The Good and Evil Serpent (8 page)

PUBLICATIONS THAT GROUND THE SEARCH

We have clarified the question that launched this research: What is the symbolic meaning of John 3:14? It is now imperative to move beyond the Fourth Gospel and even the canonical texts. We need to focus on the underlying question: What did the serpent symbolize in antiquity? If we intend to learn about the possible symbolic meaning of John 3:14, we should attend also to broader questions: What did the serpent symbolize in the ancient world, in the Near East, in Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, in Egypt and Africa, in Greece and Rome, and especially in the place where the Fourth Gospel may have been composed or the areas from which it received its symbolism? Jerusalem and ancient Palestine, Egypt (especially Alexandria), Antioch and eastern Syria, and in or near Ephesus should be included in our research. Fortunately, many gifted scholars have already contributed to the search for answers to these questions.

After six years of examining the meaning of serpent symbolism in antiquity, I am impressed by the vast number of books ostensibly devoted to this concern.
⁷⁷
Reviewing them briefly, I am struck by three insights.
⁷⁸
First, none of the authors who have worked on ophidian iconography knows the astronomical number of publications in this field of inquiry.
⁷⁹
Second, the biblical experts who have studied the concept or symbol of the serpent in key biblical passages—notably Genesis 3, Numbers 21, John 3, and Revelation 12—are ignorant of the plethora of publications dedicated to the concept of the serpent. Almost all tend to err in assuming that the serpent symbolized evil and Satan. Third, no scholar who has published on serpent symbolism seems to have worked in the museums and libraries that have priceless collections of ophidian iconography, visited the sites in which there were serpent cults, collected ophidian realia, or studied herpetology, especially ophiology, and the taxonomic uniqueness of the 2,900 species of snakes.

Far too many authors assume, without examining the evidence, that the serpent simply signifies, or is an archetype of, the phallus. It is ludicrous to think that “we have, in the Mosaic account of the ‘fall,’ a phallic legend,” as was claimed in 1875 in
Ancient Symbol Worship.
⁸⁰
Many gifted thinkers have vitiated their own research by keeping one eye, perhaps both, on Freud or Jung. Here is a sample of myopic perusals of the meaning of the serpent:

W. H. Fischle,
Das Geheimnis der Schlange
(1983; 1989 [2nd ed.])
G. Sauer,
Traumbild Schlange
(1986; 1992 [3rd ed.])
E. Ghazal,
Schlangenkult und Tempelliebe
(1995)
B. A. Mertz,
Dein archetypisches Tier
(1997)

Despite their lack of historical criticism and failure to explore the ancient (or primordial) mind that invented serpent images, these publications are often full of penetrating insights, especially into human psychology.
⁸¹
Unfortunately, none of these authors apparently knows that in the Indian Tantric cult a goddess is depicted with a serpent-phallus emerging from the vulva,
⁸²
that some “gods” in antiquity are depicted with an erect phallus that is a serpent (see the following chapters), or that the Egyptian fertility god named Min is depicted as ithyphallic and also with an upraised hand (see the relief on the temple of Chon in Karnak).
⁸³

Equally devoid of an open investigation of the varied symbolical meanings of the serpent in antiquity and world culture are the numerous books that are theocentric or Christocentric. Such authors are content to explain how God or Christ has conquered the serpent. Here are some examples:

W. Kramp,
Protest der Schlange
(1970)

E. W. Lutzer,
The Serpent of Paradise
(1996)

H. Fritsche’s
Die Erhöhung der Schlange
(1994 [4th ed.]) is a mixture of psychology and theology. One will not find in his book a search for the meaning of ophidian iconography.

I now list in chronological order the books and monographs on ophidian iconography and symbology that I have found during my research in many countries (and from most of which I have learned something):
⁸⁴

H. Clarke and C. S. Wake,
Serpent and Siva Worship
(1877)

W. Boelsche,
Drachen
(1929)

P. Lum,
Fabulous Beasts
(1951)

A. Rosenberg,
Michael und der Drache
(1956)

J. Fontenrose,
Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins
(1959) J. L. Henderson and M. Oakes,
The Wisdom of the Serpent
(1963, 1990)

D. Krekoukias,
Gli animali nella meterorologia popolare degli antichi Greci
(1970)

L. Bodson,
Contribution à l’étude de la place de l’animal dans la religion grecque ancienne
(1978) M. Burkolter-Trachsel,
Der Drache
(1981) H. Egli,
Das Schlangensymbol
(1982)

