The snake in the garden of eden

[_just me]

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in the OP. The point of this isn't really about snakes, but about Satan. As in, Satan didn't tempt anyone in the garden of Eden. Ha-Satan, the minor Canaanite God, wasn't in that little story. Neither was the modern boogie man Satan.

What precludes it?

You seem to have a double standard on what can be added or taken away from the scriptures.

There is evidence of women holding priesthood office, yet you claim there is not enough. There is no scripture banning women from the priesthood, yet you believe women are indeed banned.

There is no evidence of Satan being in the garden, yet you claim it hasn't been precluded so....we should just assume he was the serpent?

[_Hoops]

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Granted El hadn't taken away his legs yet. Another Just So story.

You mean "another story that I criticize but don't really know."

[_Jersey Girl]

Was just a snake.

There's no biblical evidence that says it was a snake in the first place. Try and know the story before you so smugly dismiss it.

It was a "serpent".

[_Buffalo]

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Granted El hadn't taken away his legs yet. Another Just So story.

You mean "another story that I criticize but don't really know."

Already demonstrated that I know it. The same cannot be said for you. :)

[_Hoops]

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Even the God of Christianity wants to be feared.

The only way you can get this is by ripping a verse or two or 40 from the Old Testament without recognizing the purpose of Israel. And I can find just as many that tell us something different. Perhaps it's worth another look?

[_Jersey Girl]

[
Do you know what the word in the original text meant?

Do we have the original text? If so, what text are you thinking about? Do you have a link to it so I can read it?

Here's Adam/Eve (Gen 3) in both the Septuagint and Masoretic texts.

http://www.ecmarsh.com/lxx-kjv/genesis/gen_003.htm

I'm interested in the text that you're referring to and what the word meant. What language is it in?

I need to know stuff.
:-)

[_just me]

[
Do you know what the word in the original text meant?

Do we have the original text? If so, what text are you thinking about? Do you have a link to it so I can read it?

Here's Adam/Eve (Gen 3) in both the Septuagint and Masoretic texts.

http://www.ecmarsh.com/lxx-kjv/genesis/gen_003.htm

I'm interested in the text that you're referring to and what the word meant. What language is it in?

I need to know stuff.
:-)

I meant original language of the text used for translation. I was just wondering if the original word should be understood as a snake or a mystical creature or something else entirely. Certainly the author had something in mind when they wrote whatever word they wrote.

[_Jersey Girl]

BFF

I meant original language of the text used for translation. I was just wondering if the original word should be understood as a snake or a mystical creature or something else entirely. Certainly the author had something in mind when they wrote whatever word they wrote.

Oh, I thought your question was a challenge. :-) So, I don't know much about this. I do know that the serpent was used by ancient cults. Just what it symbolized, I don't know.

I will have to dig deeper...

[_Jersey Girl]

I am too fast. :-D

I think the storyteller in Genesis gives us a description of the characeristics of the serpent and that is all we have to go by.

Check out this link for the serpent in ancient symbolism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_(symbolism)


by the way, this is how I love a discussion to go on a board. Digging up information and learning from it. Otherwise, I remain content to publish nonsense on this board.

Given my nonsense:information ratio, that's not saying much about how discussions go down around here.

[_just me]

I am too fast. :-D

I think the storyteller in Genesis gives us a description of the characeristics of the serpent and that is all we have to go by.

Check out this link for the serpent in ancient symbolism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_(symbolism)


by the way, this is how I love a discussion to go on a board. Digging up information and learning from it. Otherwise, I remain content to publish nonsense on this board.

Given my nonsense:information ratio, that's not saying much about how discussions go down around here.

See this is what is interesting and what I was trying to express in my first post. The serpent is not typically an "evil" symbol. In the link you've referenced it points out where it is a symbol of duality-poison and healing being one example.

When I think about the garden narrative I think about the tree that was forbidden. It was the tree of knowledge. It contained duality, too. Knowledge of good and evil. Why did God not want humans to have knowledge? They did not know good. Wouldn't God want humans to know good? They wouldn't know if God was good or if obeying was good or if the serpent was good. They would be unable to know any of this without partaking of the fruit of the tree.

The other interesting thing is what appears to me an assumption that death is bad. Where does this assumption come from? God tells them that if they eat the fruit they will die (that day). Well, they don't have a way of knowing if that is good or not. How would they even know death if it hadn't existed on earth before (LDS) or if they hadn't witnessed other human death?
On top of that, when they eat the fruit they DON'T die. This effectively makes the God in the story a liar. On top of that, Eve isn't even there when God makes this proclamation in the Gen. 2 version of the story.

Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Really the story is fascinating to me. The symbolic implications interest me and I can see many valid interpretations. I do think that modern people read it differently than how the ancients did....the people who created the story to begin with.