Who deceived Eve?
The serpent was more clever…and said to the woman, “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1)
Eve and the snake are recurring in historical lore. Did Eve really encounter a talking snake? Did she hear an audible voice? The text shows she willingly engaged in a rational discussion with the creature while Adam stood by— a passive participant. Modern discussions of this deception often surmise that in the distant past snakes had legs and wings and could talk. This view assumes the deceiver was created on the sixth day and then imports modern science and evolution for an explanation. But science and evolution were not concepts in antiquity. So, who is the deceiver? “Trust in me, just in me. Shut your eyes and trust in me” ….and return to the garden for another look.
Context: What did the original audience know and understand?
The story of the serpent is about much more than a mere animal. To understand it, we must first establish the context of the garden of Eden. In the ancient Near East people believed in an unseen spiritual world that was governed by a divine council. This realm, the temple of the gods, was portrayed in several ways. Two of the most common were gardens and mountains. Eden is described as both. Want is a human reality, therefore, the gods must live in a place with no conceivable lack— Paradise. The famous hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, are an example of one such garden temple. The snake language in the Genesis story depicts something far loftier than a slithering reptile. The Hebrew word translated serpent is nachash. The nachash was an image commonly used in reference to a divine throne guardian. The word is associated with copper and bronze— shiny when polished. Furthermore, the verb form is the diviner. Given the context of Eden, we can identify the villain as a divine being with a bronze serpent-like appearance. Ezekiel 28 : 12-15 describes this creature as a glorious guardian cherub, an angel who protects the throne of God. “Every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings were made of pure gold.” This perception was shared by the nations around Israel. In Babylon the throne guardians were sphynx-like beings. In Egypt, the parallel was a serpentine being known as a seraph, plural seraphim. The Pharaonic headdress resembling a cobra’s hood is a representation of a seraph. Here is a short video of divine beings for further clarification.
Genesis telegraphs the truth of an all-powerful God who created human beings as his representatives. He is accompanied by a supernatural host; one member of that divine entourage is not pleased by God’s decision to create humanity and give them dominion. This seraph communes with the supernatural world and is a dispenser of divine knowledge. This includes information in the form of omens and oracles. Divination is indeed on display in the story; Eve is getting information from this being. As evidenced by her conversation, she does not suspect treachery because she is accustomed to seeing the seraph right where he is supposed to be-- in the garden guarding the throne of God. (Genesis 3:1-6) The seraph closes in on his quarry with the final phrase, “You shall be like God.” Given her status as God’s imager this has the ring of truth. After all, God wants humans to be like him, to accurately represent him. We know the rest of the story. Eve and Adam eat the forbidden fruit. God renders judgment. The sentence on the man and woman take the form of a disruption of their appointed roles and they are expelled from Eden. The deceiver of Eden is cast down. His role as God’s throne guardian ends and, consequently, access to God’s divine council. Ezekiel and Isaiah describe the fall of this angelic being: “Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you ruined your wisdom because of your splendor.” “How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! In the Gospel of Luke Jesus corroborates this event, “I saw the Devil himself fall from heaven like lightning.” The being who wanted to be most high would be most low instead. God cast him down to the ground (‘erets), a term that refers literally to the dirt and metaphorically to the underworld. In this realm the seraph is lower than the beasts of the field. His domain is death. He is hidden from view and from the life in God’s world.
Historical Progression: The Genesis story was an oral tradition, handed down for more than a millennium, before it transitioned to its final telling (400 BC). Within a few centuries a counter context was imposed on the permanent narrative, exercising Adam from the incident, and indicting Eve as the sole sinner. Ben Sirach said, “From a woman was sin’s beginning, and because of her, we all die.” Paul’s epistles in the New Testament correct the story, noting Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned. Yet within a century of Paul’s death the church embraced the counter tale, condemning women once again. Tertullian proclaimed, “[The woman} opened the door to the Devil….and destroyed the image of God, namely, man.” This statement is reminiscent of Adam’s response to God’s question, “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” To which Adam replies, “The woman you put here with me…” And so the serpent slithers away, down the passage of time, sowing division (devil means divide), while masquerading as an “angel of light.”
In 1928, in historic Ugarit (Syria), 1400 clay tablets were discovered that put all of the Old Testament history in context. This ancient alphabetic language is closer to biblical Hebrew than any other ancient language. In many cases the two languages are almost identical. This tranche of cuneiform sheds light on how the ancients understood their world and the supernatural realm. It clarifies previously unknown and misunderstood words and concepts in the Bible. Case in point, the serpent in Eden is not a reptile. Rather, he is a divine being— the throne guardian of God. This new discovery exposes the twisted truth of a tale disconnected from its historical context. Eve has my sympathy. For over two-thousand years she’s been portrayed as a feckless featherbrain, sandbagged by a snake. All the while, we’ve been gob smacked by a talking reptile. In a world overwhelmed by the material we are, sadly, underwhelmed by the spiritual. The grandeur and complexity of the divine realm is lost without historical tradition. We can only see Eden when we return to the garden and view it through the ancient focal point of Paradise.
Conclusion: There is no view from nowhere. Context is the load-bearing wall of understanding. Without it inquiry arrives at incorrect conclusions. Women, in particular, all too often become twisted distortions. Eve and the snake are but one example.
Sources: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/wholecounsel/2018/12/05/who-is-the-devil/ ; The Unseen Realm, Michael Heiser; https://drmsh.com/new-cherubim-and-seraphim-video/ ; https://margmowczko.com/blaming-eve-alone/ ; The Religion of the Apostles, Stephen De Young