior to the other animals.

I hoped you are still with me. Now I will explain.

Several things should be noted here.

1. For one, the styles of writing. Genesis 1 is written more clearly and dryly (even though it still exaggerate about creating the world in 6 days, whereas Genesis 2 and onward is told in more in storytelling way, as if for an audience.
2. Next, Genesis 1 doesn't mention anything about the Eden and putting these 2 trees - Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad, and the Tree of Life.
3. And lastly, God wanted man to spread its seed.

How can Adam and Eve stayed in Eden, and yet he and his descendants should rule the world?

God can move them out later, or he can move them out now.

The Paradise can't sustain a large population forever, so the only way to this is move them out, and make them work for their food, instead of just Eden feeding everyone forever. The way I see it, Adam and Eve needs to know right and wrong in order to survive in the big world. Why should a god feed on his hand and foot? Why make life so easy for man, when it is so much making him miserable. Deprive them of easy meal, and make them work.

So he give Adam a warning, not to touch this fruit from big tree. And to make sure Adam and Eve do disobey, he appeared as a serpent, tempting them with knowledge, wisdom, enlightenment. They eat the fruit, they get kick out, and God is your uncle and Betty is your aunt, end of story.

No?

As I said they can't remain in the Eden forever. They must do things for themselves. And in order to go out into the world, they can't do so all innocent, not knowing how to work for themselves. They have to help themselves in order to survive, when they are outside of the Paradise.

God can't fulfill his 1st commandment to man given in Genesis 1 (don't remember the verses, too late to look it up; it's almost nap time :sleep, if they remain in Eden.

I hoped that make sense.

 

[Willamena]

I think the character of the Serpent in the story of Genesis represents the mystery and fear surrounding the Tree(s) that it inhabits in the centre of the Garden. It is the mystery given form. As a representative of said mystery, in "speaking" it also represents the intiative (of will) that Eve shows in being the one to investigate the mystery, and hence they are both one to suffer the consequences.

 

[Ringer]

Sounds like a good theory if you only take the Bible with a grain of salt. But based on what we find in the beginning of Genisis, it seems apparent that God created the serpent, the serpent didn't intend to have things done Gods' way, and as a result, was cursed from that point on. Nothing that I've read indicates that the serprent = God unless there is some trickery in the Genisis account in which case, I'm the fool.


"Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made."

-----------------

The LORD God said to the serpent,
"Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed (Jesus?);
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel."

 

[sandy whitelinger]

This is just a little theory I have.

In Genesis, there is a serpent that talk and dupe Eve into eating the fruit that God forbidden.

Christians have equated this serpent to Satan, even today.

There is no direct link between the serpent and Satan. Satan is never named, in this episode. In fact, he (Satan) is never named in the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy), not even in his later incarnation of Devil, Lucifer, etc.

My theory is that the serpent is not Satan, but God.

I don't think God wanted to Adam and Eve to stay in the garden, and he tested them. He deliberately put the tree there, knowing that they would fail, even though he had warned Adam against eating it.

I don't think the serpent was Satan, but God.

So God punished himself?
"And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Genesis 3:14-15 kjv

 

[doppelganger]

So God punished himself?

 

[sandy whitelinger]

The way I see it, Adam and Eve needs to know right and wrong in order to survive in the big world.

There is no evidence that they did or did not know the difference between right and wrong. What was stated was that they gained the knowledge of good and evil. Anything else is just conjecture.

 

[sandy whitelinger]

Wrong situation, but nice try. That does not apper to be, "upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

 

[doppelganger]

But the fact remains - within the confines of mainstream Christian theology, "God" punished Himself for the Fall. :yes:

 

[sandy whitelinger]

But the fact remains - within the confines of mainstream Christian theology, "God" punished Himself for the Fall. :yes:

Fine but it's a non sequitor to the verse.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

That is a great theory!

I've always been interested in the Gnostic idea that the serpent was sent by (or was) Sophia, in order to break the Demuirge's spell over humanity.

 

[sandy whitelinger]

That is a great theory!

I've always been interested in the Gnostic idea that the serpent was sent by (or was) Sophia, in order to break the Demuirge's spell over humanity.

Make up any theory you want as long as you don't want to accept the Biblical account.

Perhaps it was the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Make up any theory you want as long as you don't want to accept the Biblical account.

Perhaps it was the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I'm about 6 ft. tall, 180 pounds. I have strawberry-blond hair, blue eyes, facial stubble, and bushy eyebrows. I have broad shoulders, and the beginnings of a beer gut.

Is this literal interpretation "me"?