The Good and Evil Serpent (122 page)

	= Hebrew loanword
	= perhaps a small snake 221
	= Hebrew loanword (that explains ) 222
	= a “creeping thing,” “reptile,” or “snake”

To ophiologists, the number of words in Hebrew for “snake” will not be remarkable since there are at least forty-four types of snakes known in the Near East.
²²³
Moreover, eighteen is not a large number compared to the nouns in Greek for snake (see
Appendix II
). That is, thanks to the study of a large collection of Greek books on poisonous animals, Philumenus’ book on poisonous animals, and especially an Egyptian Brooklyn papyrus on ophiology,
²²⁴
we can ascertain that the Greek language in antiquity developed at least forty-one names for snake.
²²⁵

A study of words for snake and serpent in the Hebrew Bible is not complete, even with a study of the previous eighteen nouns or expressions. Other Hebrew nouns probably also indicated not “lizard” or “crawling animal,” but some form of unclean reptile, including a snake. Only four possibilities must suffice for now.

First, Leviticus 11 is devoted to the dietary laws, and 11:29–38 focuses on the regulations regarding the creatures that swarm on the earth. In 11:30 the meaning of the
hapax legomenon
is uncertain. It may denote a gecko,
²²⁶
which is a type of small lizard that has obtained its name, onomatopoeically, from the sound of its cry.
²²⁷
If
corresponds to
(=
), as in the Septuagint of Leviticus 11:30,
²²⁸
then the Hebrew noun was understood by many Greeks as denoting a “spotted lizard” or “gecko.” This rendering, however, is unattractive, since “gecko” is represented by
, which appears first in the list in Leviticus 11.
²²⁹

The noun
may also denote “sand snake (or reptile).” In discerning the meaning of the Hebrew noun, we receive no help from cognate languages, such as Persian, Arabic, Aramaic, or Syriac. The translators of the Peshitta chose a word for “salamander.” If nKVJ? denotes some type of lizard, then the author of Leviticus 11:30 lists five types of lizards without mentioning any type of snake: “[T]he gecko, the land crocodile, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon” (NRSV). Such a rendering is unattractively redundant. Far better is the NKJV, 1982: “[T]he gecko, the monitor lizard,
the sand reptile
, the sand lizard, and the chameleon” (my italics).
²³⁰
This translation seems preferable to those that opt merely for transliterations: “gecko,
koah, letaah
, chameleon and
tinshamet”
(New Jerusalem Bible). We should conclude that nKVJ? may denote a type of small snake.
²³¹

Second, also in Leviticus 11:30, onn probably means “lizard,” but it may also denote an impure reptile, like a snake. This speculation is stimulated by a study of languages cognate to Hebrew, since the root
hmt
appears in other Semitic languages. In Akkadian, the cognate form means “a lizard” or “a snake.” In Syraic,
denotes not only a chameleon but another reptile like a snake.
²³²