Christians argue that there are instances in the Hebrew Bible where the
word zera is used in a figurative sense, for example:
וְאֵיבָ֣ה ׀ אָשִׁ֗ית בֵּֽינְךָ֙ וּבֵ֣ין הָֽאִשָּׁ֔ה וּבֵ֥ין זַרְעֲךָ֖ וּבֵ֣ין
זַרְעָ֑הּ ה֚וּא יְשׁוּפְךָ֣ רֹ֔אשׁ וְאַתָּ֖ה תְּשׁוּפֶ֥נּוּ עָקֵֽב׃ ס
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers; they shall strike at your head, and you shall strike at their
heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
Christians contend “the seed of the serpent being those of Eve’s posterity
who should imbibe the devil’s spirit and obey the devil’s rule” (Pulpit
Commentary). According to Christians, the serpent symbolizes Satan, and his
offspring are those human beings who are under his spiritual power.
The problem with this explanation is that it is forced, and the text of
Genesis itself doesn’t lend any credence to this view: “Unlike some later
Jewish and Christian literature, Genesis does not identify the talking snake
with Satan or any other demonic being.” (Jewish Study Bible; p. 16)
In fact, the context of this passage in Genesis is a creation myth
regarding the snake: “Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts
that the LORD God had made.” (Genesis 3:2)
According to this creation myth, after the serpent had deceived Adam and
Eve, God cursed him: “Because you did this, more cursed shall you be than all
cattle and all the wild beasts: on your belly shall you crawl and dirt shall
you eat all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:15). Apparently, the creation
myth of the snake from the book of Genesis would have us believe that prior to
the Fall, the serpent was a creature with legs, but due to its wicked
behavior, God cursed it by taking away its legs so that it has to crawl on its
belly. Interestingly, this creation myth may have some element of scientific
truth, since it is widely held that snakes evolved from four-legged reptilian
ancestors, perhaps small, burrowing, landbound lizards.
In any case, we clearly see that this passage from Genesis identifies the
serpent as an animal, and does not explicitly state that it is a symbol for
Satan or any other demonic being. The latter is simply an interpretation of
some later Jews and Christians. This is again made more clear when the Verse
says: “he [man] shall strike at your head, and you shall strike at his heel”,
referencing the fact that humans kill a snake by crushing its head by their
feet, while snakes inflict injury and even death upon a human by biting him
from under his heel.
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