Snaky Words

Did God say …? You will not die…! Gen 3:1, 4-5

God “spoke” all creation into being through “words.” The snake, who we have previously identified as a “demonophany,” the “dark side” of the Theophany motif in the Garden, attempts to undo creation by deceitful words. Since evil has no necessary existence independent of God’s purposes and creation, evil cannot be truly creative, but can only imitate. Still, we have before us a meditation on the whole idea of spoken words and their power, not only for good, but as we have here, for evil. The ancient Hebrews had a keen theology of words; they are symbols of great forces that underlie creation. When God speaks, there is creation, order, goodness, blessing, and truth. When Satan speaks, the opposite is unleashed; chaos, disorder, evil, and death.

Certainly the Serpent was God’s creature, and whatever it was before the curse, it was superior than the rest of the animals under Adam’s charge.  Only here and with Balaam’s donkey in the book of numbers do we see animals talk in Scripture, a phenomenon most closely associated with folklore elsewhere.  Did it possess its own “speech” which Adam and Eve could decipher, or did Satan speak through it in a way understandable to Adam and Eve?  We do not know.  Ephrem the Syrian suggests that it was not original to the garden, and had to be invited in.   Somehow it became intimate with them (John of Damascus) to the point where a dark reversal happened.  Rather than Adam and Eve dominating animals, Satan, through the snake, dominates them. 

The Hebrew word for the snake is nāḥāš. There is some debate as to whether the root of this word is connected to the verbal stem nḥš (practice divination) and the noun naḥaš (bewitchment, magic curse). Whatever the etymology, the sound of the word nāḥāš would certainly draw to the Hebrew mind witchery ─ temptation is a sort of spell casting. How else can we explain the irrationality of temptation and evil? The movement of these few verses invites us to see Eve in a voluntary trance-like state. Though tempted, she is not forced … she allows her will to be drawn by a stronger one. Evil captured her imagination; she follows, against her better judgment, the brush strokes as the snake repaints reality into a nightmare.

Eve’s sin is two-fold. At some point she lost confidence in God. Everything hung on the incomprehensible command not to take of the tree of “all knowledge” (See previous post on the Two Trees). Again, the tree was good in itself for it was created by God. The command could only be listened to and obeyed (Westermann). Eve came to believe that God was keeping something from her. Once she doubted God’s intentions, then the second aspect necessarily plays itself out, and that is to take matters into her own hands and be god (autonomy). These are the two aspects of rebellion that take place in every temptation at all times, everywhere. This two-fold sin is the essence of infidelity, of unbelief. Its opposite, that of believing God has our best in mind, and that we will therefore not take matters into our own hands, is the essence of faith, which we might call a “pre-fall,” or “original” attitude of humanity. It is precious to God.  With her faith weakened, she succumbed to pride, and finally to the external sin of lust for physical pleasure.  Humanity was then given over to concupiscence of the flesh. 

But the whole man committed the sin. It was then that the flesh was made sinful flesh, whose faults could be healed only by the One who came in the likeness of sinful flesh [Rom. 8:3].  Augustine, Against Julian

How does the snake operate? It is the same thing over and over again; it so effective that it never changes! It always begins with suggestion; “So God said …,” a sort of half interrogation, half exclamation, as if the serpent brooded long over a problem (Skinner). This then gives way to exaggeration; “… from any tree of the garden?” We know Eve is tracking with evil when she herself exaggerates in her response, “… neither shall you touch it.” The snake knows that if he can make God and His commands sound ridiculous through exaggeration, then we are ripe for the final move, that of flat contradiction, “you shall not die!” (Kidner). We have no idea how this all transpired in space and time. We do know that what we have here, in this vivid, brief narrative, is the essence of temptation as it confronts every man since this infernal event. Adam is every man, Eve every woman, and the snake forever lisping the same lines.

Though Eve was tempted, Adam, who was conspicuously “with her” when the nāḥāš was working his wife, failed to subdue evil by neglect; it was directly to him that God gave the commandment and therefore he was more directly responsible. Moreover, it was Adam’s responsibility “to work and guard” the garden, God’s Holy of Holies.  Adam, in fact, was the ultimate goal, for the nāḥāš knew that to get Adam it must go through Eve. Eve wanted to be “like God,” an irony, for she was already made in the image of God; Adam made a god of Eve, and intentionally chose her over God.

Satan’s motive in all this?  The Church fathers generally say it was envy.  Fallen from such a high position among the Angels of God, he cannot bear to see humanity, graced with being divine image bearers, enjoy blessedness.  He is therefore committed to destroy what he cannot enjoy (So Ambrose).

Takeaway: We have a common enemy that is set on destroying us. 

Questions: 

• How real are Adam and Eve to you in this temptation narrative?
• The atmosphere in the garden is intense; how does it fit into your personal narrative?

Resources Used:

Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture

A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis, J. Skinner in the International Critical Commentary Series (ICC).  Edinburg, 1912.    

Genesis, Derek Kidner.  Tyndale Old Testament Series, IVP, 1967

Genesis 1-11, Westermann.