The Good and Evil Serpent (53 page)

The image of an eagle holding a snake continues into the modern era; the symbol appears on medals, engravings, etchings, paintings, doorknockers, mirrors, and sculptures.
¹⁵⁴
A good example of this imagery appears in Blake’s
Marriage of Heaven and Hell
. The reactionary forces in France chose the eagle, so the revolutionary forces and Napoleon adopted the snake as their symbol.

Throughout the lore and myths of the ancient Near East are tales about harmful and fearful monsters that are snakes. Sometimes they have names like Behemoth, Leviathan, and Rahab (see
Appendix I
). The human imagination and lack of knowledge of antiquity and of the earth and its oceans led to dreams and speculations on the ferocity and size of these ancient serpent monsters. This recognition helps us comprehend why serpents appear with seven heads and other oddities. MacCulloch stated so perceptively the relation between the snake and the evil eye:

Although the serpent is frequently worshipped, its harmful character and the repulsion which it arouses, its frequent large size and strength, and the mystery of its movements have often caused a sinister character to be given it, and made it an embodiment of demoniac powers. Because of the brightness of its eye and its power of fascination over animals the serpent was commonly supposed to have the evil eye.
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The Jewish, Christian, and Gnostic amulets with serpents often reveal the evil-eye power of the serpent (
Fig. 87
). Perhaps the same attribute was embodied in the wooden and bronze images of serpents shown earlier (
Fig. 85
).

Fear

The soundless swiftness of the snake, and its ability to appear unexpectedly, helped to make the snake a symbol of fear (cf. 2.6).
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The need for a snake to swallow its victim whole, at once, and often while alive also stimulated fear (cf. 2.9). The sheer size of snakes can cause fear; the anaconda and reticulated python can grow to at least 9 meters, the king cobra to over 5 meters, and the Diamondback Rattlesnake can weigh over 15 kilograms.
¹⁵⁷
No creature seems to strike fear in the heart of the human as much as the snake.

This fear aroused by the deadly snake is obvious to most humans, especially when one is suddenly aware that one is too close to a rattler whose unexpected warning sends shivers up and down the spine. I remember a harrowing moment near dusk one summer in the mountains of North Carolina. Without warning, and with shocking suddenness, I had confronted at least five large rattlesnakes. I could not imagine how I had become so unlucky. The whole area seemed unexpectedly alive with the sound of rattlers. As my eyes became accustomed to the dusk of the evening, I realized that in the darkness—only 2 meters in front of me—were five large rattlesnakes. Fortunately, they were housed in cages. They had been collected from various areas of the mountains by the camp manager.

The snake is often a symbol of fear in Rabbinics. For example, Rabbi Ben Azzai is reputed to have said, “Lie on anything but on the ground for fear of serpents”
(m. Ber
. 62b).

Symbol of Corrupted Sex (the Phallus)

The elongated nature of the snake and its imagined phallic shape, especially when aroused, stimulated reflections on sex (cf. 2.5 and 2.22). Also, the male serpent has two penises (hemipenes); thus, the serpent symbolizes, sometimes, the phallus and sex (cf. 2.7). Plutarch relates how Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, lost the sight of his eye, which had been “applied to the chink in the door when he espied the god, in the form of a serpent, sharing the couch of his wife.”
¹⁵⁸
The association of the snake with the penis is widespread; it may be mirrored in the early fear of Jews that in the privy a snake might curl around one’s penis (/’.
Ta’an
4.69a). The serpent often symbolizes sex in dance and art.
¹⁵⁹

Due to the snake’s ability to represent opposites, as in the caduceus, it can also symbolize the womb. From very ancient times, serpent iconography appears with circles. This symbol is present in pre-70 Judaism, as in the Herodian serpent pendant with circles. These circles are called lozenges and signify the vulva. The serpent with lozenges might symbolize the gates to the chthonic world.
¹⁶⁰

Sex can be violent, and sex crimes are as old as humankind. Today we baptize them with less odious terms like “crimes of passion.” The wild orgies of antiquity degenerated into corrupted sex. The gods with a serpent as a phallus, especially Priapus,
¹⁶¹
displayed the erotic power of the lin-gam, but also connoted violent and corrupt sex (if sex is defined as a caring and physical dialogue between two lovers).

We have seen significant evidence that the serpent is often a negative symbol. The author of 4 Maccabees refers to “the seducing and beguiling serpent” that defiles young women.
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In 2 Corinthians 11:2–3 Paul expresses a similar thought. Metaphorically, he compares his converts to “a pure bride” who may be deceived, as Eve, by a serpent.
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Should we agree with R. H. Isaacs: “The biblical snake is continually used to represent temptation and power of evil”?
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Was P. Haupt correct to conclude that in “the Story of Paradise the serpent symbolizes carnal desire, sexual appetite, concupiscence”?
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Should we concur with H.-G. Buchholz, who contended that in biblical lore the serpent plays a negative role and is an unclean animal?
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That should now be unthinkable to the reader. Such conclusions would create a biblical text from our own misperceptions. The serpent is not necessarily an evil creature in Genesis 3, as we shall see. In Numbers 21 two serpent symbols appear and one is clearly good and salvific. Dan is likened to a serpent that guards Israel: “Dan shall be a snake by the roadside” (Gen 49:17 [NRSV]).

