Deceptive Serpent or Satan?

 The Deceptive Serpent - Nahash the Whispering Spirit Within

When we read the Genesis account of Adam and Eve, we are also introduced to the Serpent character (in chapter 3). So there are three characters that play a vital role in defining the first story of the Bible. Each character should be seen in relation to the meaning of their names. Adam, is the Hebrew word of “of Earth” or “Soil” and is representative of mankind being created from the dust of the earth. Eve (Chavah) means “life” or that from which life comes (ie, a breath or a vessel that brings new life into the world). And the Serpent’s name in Hebrew is Nahash, which means to “hiss” or to “whisper” into the ear of another.

It's right here we need to stop and realize that the Hebrew text is written in poetic fashion (not a historical didactic) and is painting an allegory for the reader to learn spiritual insights. The characters are portraying spiritual aspects of the allegorical teaching as a whole. We are not to simply imagine a rugged man named Adam, and his attentive wife being pestered and then deceived by a crafty talking snake. Once we get rid of our preconceived notions about what we have been taught by traditions, or by our own imaginations on these scriptures, the simple spiritual meaning is very easy to grasp.

If I were to approach someone that has never heard this story about Adam, Eve, and the Serpent and I gave the story to them this way:

Let me tell you a story about these three characters. There was a man and a wife in a garden, and a third character came walking up to the wife and spoke to her about the tree in the garden. This third character was a very crafty and deceptive fellow. He knew how to get the wife to see the appeal of the things he spoke to her about and he even was able to speak about spiritual things about God and distort those things to seem reasonable to her. And he convinced her to do something she shouldn’t do.  

Now tell me, does the third character in this story portray the attributes of a reptile, specifically a snake? No, of course not. Surely the third character is human as only a human has the traits that are described in this story. This is simply an allegory in Hebraic-poetic form, using the Hebrew word pictures and symbolic names, like the term for “whisperer” (which is like a hissing snake). The third person is a symbolic picture of a deceiver and an ear whisperer. It’s symbolic and thus uses the name “Nahash”. Just as Adam, which means “Soil” and Eve which means “Life giving” are words adding symbolic imagery to this allegory. 

The three characters are three images with deep spiritual meaning. The Man (the first part of humanity) is a picture of soil, the dust of the earth that mankind was made from. Eve (the second part of humanity), is the vessel that gives life, becoming the mother of all the living. When Adam and Eve come together (dirt and life) all of humanity is born. And the Nahash, the whispering one, is the third part of humanity. The inner part of man that seeks self desire and deceives itself into disobeying God. 

Eve was not talking to a snake. She was talking to her own humanity. The inner ‘whisper’ of her own self that was telling her to partake of the forbidden fruit for her own pleasure and desire. The third character in the story is human (not reptile) and is portrayed with human characteristics because it is Adam and Eve’s own human selves. Their inner voice that seeks self desire over obeying the will of God.

This whole story is simply teaching us the very basic story of the inception of the Yetzer Hara, the evil inclination, the ‘beast’ or ‘snake’ soul that is within humanity. The free will ability for man to choose to disobey God and obey his own passions is called the Yetzer Hara. This evil inclination is the concept that within each and every person is the “Nahash” , the deceptive nature that influences our conscience. Humanity is made up of “Adam” (dust, soil) “Eve” (life, breath), and “Serpent” (deceptive whispers). But why did God put the Serpent in the Garden to begin with? Why is the serpent part of mankind’s DNA?

Because of free will. God would have created mankind without a free will if he did not provide the serpent to be part of man’s makeup. The serpent nature gives mankind the ability to have free will. The ability to choose to obey God, and merit righteousness and blessings, or to choose to disobey God and please our self desires. God wanted to create man with this dualistic nature so that by man’s own free choice he could choose to love God. The serpent nature allows for choices. It also allows us to do battle with and overcome one nature (the evil inclination), and strengthen the other nature (the obedient inclination). How could there be true piety in the universe if we did not have an opportunity to overcome the bad serpent nature within us? 

We see in verse 15 of chapter 3 right after Adam and Eve give in to their serpent nature, a great battle is laid out by God. God speaks to the serpent nature within mankind and says:

And I shall place hatred between you and between the woman, and between your seed and between her seed. He will crush your head, and you will bite his heel.

   The battle will be real. Because Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and gave a strong foothold to the serpent nature, it will be part of their everyday life. How do we know this is Adam and Eve’s battle and not a specific curse to the serpent? Because there are three curses given. Adam will have to get food to sustain life from toiling the earth. Eve will have to give new life and birth with pain. These are both human in nature. So too then the third curse is human in nature (it's illogical that God is here cursing a physical snake). Mankind will be infused with the serpent nature and have to do battle with the choices between “Good and evil” all the days of their life. This is mankind’s battle (not a reptile's curse). Let’s remember, they did eat from the forbidden tree of the “knowledge of good and evil”, is it no wonder now they will forever deal with having to struggle with that knowledge (just as they struggle with toiling the soil and bringing children into the world). And that battle is with the serpent nature that is infused into humanity.

But there is hope. Ultimately we know that mankind is to be victorious over their own sinful nature. For though the serpent nature, our own evil inclination, keeps striking at our heel, we will crush its head. 

So we see that there are no talking snakes in this story. Nor is there any “Devil” or some sort of evil being or fallen Angel. No enemy of God that sneaks into the Garden of Eden and messes up God’s plan. God beautifully created all three characters in this story. Adam, Eve, and Nahash. For these three characters are the makeup of mankind himself. The Nahash was given to our nature as a tool so that we could have free will, and so that we could learn to ignore the bad and choose God. So we could battle with the lies of self deception, and seek to obey God, and thus with our free will prove our love to our creator. Baruch HaShem.