The Art of Life Bible - Flipbook - Page 16
Genesis
Serpent
Daboia palaestinae
Read Genesis 3:1-24.
Approximately forty snake species
are native to Palestine, many from
the viper and cobra families. The
snakes in this region range in
size from six inches to around six
feet. A number of different words
for snakes are used in the Bible,
though it is difficult to identify
specific species by these terms.
In fact, some of the terms simply
refer generally to snake, including
the most frequent term, nahash.
While many snakes native to the
Middle East are not venemous,
most people in antiquity likely
assumed that they were. That notion, along with snakes’ penchant
to lurk inconspicuously, make it
unsurprising that snakes became
symbolic of cunning, deception,
and danger.
Here in Genesis 3, a serpent
becomes the vessel through
which sin enters the world (the
Fall). This serpent, later identified
in the biblical narrative as Satan,
the great deceiver himself, has
the ability to speak and convinces
Adam and Eve to disobey God.
The serpent’s punishment from
God for its role in the Fall is that
it would now be forced to crawl
on its belly. There is a hint in this
passage of the ultimate defeat of
Satan, described as a blow to the
serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15).
3
The Man and Woman Sin
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the
woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit
from any of the trees in the garden?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the
tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed
to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if
you do, you will die.’”
4“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5“God
knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat
it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was
beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted
the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the
fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who
was with her, and he ate it, too. 7At that moment their
eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their
nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover
themselves.
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the
man* and his wife heard the Lord God walking about
in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among
the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where
are you?”
10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I
hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God
asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me
who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have
you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why
I ate it.”
14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
3
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
15 And I will cause hostility between
you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike* your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.*”
See more about specific serpents
(cobra and viper) on pages 663
and 726.
17And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife
and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to
scratch a living from it.
18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
3:8 Or Adam, and so throughout the chapter. 3:15 Or bruise; also in 3:15b.
3:16 Or And though you will have desire for your husband, / he will rule over you.
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