The Good and Evil Serpent (87 page)

Fifth, other symbolic meanings could have been represented by the upraised serpent, both in the wilderness and in the Temple. It could symbolize God’s creative powers (Pos. 7), mystery (Pos. 17), and beauty (Pos. 4). These characteristics are almost always present in serpent symbolism.

I have become persuaded that the origins of the story about the Nechushtan are not to be found within Yahwistic belief, but outside it. Perhaps the serpent symbol—the Nechushtan (
2 Kgs 18:4)—originated, and had its background, in Egyptian, Babylonian, Canaanite, or Jebusite religion. Since archaeological evidence of the Canaanites and Jebusites cannot be distinguished by archaeologists,
³²⁹
it is a moot point whether the Nechushtan was inherited by Israelites in Jerusalem from one or the other. The answer is probably that both helped to supply the image of and the worship of Nechushtan, or through it, in the Temple.

We have heard the words of three great authors. We have listened to the Yahwist who compiled from earlier myths the Eden Story in which the serpent has a voice. We have been attentive to the Elohist who described how Moses made a metal serpent in the wilderness that brought new life to those who were dying. We have learned from the Deuteronomistic Historian who explained how Hezekiah pulverized the Nechushtan. Cumulatively, we have seen how a study of serpent iconography and symbology in antiquity shines much light on previously dark passages.

In the preceding chapters we examined the symbolic meaning of the serpent in many cultures and texts, especially in Greek and Latin literature and in the Hebrew Bible. We also noted the full spectrum of serpent symbolism, drawing attention to the symbol of the serpent in the so-called intertestamental writings. Now we come to the New Testament corpus. We may now conclude, as H. Gerhard surmised in 1847, that no animal symbol has such importance and such diverse, even contradictory, meanings as the serpent.
¹

There are forty-one nouns in ancient Greek to denote various types of snakes (see
Appendix II
). Only five of these nouns appear in the Greek New Testament.
²
This proportion, 5/41, should not seem surprising. The documents in the New Testament are theological works. They should not be imagined as quasi-zoological treatises (or a
De Natura Animalium)
. Moreover, the Greek in the New Testament was used to convert the masses. Only on rare occasions (as in Luke’s Prologue) was New Testament Greek directed to highly educated persons. This observation should be combined with the recognition that many New Testament authors knew and did occasionally use sophisticated Greek (see, e.g., Lk 1:1–4, Rom, and Heb; contrast Rev, whose author thought in Aramaic and Hebrew but wrote in Greek).

The five Greek nouns for snake or serpent that appear in the New Testament corpus are “asp” (
, Rom 3:13), “dragon” (
, Rev 12:3, 4, 7 [
bis
], 9, 13, 16, 17; 13:2, 4, 11; 16:13; 20:2),
³
“snake” (
, Acts 10:12; 11:6; Rom 1:23; James 3:7), “viper” (
, Mt 3:7; 12:34; 23:33; Luke 3:7; Acts 28:3),
⁴
and “serpent” (and sometimes “snake;”
, fifteen times in the NT [including Mk 16:18]).
⁵

Perhaps the most interesting insight regarding ophidian symbology in the New Testament is the fact that the common word for serpent in Greek
is the usual word for serpent in the New Testament corpus. Surely this insight helps us grasp the desire of the New Testament authors to use common words, as had Jesus of Nazareth; that is, these authors chose simple language that was devoid of pretense or ostentation.

REVELATION

The “serpent” has positive and negative meanings in the New Testament, but only the negative meanings seem to have impressed the exegetes and commentators.
⁶
Our Western culture has too often featured sin as a serpent or as a human entwined by an evil serpent.
⁷
The key passages are in Revelation. The central text, as implied previously, is Revelation 12 in which the “serpent,” the dragon, is equated with Satan and the Devil. The setting is a war in heaven; Michael and his angels fight against “the dragon” and his angels (cf. 1QM). After Michael and his angels win, there is no place for Satan and the Devil who is “the dragon.” Thus, the author of Revelation offers this stunning equation: “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole civilized world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev 12:9). The author of Revelation has inherited the concept of the serpent as a negative symbol, and emphasized it as the symbol of the Devil (Neg. 12), God’s Antagonist (Neg. 11), and Liar or Deceiver (Neg. 5).

Why has this symbolic meaning of the serpent been embedded in the minds of so many scholars? Perhaps the answer lies in the recognition that the equation is so clear and so well known. Perhaps some have the impression that with Revelation we come to the conclusion of “the Book.” While New Testament exegetes simply state that in the Bible the serpent is a symbol of evil, misreading Genesis 3 and exaggerating its importance, they do ultimately confess that the serpent, intermittently, has a positive meaning. In the preceding pages we saw that the serpent was predominantly a positive symbol in antiquity. In the following pages I shall attempt to show that the serpent is also fundamentally a positive symbol in the New Testament writings.

PAUL, ACTS, THE GOSPELS

The serpent has a quasi-positive or clearly positive meaning in some New Testament passages. While Paul is depicted as one who always uses the serpent as a negative symbol, a close examination of his works reveals not only negative ophidian symbolism but a remnant of positive symbolism. Obviously, as many Pauline scholars have emphasized (viz., C. H. Dodd, E. P. Sanders, and H. Raisanen), Paul did not strive to be consistent according to our post-Enlightenment criteria.
⁸
And as K. Ehrensperger shows, Paul must not be interpreted by a modern Western male-oriented agenda.
⁹

A study of ophidian nomenclature in the New Testament discloses Paul’s sophistication and learning, as well as his frequently erudite Greek audience. Both are reflected in his vocabulary. Paul employs more words for snake or serpent than any other New Testament author, including “asp” (
, Rom 3:13), “snake” (
, Rom 1:23), and “serpent” (
, 1 Cor 10:9, 2 Cor 11:3).