The Good and Evil Serpent (112 page)

The negative meaning for Leviathan continued. According to the author of the
Ladder of Jacob
, probably composed in the first or second century
CE:
“[W]hen the king arises”
(LadJac
6:1), “the Lord will pour out his wrath against Leviathan the sea-dragon.”
(LadJac
6:13; cf.
Apocalypse of Abraham
10:12, 21:4). Leviathan is mentioned in the Qumran Scrolls, but what remains of the manuscript is only a tiny fragment that yields no help in discerning the meaning of the noun (cf.
Qumran Pseudepigraphic Psalms;
4Q380 Frg 3.1). The author of the
Ladder of Jacob
helps us comprehend that Leviathan is a snake-like monster; for him “the sea-dragon.”

5.	“serpent”	Gen 3:1	P?
		Gen 49:17, Ps 140:4[3]	N
		Exod 4:3, 7:15	P?
		Prov 23:31, Ps 58:5[4]	N
		Isa 14:29	P for Israel
	“serpents”	Jer 8:17, Amos 9:3	N for Israel

Appearing thirty-one times,
is the usual word for “serpent” or poisonous snake in the Hebrew Bible; the plural is the expected
. The noun may be an example of onomatopoeia since
nachash
sounds like a human’s approximation of a snake’s “hissing.”
¹²¹

The noun
first appears in Genesis 3:1 in which it is portrayed as a “clever” (not negative “cunning;” cf. Prov 12:23) animal who can talk.
¹²²
It is unlikely, despite the tendencies of translations and commentaries, that the “serpent” represents only evil in Genesis 3:1. For example, the translator of Genesis 3:1 in the Septuagint chose the rendering “a most sagacious” animal (
).
¹²³
According to Exodus 4:3 and 7:15, God’s legitimizing of Moses (Exod 4:1, 5) is placarded by the rod that is turned into a serpent (
).
¹²⁴
When Isaiah, according to 14:29, states that the Philistines shall be plagued by a
, that symbolizes something good for Israel.
¹²⁵
The “serpent” is thus parallel to a messenger from God; he aids and protects Israel. In contrast to Isaiah, Jeremiah reports that the Lord God will send serpents and vipers among those in and near Jerusalem because they have sinned against the Lord (Jer 8:17). Again, the “serpent” administers God’s will.

Rather than denoting only a biological reptile called a snake, this Hebrew noun can denote a fantastic or mythological creature (cf. esp. Gen 2–3, Exod 4:3, 7:15, Amos 9:3). The translators of the Septuagint almost always chose to represent this Hebrew noun with the generic term for “serpent” in Greek, octnQ
¹²⁶
however, in Job 26:13 and Amos 9:3 they preferred SpaKovu.
¹²⁷
The translators of the Peshitta usually choose to translate
as “serpent” (
).

The noun
(and 6
c
|
h
£) is generic;
¹²⁸
hence, in postbiblical Hebrew a qualifying term or adjective like ‘OIK, “venomous” or “poisonous,” is added. Hence, ‘DTK
signifies “a poisonous snake.”
¹²⁹
The solution for specificity with this generic noun is only partly helpful, since one can think of numerous types of very different poisonous snakes in pre-70 Palestine.
¹³⁰
Other constructs with
are known and they provide more helpful specificity, but do not inform us regarding the exegesis of biblical texts.
¹³¹