Why do you think scripture uses 'snake' or 'serpant' to symbolised satan?

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Is this just because humans would associate it with something horrible, or is God displeased with snakes? Do you think satan has ever had an influence over evolution?
 
The serpent, Satan’s tool, was not the slithering animal we know today - that came as a result of the curse Gen 3:14

In fact Gen 3:1 describes him as the most beautiful creature less than man that God had made and more subtle than ANY of the beasts of the earth.
 
Satan did literally appear as a serpent, and God cursed him as such.

Peace,
Ed
 
Thank you for these answers.

Is this the official teaching? I always saw Genesis as very symbolic.
 
Thyme said:
Thank you for these answers.

Is this the official teaching? I always saw Genesis as very symbolic.
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The Church teaches that we must believe that Adam and Eve were real people and the forefathers of all human life. As to the serpent, we can’t really know just what kind of creature it might have been. Obviously, Satan was personified in some form of creature or the account would simply say that Satan came to Eve to tempt her.

We humans think of reptiles as repellent, but really they’re not, they’re just animals and most of them are harmless. I believe we feel that way because of the enmity that came as a result of the fall:

Gn. 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

It could also be because those snakes that are venomous cause us to fear and hate them. I believe the serpent symbolizes the poison of sin that strikes and kills the divine life within us, which only Christ, who crushed the head of the serpent (where it’s fang are located and from which it injects its poison), can defeat. The serpent’s head also represents pride and rebellion, as Christ’s heel represents humility and total obedience to God’s will.
 
Well, If we believe that demons can possess humans and animals, as Jesus cast demons from men and Legion was thrown from a man to a herd of pigs, how can one not believe that Satan probably possessed the serpent?

What’s more likely to be sneaky, show up to Eve and saw “I am Satan. Here me roar, eat the fruit” or possess the Serpent, the most subtil of the creature and seduce her into the sin. Satan comes to us, to get us to sin through many means and usually sneaky.
 
diggerdomer said:
Where did Satan literally appear as a Serpent?
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I agree - nowhere in the story is the snake referred to as satan. As the catechism states, this story used figurative language. It is a myth - symbolic story - exploring the issue of why there is suffering in a world in which a good God created everything.
When one examines the literary form of the story, questions that presume historicity appear irrelevant. The text will simply not support a claim of historicity.
 
Yes, they are references to the brazen serpent that God commanded Moses to put on a pole for the healing of the people. Jesus referred to it when he said the Son of Man must be lifted up as the serpent in the OT account. That anti-Catholics throw this up as supposed “evidence” of the Catholic Church being false only shows their ignorance of both biblical exegesis and symbolism.
 
patg said:
I agree - nowhere in the story is the snake referred to as satan. As the catechism states, this story used figurative language. It is a myth - symbolic story - exploring the issue of why there is suffering in a world in which a good God created everything.
When one examines the literary form of the story, questions that presume historicity appear irrelevant. The text will simply not support a claim of historicity.
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Interesting thought. So tell me, what other parts of the Bible are not historical?

Peace,
Ed
 
patg said:
I agree - nowhere in the story is the snake referred to as satan. As the catechism states, this story used figurative language. It is a myth - symbolic story - exploring the issue of why there is suffering in a world in which a good God created everything.
When one examines the literary form of the story, questions that presume historicity appear irrelevant. The text will simply not support a claim of historicity.
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So, why is there suffering in a world…
What happened to human nature which was and is good as God created it?

Myth? Symbolic? Figurative? Children’s book? What is the point if not Divine Revelation?

Divine Revelation doesn’t explore issues. Divine Revelation trumps

Blessings, granny
The human person is worthy of profound respect from the moment of conception.
 
On a less supernatural note, the snake had an important, positive role in many of the pagan religions the ancient Hebrews came into contact, and I think that this may have had a role in why the same animal came to symbolize the Enemy.
 
edwest2 said:
Interesting thought. So tell me, what other parts of the Bible are not historical?

The truth is, much of the stories of Genesis,including the story of the fall is mythical. A myth is designed to convey truths about God’s realm and the relationships between God and man.

The bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit is inerrent but the actual stories may well have not occurred in a literal, historic sense.

We may look to other cultures and find that the use of the serpent to portray the underworld or a trickster was quite common before the writing of Genesis. The Mesopatamians, Egyptians, Assyrians and others used this image and the writers of Genesis and the people for whom the story was written would have been quite familiar with the meaning.

Let’s not forget that much of this text was written and told during or just after the Babylonian Exile. That is why there would have been a good deal of familiarity with these images.

Peace,
Ed
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cargau:
The Church regards Genesis as actual history.

"Real History

The argument is that all of this is real history, it is simply ordered topically rather than chronologically, and the ancient audience of Genesis, it is argued, would have understood it as such.

Even if Genesis 1 records God’s work in a topical fashion, it still records God’s work—things God really did.

The Catechism explains that “Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine ‘work,’ concluded by the ‘rest’ of the seventh day” (CCC 337), but “nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator. The world began when God’s word drew it out of nothingness; all existent beings, all of nature, and all human history is rooted in this primordial event, the very genesis by which the world was constituted and time begun” (CCC 338).

It is impossible to dismiss the events of Genesis 1 as a mere legend. They are accounts of real history, even if they are told in a style of historical writing that Westerners do not typically use."

This quote is from the Catholic Answers library.

Peace,
Ed
 
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edwest2:
The Church does not support this idea.

catholic.com/library/Is_C…cism_Pagan.asp
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I do not see what the link that you gave has to do with the issue at hand.

No, Catholicism is not pagan, and neither is Hebraism. But the sacred scriptures do mention and criticize the pagan religions which were known to the Hebrews at the time of the writing, and it is undeniable that the culture and mindset transpiring from the Bible owes much to influences from the pagan populations the Hebrews had contact with: for a rather uncontroversial example, consider the imagery used for describing the Cherubim in the Book of Ezekiel.
 
grannymh said:
So, why is there suffering in a world…
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As clearly taught in the story, there is suffering when one disobeys God.
What happened to human nature which was and is good as God created it?
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The gift of free will generally took care of that.
Myth? Symbolic? Figurative? Children’s book? What is the point if not Divine Revelation?
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As stated dogmatically in Dei Verbum, the bible contains many such lliterary forms used as vehicles for revelation.
Divine Revelation doesn’t explore issues.
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Yes it does, constantly. The authors of Genesis used myth and legend to explore creation, suffering, floods, different languages, etc.
Divine Revelation trumps
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I don’t know what that means but I do know that the bible is a record of mankind’s coming to an understanding of revelation. “Revelation” isn’t a thing that happened once and is presented as a “finished product” in the bible. The bible is a record of the long process of revelation which evolved over many centuries. The simple stories and morals of Genesis are follow by much more complex theological discussions.
 
Originally Posted by grannymh http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/buttons_khaki/viewpost.gif
So, why is there suffering in a world…
patg said:
As clearly taught in the story, there is suffering when one disobeys God.
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Catholicism teaches that Satan was directly involved in Genesis. This means that there is a great deal more meaning to "there is suffering when one disobeys God."
What kind of suffering is connected to what kinds of disobedience including the first disobedience of Adam, as founder of the human species?

What did Satan do?

Blessings,
granny

Our first parent Adam was the apple of God’s eye.
(example of reality and figurative language)
 
patg said:
As stated dogmatically in Dei Verbum, the bible contains many such lliterary forms used as vehicles for revelation.
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The bible also uses real events as a solid basis for Divine Revlation. This is the both-and Catholic perspective.
 
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