The serpent in the Garden of Eden
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| English: The story of the Eden Garden. Façade ouest de Notre-Dame de Paris. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
A real serpent was the agent of the temptation, as it is plain from what is said of the natural characteristics of the serpent in the first verse of the chapter, and from the curse pronounced upon the animal itself, and the enmity which was declared should subsist between it and man through all time. But that Satan was the real tempter, and that he used the serpent merely as his organ or instrument, is evident,—
(1.) From the nature of the transaction. What is here attributed to the serpent far transcends the power of any irrational creature. The serpent may be the most subtile of all the beasts of the field, but he has not the high intellectual faculties which the tempter here displays.
(2.) In the New Testament it is both directly asserted, and in various forms assumed, that Satan seduced our first parents into sin. In Rev. 12:9, it is said, “The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.”
And in Rev. 20:2, “He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan.” In 2 Cor. 11:3, Paul says, “I fear lest … as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so also your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” But that by the serpent he understood Satan, is plain from 2 Cor. 5:14, where he speaks of Satan as the great deceiver; and what is said in Rom. 16:20, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet,” is in obvious allusion to Gen. 3:15.
In John 8:44, our Lord calls the devil a murderer from the beginning, and the father of lies, because through him sin and death were introduced into the world. Such was also the faith of the Jewish Church. In the Book of Wisdom 2:24, it is said, that “Through the envy of Satan came death into the world.” In the later Jewish writings this idea is often presented.1
As to the serpent’s speaking there is no more difficulty than in the utterance of articulate words from Sinai, or the sounding of a voice from heaven at the baptism of our Lord, or in the speaking of Balaam’s ass. The words uttered were produced by the power of Satan, and of such effects produced by angelic beings good and evil there are numerous instances in the Bible.
The Nature of the Temptation.
The first address of the tempter to Eve was designed to awaken distrust in the goodness of God, and doubt as to the truth of the prohibition. “Hath God indeed said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” or, rather, as the words probably mean, “Has God said, ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?” The next address was a direct assault upon her faith. “Ye shall not surely die;” but on the contrary, become as God himself in knowledge.
To this temptation she yielded, and Adam joined in the transgression. From this account it appears that doubt, unbelief, and pride were the principles which led to this fatal act of disobedience. Eve doubted God’s goodness; she disbelieved his threatening; she aspired after forbidden knowledge.
Hodge, C. (1997). Systematic theology (Vol. 2, pp. 127–128). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
