“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which was made by YHVH God. And he said to the woman – hasn’t God told you that you can eat of every tree in the garden?”
In my regular Bible, there’s a little mark beside the word serpent, directing me to reference other verses. In particular, this verse struck me:
He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. Rev 20: 2-3
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
This makes me picture not a little snake twining around a tree, but a giant serpent, almost godlike in appearance. Perhaps the ouroboros, who slithers its head into the garden and talks to Eve.
