Meaning of SERPENT

Reptile (Gen. 3:1, 14) provided with a head, tail and body (Gen. 3:15; Ex. 4:4), but without limbs. Its generic Heb. name. It is "nãhãsh", in Gr. "ophis" (Gen. 3:13, cf. 2 Cor. 11:3; Num. 21:9; cf. Jn. 3:14).

When crawling, it frequently drags itself in the dust (Mi. 7:17; cf. Gen. 3:14; Isa. 65:25). The bite of certain snakes injects a deadly poison into the wound (Num. 21:6; Ps. 58:5; Prov. 23:32). There are snake charmers (Eccl. 10:11).

The serpent is found in deserts, in inhabited places, near roads, on rocks, on walls (Gen. 49:17; Num. 21:6; Pr. 30:19; Eccl. 10:8; Am. 5:19). The species of fiery serpents mentioned in Num. 21:6 is spread throughout Arabia and other countries. (See BRONZE SNAKE below.)

In Hebrew There are eight different terms that designate snakes, and it is not possible to specify the species in question in each case. Snakes are numerous in Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula. In Palestine there are 33 known varieties.

Most of them are harmless, but some are very dangerous, such as the terrible Egyptian cobra ("naja haje"), the yellow viper ("daboia xanthina"), the "echis arenicola", the "vipera euphratica" and the " vipera ammodystes", the cerastes or African viper ("Cerastes Hasselquistii").

The viper that bit Paul in Cyprus is generally identified with the "vipera aspis."
Since the serpent was the instrument of temptation, it was cursed above all animals (Gen. 3:1, 14).

In the same way that there is demonic possession in men and animals (Lk. 22:3; Mr. 5:13), Satan himself used the serpent to seduce Eve (2 Cor. 11:3; Rev. 12: 9; Rom. 16:20; Wis. 2:24). (See DEVIL.)

The curse of Gen. 3:14-15 is double: it falls on the serpent, an animal that becomes an object of particular honor for women and men; It also falls to the devil, the "old serpent" whose head will be crushed by the woman's promised posterity, Christ (Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14).

Serpent worship occurs in many pagan religions around the world. In this way Satan has gained the worship of multitudes of this fallen world.

The Lord recommended to his disciples that they be "wise as serpents" (Mt. 10:16), probably an allusion to Gen. 3, where the term "astute" is translated in the LXX with the same term Gk. which in this passage is translated "prudent."