Read The Good and Evil Serpent Online
Authors: James H. Charlesworth
The Good and Evil Serpent
THE GOOD AND
EVIL SERPENT
THE ANCHOR YALE BIBLE REFERENCE LIBRARY
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THE ANCHOR YALE BIBLE REFERENCE LIBRARY
THE GOOD AND
EVIL SERPENT
How a Universal Symbol Became
Christianized
JAMES H. CHARLESWORTH
The Anchor Yale logo is a trademark of Yale University.
Copyright © 2010 by James H. Charlesworth.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Charlesworth, James H.
The good and evil serpent : how a universal symbol became christianized / James H. Charlesworth.
p. cm.—(The Anchor Yale Bible reference library)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-14082-8 (alk. paper)
1. Devil—Christianity. 2. Symbolism. 3. Snakes—Religious aspects—Christianity. 4. Good and evil. 5. Good and evil—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Title.
BT982.C43 2009
220.6´4—dc22 2008036207
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For faithful
viātōrēs
and biblical colleagues
who have shared parts of two millennia with me:
Savas Agourides Jim Armstrong Peder and Inge Borgen
Frank Cross Archbishop Damianos Tom Gillespie
Martin and Mariana Hengel Doron and Michal Mendels
Pat Miller Petr and Věra Porkorný Jim Roberts
James Sanders Moody and Jane Smith
Walter Weaver Orval Wintermute
and those especially close who passed over:
Hugh and Jean Anderson
Pierre Benoit
Ray Brown
Roland de Vaux
Noel Freedman
John Priest
William Stinespring
—indeed, all who helped me intermittently enjoy the wise serpent’s
viāticum
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Physiology Undergirds Symbology:
Thirty-two Virtually Unique Characteristics of a Snake
3. Realia and Iconography: The Symbolism of the Serpent
in the Ancient Near East (and the Religion of Israel)
4. The Perception That the Serpent
Is a Positive Symbol in Greek and Roman Literature
5. The Full Spectrum of the Meaning
of Serpent Symbolism in the Fertile Crescent
6. Serpent Symbolism in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
7. The Symbolism of the Serpent in the Gospel of John
Appendixes
I: Biblical Hebrew Terms for Various Types of Snakes
II: A Lexicon of Words for “Serpent” in Ancient Greek
III: Anguine Iconography and Symbolism at Pompeii
IV: Notes on Serpent Symbolism in the Early Christian Centuries
Selected “Serpent” Bibliography
Preface
Writing this book has been a journey. I have been searching for spiritual insights. For six years of research, I have attempted to discover what the serpent may have symbolized for the ancients as they explored the perennial questions that define the human. During this period, I tried to keep in mind all who question boldly and freely. Since before attending seminary I have admired the great minds who with apparent Promethean arrogance focus on the Scriptures, boldly searching for the original meaning(s) of some perplexing passages. Thus, I am writing not so much for scholars, preachers, or rabbis as for those who are searching for answers in a culture shaped and influenced by the church and synagogue. I am writing for those who are no longer afraid of freely studying the books canonized as the Bible. Such free inquiry was often condemned in the past, especially after the Palestinian Jesus Movement became an institution. The leading thinkers in this organization, the church, had to fight for its survival against many powerful ideologies and mythologies. In the following pages, I will clarify how the Asclepius story threatened the “Jesus Gospel.”
Did the Fourth Evangelist inherit an ophidian Christology; that is, was the Evangelist’s conception of Jesus influenced by the symbolism of a serpent? Did this genius imagine Jesus in terms of the serpent symbolism that had developed for millennia prior to his masterpiece? Did he formulate his presentation of Jesus, whom he hailed as God’s Son and the Christ, in some way with images obtained from the mythology of the serpent?
I have found that the commentators on the Fourth Gospel have missed the full meaning of John 3:13–16. It is evident that some of them were afraid to boldly and freely raise fresh questions. Far too many did not wrestle with the original meaning of this passage. Perhaps now, at the beginning of the third millennium, it is possible for all of us to think faithfully and creatively. Is that not the freedom Jesus shared with his earliest followers?
I see my task as a professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary rather simply. All of us who are interested in hearing the truth need to cleanse our ears of the disturbances in Western society. Then we may hear the authors who speak to us from the ancient canonical and extra-canonical texts. There is a vast amount to learn from those who lived long ago in the Near East. Some authors of biblical books and works contemporaneous with them were geniuses. Sometimes they understood aspects of life better than any of us today. This is especially clear when we examine carefully and afresh the thoughts and language of the authors of Genesis 3 and John 3.
If I can help some to appreciate the creativity of the biblical authors and to read the Bible free from dogmas that deafen our ears to eternal truths, then my joy in writing will be complete. I am not eager for all to agree with my attempt to understand the biblical texts, but I do urge all attracted by the Bible to attend personally to the words in our texts. The Scriptures are our main source for inspiration. As those in the synagogue and church have endeavored to teach, despite some of their administrators, the ancient writings contain echoes of the still small voice that resonates within our hearts.
