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Upon reading the recent CNN article, That Actually Isn't In The Bible, one not-really-in-the-Bible misconception they cite is the idea that serpent in the Garden of Eden was the Satan.

The article cites several biblical scholars who correctly say that the Satan is not mentioned in the creation account, and indeed, not at all in Genesis. (Of course, the Satan is mentioned in the Tenakh, in particular, in Chronicles and Job.)

Even though Genesis doesn't explicitly call out the serpent as the Satan, this nonetheless seems to be a reasonable conclusion among some theologians, particularly in light of the Satan's dealings with G-d in Job.

My question is, what is the general consensus about the serpent in the Garden of Eden? Do scholars believe this was the Satan mentioned in Job?

Whether the creation account is interpreted literally or allegorically, we are left with this figure, represented by a snake, that draws humans towards evil. Who is that figure, according to religious Jews and Jewish scholars?

mevaqesh
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Judah Gabriel Himango
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    Instead of asking if this is the satan of Job, try defining what you mean by "satan", as this may affect the answer of 'is there a general consensus?'. – YDK Aug 03 '11 at 05:10
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    The satan of job seems to be what he means by satan... :) Also for the record, that article has got to be one of the worse I have read on the topic. – avi Aug 03 '11 at 05:57
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    According to the Rambam, we know the Garden of Eden is story is allegorical because there is a talking snake, and snakes don't talk. – zaq Aug 03 '11 at 13:14
  • @zaq, reference for that? Reason I ask, if Gan Eden account is allegory because of talking animals, we must also say Israel's Exodus is also allegory, since we have a talking animal in the form of Balaam's donkey. – Judah Gabriel Himango Aug 03 '11 at 17:25
  • @YDK Talking about what I mean by Satan would likely draw attention away from the question and towards a debate/discussion about what Satan is in Jewish literature vs pop culture. So the only thing I'll say is, by 'Satan', I mean the Satan mentioned in the Tenakh, not any other figure. – Judah Gabriel Himango Aug 03 '11 at 17:27
  • @ Judah, I'll have to find it, but I'm pretty sure it's in the guide of the perplexed. Rambam also says the traveling-section of Balaam's story, where the donkey talks, is in a vision of prophecy. – zaq Aug 03 '11 at 17:42
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    Yes, the Rambam is 'famous' for reading all the instances of talking to the divine, angles animals etc, to be 'visions' or allegory. According to the rambam, if we know it can't physically happen in our world, then we know it didn't happen in Tanach that way either. Rather it was a vision or an allegory. – avi Aug 03 '11 at 19:20
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    @JudahGabriel you might want to notice that the Exodus happens in the book of Exodus/Shemot and Bereshit/Genesis, while the talking donkey is only in the book of Bamidbar/Numbers, which actually doesn't talk about the exodus, so that comparison is faulty. – avi Aug 03 '11 at 19:21
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    @JudahGabriel, users on the site are pretty good at answering on the topic, reserving debate about your presuppositions for the comments (as you can see!). My point is that we may have an overwhelming consensus of the serpent being "satan", but a fierce debate about whether "satan" is an angel, human nature, some other force, an allegorical idea, etc. So an answer to your question as it stands may be insufficient. – YDK Aug 03 '11 at 19:41
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    I think the Zohar says that they are the same satan and Nahash HaKadmoni – Hacham Gabriel Dec 18 '11 at 23:50
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    It is important to keep in mind that Judaism has a very different perspective on good and evil than Christianity. A sin is an action not a state of being. In general, there is a lot less intensity around the whole topic. You won't hear fire and brimstone sermons at a synagog. Satan is a footnote in the Jewish world view. There is much more concern over acting ethically in everyday life than there is in supernatural phenomena. From a Jewish perspective, the story of Adam and Eve focusses more on the choices people make. Whether the serpent was Satan or just a talking snake is not that important –  May 02 '14 at 07:02
  • Michael, Christians believe sin is an action, too. But that is quite off-topic for this post. – Judah Gabriel Himango May 13 '14 at 16:02
  • Job is an odd book and almost entirely aggadic; I would caution against reading too much into it. I recently had a discussion on it with one of the top (academic, though he is a religious jew) scholars of Job, and coming from that, there has always been a strong tradition of reading Job allegorically. . –  Jul 28 '14 at 15:52

2 Answers2

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Among the classical Torah commentators, there are those that interpret that whole Garden of Eden story as being literal historical fact, while others interpret it allegorically.

The main authority who treats it as allegory is Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim (Volume 2, Chapter 30), and according to his interpretation, the snake represents a person's "appetitive faculty" (the part of the Aristotelian model of the psych that controls a person's emotions and desires).

Those that interpret the story literally, though, differ in how they explain the talking snake:

  • The snake from creation was an intelligent animal that talked, thought, and walked upright like a human. Only after its sin was it downgraded to the level of all the other animals (or perhaps below the level of most animals). [See Ibn Ezra (Bereshis 3:1).]
  • The snake is actually the Torah's way of referring to Satan. (As @avi noted, the Satan is traditionally believed as being the evil inclination and/or the angel of death.) In this case, either there was no actual snake at all, or the Satan appeared in the form of a snake. [R' Saadia Gaon brought in Ibn Ezra.]
  • There was an actual snake, but it never really spoke. The Torah "speaks in the language of Man" when it writes "The snake said...", the same way one would say "That food is saying 'Eat me'". The snake, by climbing on the Tree of Knowledge and eating its fruits was "telling" Eve that the fruits were good and harmless. [See Abarbanel (Bereshis 3).]
jake
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  • The more nevuchim (guide for the perplexed) was written for people with trouble in emunah-faith, so the rambam took the stance there that it's allegorical, because people with trouble in faith wouldn't necessarily believe in a talking snake, it sounds like it came from a fairy tale; but it doesn't mean the rambam holds it. I might be wrong, but i believe there's places where the rambam contradicts moreh nevuchim. – user613 Aug 17 '14 at 22:54
  • @user3949142 I found this online " Maimonides clearly wrote things that contradict his other writings, but this was done because Moreh Nevuchim was written with a specific audience in mind, those Jews who were being led away from Judaism by the contemporary philosophers of the time.(For example, see what Maimonides writes in Moreh Nevuchim about the reason why the Torah prescribes animal offerings.)" – user613 Aug 17 '14 at 23:03
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    @user3949142, What is your point? We can argue forever about what the Rambam himself did or did not believe, but the fact remains that Moreh Nevuchim is an authoritative source, and the fact that the Rambam included this in this book means that he deemed it acceptable, regardless of whether he secretly did not believe it. – jake Aug 18 '14 at 16:44
  • Who says the food is saying "eat me"?! (and who listens?) – barlop May 02 '15 at 19:08
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    @user613 That is a popular apologetic theory that the MN is meant for the troubled sub-par student. Actually take a look at the introduction to the Sefer, where he clarifies just the opposite; that it is only meant for extraordinary students. The MT on the other hand is meant for everyone; including common folk. Thus, if one work of his were intended for a lower audience for whom concessions were necessary, it would if anything be the MT; not the MN. – mevaqesh Oct 30 '16 at 15:37
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Satan in Judaism is a very different beast than satan in popular culture (pun intended)

The snake in the garden of Eden is identified as the personification of the "Yetzerh Harah" (Bad/evil will/desires/inclination) by the midrashim.

The Talmud also states that the Yetzer Harah, Satan, and the angel of death are one. (Some might understand this to mean that they are 'bad things' which really are good, and necessary.

In Judaism, the Satan is an angel commanded by Gd to accuse human beings of wrong things. In modern terms, you might call satan the heavenly prosecutor, who seeks to bring all people to court.

avi
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  • Thanks for the answer. In summary, you are saying that, according to the Talmud and midrashim, the serpent is the evil inclination, the angel of death, and Satan. So it seems the CNN article implies a falsehood, then: that people mistakenly say Satan was in the Garden, when in fact, Satan/serpent/evil inclination/death angel was in the garden according to Jewish and Christian theology. Thanks for the answer. – Judah Gabriel Himango Aug 03 '11 at 16:30
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    A strict reading of the bible would tell you just a snake, and nothing else. An interprted reading of the bible based on Jewish sources would tell you its the Evil Inclination. An interpreted reading of the interpretation based on Jewish sources would tell you that the snake represents three things. (Which, could be seen as a reason for only the serpent to be mentoned in the first place) – avi Aug 03 '11 at 19:18
  • So it's not a real snake or an actual species of snake that can actually talk. – user4951 Sep 30 '11 at 06:22
  • No - There are, but today we cant talk to animals. In heaven they can "talk" by the spirit, like moving thoughts, or intuition... Everything that told in the bible - DID happened in the reality AND in addition symbolizes somthing. (or many things..) – ParPar Dec 04 '11 at 12:45
  • The simple story (exactly how it was) is told in the Bible - and the commentators tell what it symbolizes. – ParPar Dec 04 '11 at 12:49
  • ParPar , do you have a source for that belief? Because it's very unJewish. You are arguing against the Rambam who says that God does not really have a strong arm with which he took us out of Egypt. – avi Dec 04 '11 at 13:26
  • @avi You are right about a part of what you say. You have to distinguish between a real story to a parable . – ParPar Feb 02 '12 at 09:48
  • The story about Adam and Eve - indeed happened, however, like you said, G-d does not really have a strong arm... this was written just to illustrate the things. – ParPar Feb 02 '12 at 09:55
  • @ParPar not according to the Mystical tradition or Rambam. – avi Feb 02 '12 at 10:24
  • @avi Then where we all came from ? I am pretty sure Rambam didn't believe in evolution. – ParPar Feb 02 '12 at 11:14
  • @ParPar Rambam didn't know about evolution. However according to the mystical tradition, The story of Gan Eden happened in the spiritual realm, and then the human spirit was exiled to earth into the bodies of the nephilim that were at that time animals, and became human. – avi Feb 02 '12 at 11:54
  • @avi This is just the Rambam opinion, (I read about it in the meantime...) Probably we will never know for sure what exactly happened over there... – ParPar Feb 02 '12 at 14:15
  • @avi What is the source of this explanation? Really interesting... "The story of Gan Eden happened in the spiritual realm, and then the human spirit was exiled to earth into the bodies of the nephilim that were at that time animals, and became human" – juanora Jun 30 '13 at 08:42
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    @juanora I'm guessing it's R. Aryeh Kaplan, quoting Ramban. I definitely read it during my "Kaplan phase" – avi Jul 01 '13 at 09:51
  • @avi if you can find the actual reference I would greatly appreciate that. I have been an avid R Aryeh Kaplan fan since childhood and can't recall this nor does it sound like something he would say. It's extremely speculative and , to me, contradicts the text. Nefilim don't appear until end of parsha bereishis right before Noach well after creation. – Yoni May 02 '14 at 13:57
  • @Yoni If you remember which books and articles he wrote which mention theories aobut the age of the Universe, I could narrow it down. – avi May 04 '14 at 07:40
  • @Yoni or evolution. – avi May 04 '14 at 07:46
  • Sources? [15 char.] – mevaqesh Apr 14 '17 at 16:47