K. Zimniok,
Die Schlange das unbekannte Wesen: In der Kulturgeschichte, freien Natur und im Terrarium
(1984)

B. Johnson,
Lady of the Beasts: Ancient Images of the Goddess and Her Sacred Animals
(1988, 1990)

H. M. Lins,
Tiere in der Mythologie und ihre religiöse Symbolkraft
(1990, 1994 [2nd ed.])

G. A. Samonà,
Il sole, la terra, il serpente
(1991)

F. Huxley,
The Dragon
(1992)

A. de Pury,
Homme et animal Dieu les créa
(1993)

J. A. West,
Serpent in the Sky
(1993)

S. Golowin,
Drache, Einhorn, Oster-Hase
(1994)

M. Nissenson and S. Jonas,
Snake Charm
(1995)

J. Cherry,
Mythical Beasts
(1995)

K. Shuker,
Dragons
(1995; 1997 [German edition])

P. Bandini,
Drachenwelt
(1996; a translation of
Mondo Drago)

P. Busch,
Der gefallene Drache
(1996)

C. Paul-Stengel,
Schlangenspuren
(1996)

B. Young,
The Snake of God
(1996)

Worthy of special attention, because of its breath, quality, and perception (if dated), is M. O. Howey’s
The Encircled Serpent: A Study of Serpent Symbolism in All Countries and Ages
(1926). In his
The Bosom Serpent
(1988), H. Schechter illustrates that folklore reveals the fictive imagination of humans. And K. Lapatin—in his
Mysteries of the Snake Goddess
(2002)—demonstrates the problems with forging history and then exploring ophidian symbology in light of fakes.
⁸⁵

Many significant books examine the snake handlers who take the appendix to Mark literally;
⁸⁶
here is a selection:

J. B. Collins,
Tennessee Snake Handlers
(1947)

W. La Barre,
They Shall Take Up Serpents
(1962)

R. W. Pelton and K. W. Carden,
Snake Handlers
(1974)

S. M. Kane,
Snake Handlers of Southern Appalachia
(1979)

T. Burton,
Serpent-Handling Believers
(1993)

D. L. Kimbrough,
Taking Up Serpents
(1995)

Still valuable are such classics as E. R. Goodenough’s
Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period
and L. Ginzberg’s
The Legends of the Jews
. Outstanding books on the meaning of the serpent in the ancient Near East, the Bible, Judaism, and Christianity have appeared over the past two decades (although none of the authors has really studied most of the books already cited or closely examined ophidian realia). The following works add significantly to K. R. Joines’
Serpent Symbolism in the Old Testament:
⁸⁷

M. Avi-Yonah,
Art in Ancient Palestine
(1981)

R. Hachlili,
Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology in the Land of Israel
(1988)

E. Pagels,
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent
(1988)

R. Milburn,
Early Christian Art and Architecture
(1988, 1989)

A. Golan,
Myth and Symbol: Symbolism in Prehistoric Religions
(1991)

P. Prigent,
L’Image dans le Judaïsme du II
^e
au VI
^e
Siècles
(1991)

H. Schreckenberg and K. Schubert,
Jewish Historiography and Iconography in Early and Medieval Christianity
(1992)

S. Koh,
An Archaeological Investigation of the Snake Cult in the Southern Levant
(1994)

F. Tristan,
Les premières images chrétiennes
(1996)

H. de Borchgrave,
A Journey into Christian Art
(1999, 2000)

J. G. Westenholz, ed.,
Images of Inspiration: The Old Testament in Early Christian Art
(2000)

L. S. Wilson,
The Serpent Symbol in the Ancient Near East
(2001)

Reading and studying these publications can be enriched by additional examinations of some fairly recent publications devoted to Greek and Roman art and symbolism, especially these:

J. Hirschen, ed.,
La grammaire des formes et des styles: Antiquité
(1981)

J. J. Pollitt,
Art in the Hellenistic Age
(1986, 1999)

P. Zanker,
The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus
(1988, 2000)

L. Burn,
The British Museum Book of Greek and Roman Art
(1991, 1999)

R. Turcan,
The Cults of the Roman Empire
(1996; French of 1992)

J. Elsner,
Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire AD 100–450
(1998)

J. Onians,
Classical Art and the Cultures of Greece and Rome
(1999)

W. Ball,
Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire
(2000)

Research into any form of symbolism is enhanced if one obtains a panoramic view of ancient symbology by examining the most important lexicons on the subject, such as the following:

E. Kirschbaum,
Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie
(1968, 1990)

J. Chevalier and A. Gheerbrant,
A Dictionary of Symbols
(1969, 1996)

N. G. L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard,
The Oxford Classical Dictionary
(1970 [2nd ed.])

G. Heinz-Mohr,
Lexikon der Symbole
(1971, 1983 [7th ed.], 1998)