Finally, it might be of interest to some readers to know why I have been attracted to this subject. Why would a scholar at Princeton spend six years studying the images and symbols of serpents? Rather than consider me nuts, virtually all who have heard about my forays into ancient folklore stop, listen, and then utter words like: “Wow, that is fascinating.”
What then is my answer to this question? I grew up on the eastern fringes of the Everglades. Rumors about dangerous snakes would circulate around Delray Beach, Coconut Grove, and Coral Gables—the places in which I lived in the 1950s and 1960s. Some of these stories were about snakes finding their way into homes. There were reports of a woman entering the bathroom only to find a moccasin in the bathtub. I also recall the account of a woman who sat down on a toilet and looked down, between her legs, at a poisonous snake in the water below.
I heard about coral snakes and feared these small reptiles that hide threateningly under Palmetto palms. The attractively colored snakes have venom more deadly than cobras. My encounter with a gigantic serpent, however, was unusual. This frozen moment in time may have shaped my fascination with snakes far more than I may realize.
Thinking back to 1953, when I was thirteen, I remember a golden-domed figure rising before me. He was massive in size and weight. The creature reflected the sun that poured down on us from the right. I remember that his eyes were on the level of my own, and I was then roughly 5 feet, 5 inches (1.65 meters) tall. He swayed before me. I was simultaneously frightened and awestruck at this wonder of creation. He stood erect, and the sun transformed him into blinding gold. For years I dismissed from memory the height of this monster, and how time and eternity stopped as we looked deep into each other’s eyes. You, the reader, will think I have succumbed to mythology.
But the encounter transcends the normal, and it happened. The place was the Serpentarium in Miami, Florida. Dr. William E. Haast, the head of the Serpentarium, was beginning to milk a king cobra. He was assisted by two young men. The monster shook loose and slithered toward me over the recently cut green grass. Then he chose me from about one hundred spectators. He swiftly rose up and stared at me. I felt him towering over me, and the sun flashing off his golden hood, which was now fully expanded. The only words Haast spoke were, “Don’t move, son.” Obviously, I didn’t.
Almost fifty years later I talked with Dr. Haast for the first time. We spoke over the phone on March 9, 2001. He said something like, “It is odd that you would remember that event so long ago.” I thought to myself, “It would be odd not to remember a life-threatening confrontation with a king cobra.” Dr. Haast informed me that the cobra weighed about 20 pounds (less than 10 kilograms) and was about 15 feet (4.6 meters) long. I had imagined it was over 20 feet (6 meters) long and well over 300 pounds (100 kilograms). Had I also imagined how high this wondrous creature could “stand”? Can a king cobra raise itself to 5 feet (1.5 meters)?
Long after the encounter, I learned that a serpent can raise itself one-third of its length. This gigantic king cobra could have raised itself to about 5 feet. I was not imagining or embellishing the encounter when I remembered how he faced me, eyes to eyes.
I cannot assume that you have “enjoyed” a similar experience. Still, I am convinced that we have all encountered the exceptional creature we call the snake. Biblical scholars who attended the meeting of a New Testament congress at Duke University in 1976 were alarmed when they heard about a poisonous snake found dead in the basement of my newly constructed house in Durham, North Carolina. They spoke as if such occurrences were conceivable only in the wilderness. Thus, for most of us living in Western societies, the snake is not a friend but a sinister and feared monster that symbolically is associated with sin. Jews, Christians, and Muslims have informed me for over six years that the snake is the symbol of the Devil, Satan.
My research will take the reader back in time, especially into the cultures that shaped the Holy Land from about 2000
BCE
to about 400
CE
. The ancients also portrayed the serpent as sinister; the animal could symbolize Satan. But primarily, they used the serpent to symbolize numerous human ideals, as we shall soon see. Thus, it is impossible for me to agree with F. S. Bodenheimer, who claimed that in antiquity serpents “must have been held in abhorrence in general.” Bodenheimer’s use of “must” indicates a failure to dig deeply into the question concerning the symbolic meaning of the serpent in ancient cultures. The present book raises many questions; these are united by one: What did the serpent symbolize in antiquity?
My investigations of the symbolic meaning of the serpent led me to explore serpent images from approximately 40,000
BCE
to the present. I endeavored to read ancient documents in search of the symbolic meaning of the serpent. Such research was then supported by a study of ancient art as well as by an exploration of archaeological data. It became obvious that the serpent was often held in esteem, adored, and even worshipped. From studying images and texts, I was surprised by one discovery: almost all gods and goddesses in the first century
CE
were accompanied by serpents or were perceived as serpents.