Another fallacy needs to be clarified, exposed, and rejected. First, some thinkers imagine that the serpent is primarily a negative symbol. Second, others imagine that the snake symbolizes one of the sixteen meanings previously described. Third, other thinkers imagine that many of the images appear in a complex collage. All represent misleading and misinformed positions. The snake can symbolize one or more of these negative images, but it also can symbolize one or more of the following positive concepts or images. Emphatically clear is the perception that while the taxonomy of serpent symbology divides into sixteen negative symbolic meanings, it also continues into no fewer than twenty-nine positive symbolic meanings, as we shall see. Moreover, some serpent symbols, like the caduceus, are clearly a double entendre, and the paronomasia is most likely intentional; that is, the serpent symbolizes both light and goodness as well as darkness and evil. Let us now turn to examine how the biblical authors, and others, saw the snake as a positive symbol.

POSITIVE SYMBOLIC MEANING

Twenty-nine positive meanings of serpent symbolism may be discerned in the data already collected. Unfortunately, scholars and nonspecialists have missed the positive symbolic meaning of the serpent, myopically taking medicine without seeing that it is almost always administered with a symbol: the caduceus or a snake curled around a lance or staff.
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In ancient Greece, we noticed the preponderance of ophidian imagery; some of it is clearly negative. Hercules is constantly confronted with serpents. As a baby, he must struggle against two snakes. Later he fights the Hydra, meets the snake in the tree in the Hesperides, and is confronted by the serpent-dog Cerberus. Laocoon and his sons are strangled to death by snakes. The Scylla often is depicted with a dragon as a torso. Jason can obtain the Golden Fleece only when Medea diverts the attention of the snake-dragon.
¹⁶⁸
Orpheus descends into Hades, searching for his beloved wife, a beautiful nymph, who had been fatally bitten by a snake. At “the navel of the earth,” Delphi, Apollo defeats the python.
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Despite these depictions of the snake as evil or harmful, ophidian iconography in Greek mythology and theology was emphatically and pervasively positive. Zeus, Apollo,
¹⁷⁰
Asclepius, Athena—virtually all the Greek gods and goddesses—are presented as snakes or accompanied and identified by snakes or serpents.
¹⁷¹
The “Good-Spirit” (Agathadaimon) appears as a large upraised snake; it was later identified with the god Aion.
¹⁷²
Galen found amulets with Agathadaimon helpful, advising that, when worn on the throat and chest, they benefit the internal organs: “Some, indeed, set the stone in a ring and engrave upon it a serpent with his head crowned with rays, according as is prescribed by King Nechepsos in his thirteenth book.”
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And at Delphi, a large column with three serpents (the Tripod of Plataea) was erected near the temple of Apollo.
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A candelabrum with a serpent with beard, eyes, and open mouth with its tongue visible was found;
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archaeologists have also uncovered the Fountain of Asclepius and a sanctuary of Asclepius.
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In Athens, three gods were revered with ophidian iconography: Athena, Hermes, and a giant snake.
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In the agora in Athens, the temple of Agrippa boasted columns that featured Giants having anguipedes.

Figure 66
.
Left
. Agrippa’s Temple.
Right
. Giants with anguipedes (close-up). Athens Agora. JHC

Similar positive use of the serpent may be found in Jewish sources. For example, according to the compiler of the
Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers
, God has filled the world with, inter alia, the “hissings of serpents” and “many-colored birds.”
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While sixteen negative symbolic meanings of the serpent have been illustrated, at least twenty-nine positive symbolic meanings may be ascertained. Thus, we shall now succinctly discuss the following positive meanings of serpent symbolism:

Most examples of positive serpent symbolism come from the Levant, even the land of Israel. We have seen that in antiquity positive serpent symbolism was much more prevalent in the ancient Near East (although not in the religion of Israel, especially after Hezekiah).
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The examples of positive serpent symbolism markedly outnumber those of negative symbolism.

The Seraphim most likely were serpents with six wings (see
Appendix I
). In ancient Christian illuminated manuscripts, paintings, and frescoes, they appear with six wings (two over the genitals) and with human faces, but they are not depicted with features of a serpent. This is especially true in the monasteries of Meteora,
¹⁸⁰
near Thessaly, the birthplace of Asclepius.
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Today, in virtually all parts of the world the serpent symbolizes medical research and pharmacies. The serpent is placed on medicines and prescription drugs. Note the signs in
Fig. 67
seen in Greece, West Jerusalem, and East Jerusalem.