The Good and Evil Serpent (61 page)

Advanced research on serpents seeks to understand why and how so many different species of snakes can inhabit the same area. Is it because various snakes seek different prey? Is it because of the different times snakes devote to hunting: morning, noon, or night? Is it because the snake is one of the most inquisitive animals? Is that not related to the serpent as symbolizing wisdom?

The serpent denoted the ability to comprehend and obtain wisdom. Philo contended that the serpent symbolized “a bond of love and desire
. The serpent was under the rule and dominion of pleasure
” so that the apprehension of objects is possible.
³⁴⁸
According to the author of the
Apocalypse of Moses
, the serpent is portrayed as the wisest of creatures. Thus, the Devil makes the serpent his vessel and speaks through him in order to deceive Adam.
³⁴⁹

Another aspect of the serpent that is important for a perception of the intended meaning of John 3:14 is that the serpent represents Wisdom or the source of wisdom. Some ancient Greek myths, such as the story of Laocoon, suggest that one will understand the language of animals when the aspirant is touched on the ear by a serpent’s tongue. By this means, the children of Hecuba, the Queen of Troy, were able to utter prophecies. In ancient Greece, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, was depicted as accompanied by serpents (see
Fig. 52
). In Aztec religion, the “feathered serpent,” named Quetzalcoatl, was saluted as the source of wisdom, and the cultic priest was called “Prince of Serpents.” As should be expected, the most famous connection between the serpent and wisdom is placed on the lips of Jesus by Matthew, as he sends out his disciples “among the wolves”: “Be wise as serpents” (Mt 10:16).

God’s Messenger (Judgment and Revelation)

The serpent represents God’s messenger. Often biblical authors choose the serpent to symbolize the agent of God’s judgment, usually punishment. According to Amos 9:3, God states that the end has come for “my people Israel”: “I shall command the serpent
, and he shall bite them.” Thus, the serpent is God’s messenger and the one who delivers divine judgment.
³⁵⁰

Verses illustrative of the serpent as God’s agent and the one who will bring justice and peace are found in Isaiah 14:29,

Rejoice not, all you of Philistia,

Because the rod that struck you is broken;

For out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a pit viper,

And his offspring shall be a flying serpent.

Here we confront in one self-contained passage the use of the serpent and the pit viper to symbolize God’s messenger.

In “Serpent Imagery in Ancient Israel,” Le Grande Davies claimed that the God who sent “ ‘fiery flying serpents’ was the God of Israel whose symbol of the bronze serpent stood before the people.”
³⁵¹
He suggested that the serpents were to administer justice. It seems more likely that “the serpent’s root” of Isaiah 14:29 designates King Ahaz of Judah who has just died, as stated in Isaiah 15:28. The broader meaning seems to be that from the root of Judah, “the serpent’s root, the deliverer shall come to save Israel.” This one is symbolized as “a flying serpent.” The importance of this point for an exegesis of John 3:14 will seem clear to most readers. God, of course, is identified in Isaiah and John with the final messenger from God, and both passages employ serpent imagery.

According to the author of Ecclesiastes, the one who breaks a hedge shall be bitten by a serpent (10:8; cf. Amos 5:19). Le Grande Davies claimed that the hedge and serpent are metaphors that denote the consequences of our actions; the serpent appears “as a symbol of the just judgments of God: whoever breaks down his law will be destroyed by the poisonous bite of the serpent.”
³⁵²
This exegesis tends to paraphrase poetry—the symbol of the serpent is more multivalent than Davies realizes. The serpent, inter alia, symbolizes God’s messenger who brings justice, judgment, and goodness. As L. H. Silberman pointed out: “The concept of a serpent as dispenser of divine justice was far more widespread than some commentators bothered to learn.”
³⁵³

Cassandra and her brother, Helenus, were left inadvertently in the temple of Apollo. Cassandra did not become pregnant as did the mothers of Alexander the Great and Augustus, but something prophetic happened. Their parents found them with two serpents. The serpents were licking their ears and eyes. Both Cassandra and Helenus, consequently, became messengers, or prophets, of the gods. Other Greek heroes and heroines, like Iamos and Melampus, had their ears purified by serpents and so obtained unusual, divine gifts.
³⁵⁴
As Chevalier and Gheerbrant state, in
The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols
, “the two facets of divination, both Apollonian and Dionysiac, derived from the serpent.”
³⁵⁵
This means that the serpent sometimes symbolized God’s messenger and brought God’s voice to those who could hear.

Genesis Rabbah
contains a story about a snake seen by Rabbi Jannai who was sitting and lecturing at the gate of a city. The Rabbi saw a snake
) skimming along the ground, going from side to side. The Rabbi exclaimed, “This [snake] is going to carry out his mission
. ”
³⁵⁶
The snake had been sent on a mission. It accomplished its task. Soon the Rabbi heard a report that someone in the city had been bitten and died (10:7).
³⁵⁷
The snake was God’s messenger
it delivered God’s judgment.

In his masterpiece, Dante portrayed the snake as one who administers God’s judgment. Note how Dante depicts the punishment of a thief:

At once I liked the snakes; for one came sneaking
About his [the thief’s] throat, and wreathed itself around
As though to say: “I will not have thee speaking;”
Another wrapped his arms, and once more bound
All fast in front, knotting their coils till he
Could give no jog, they were so tightly wound.

[Inferno
, Canto 25]
³⁵⁸

Dante was inspired by reflections on other myths. Most likely he had been pondering the legend that snakes wreathed themselves around Laocoon. Dante “liked the snakes” because they caught, stopped, and punished thieves.

Beginning with the earliest examples of Christian art, Christ is shown defeating or trampling on a serpent or asp, and sometimes both, as we have seen. The depictions of Christ slaying a serpent were pictorial means of explaining to those who could not read that the Lord has defeated sin now and he will judge and condemn the serpent at the end of time.

The snake comes up from the earth (cf. 2.18) and ascends from the sea (cf. 2.16), thus symbolizing the one who has a message from the gods of the netherworld. The serpent becomes the consummate Revealer. In the
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
, MacCulloch opined: “The serpent is a revealer of the arts of civilization, this is probably because, where it was worshipped, it was often grafted on to a mythic culture-hero or eponymous founder.”
³⁵⁹

Hermes is the messenger of the gods. He reveals their will to humans. Hermes is usually identified with the caduceus.
³⁶⁰
Thus, the serpent is the symbol of the gods’ messenger and the revealer of their will (
Fig. 5
). Infrequently, Hermes appears with a winged staff in his right hand and one snake curled around it; a rare example of this iconography is found in the Capitoline Museum (just inside the front door of the Palazzo Nuovo and to the right).
³⁶¹

The Ophites rejected the “Great Church’s” interpretation of the importance of the historical Jesus and the perception of the salvific importance of the Old Testament (see
Appendix IV
). They rejected the concept of a historical religion. They saw the serpent as symbolizing the heavenly realm of meaning, in a revived Platonic sense (with considerable Docetism).
³⁶²
The Ophites thus distorted the age-old symbol of the serpent as the one who revealed God’s will.