Did Snakes have Legs? Yes/No

by Thirdson 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  Thirdson

  Simon,

  You are right. If you asked a veteran JW how long a "creative day" was they'd reply "7000 years". A young JW might say "thousands of years".

  I think the Creation book tried to get away from ascribing a length to the 6 days of Genesis. It was not supposed to be a big book of doctrine so 'let there be "New Light"' did not happen officially.

  However, the book did tend to use geological ages (Cambrian etc) and didn't challenge dating methods. In fact in the last 15 years has there been a single Awake! article on dating methods or challenge to their accuracy? With dendrochronology being used to calibrate carbon-dating techniques the WTS has problems!

  I'll post some thoughts and the problems presented to the WTS regarding the early bronze-age man's frozen body found in the Italian/Austrian Alps. There was a poor Awake article on that find that is worth some criticism.

  Everyone else,

  Thanks for your thoughts and comments. I am not sure about snakes sprouting legs in fires. However, in my original post I pointed out that modern species that could be termed "serpents" in the Bible vary greatly, and some of these snakes, lizards and amphisbaenids do have legs!

  My personal view is that Genesis is a story and contains allegory. I think it is very difficult to make the second version of the creation story (Genesis chapter 2 onwards) into fundamental Bible history. Talking snakes, forbidden fruit, flaming swords and modesty fig leaves are just part of myth and used by the Jewish writers as part of their history to identify who the Hebrew peoples are. It contains ideas similar to other cultures but Pandora and her desirable box are elements of myth no better than Eve and her "apples".

  Thirdson

  Edited by - Thirdson on 24 February 2001 8:27:15
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  Finkelstein

  Genesis 3:14 – “Then Jehovah God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are the cursed one out of all the domestic animals and out of all the wild animals of the field. On your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all the days of your life.”

  So taking from that it would appear that all serpents in the Garden of Eden could talk.

  Why didn't God know that Satan had used the body of the serpent to be a psychical presence to Eve ???

  Ancient mythology can sure be confusing ???
  
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  David_Jay

  This is somewhat of a "cut and paste" from the answer I gave on a similar thread on the forum right now.

  The Jewish answer to this question is "yes," but only in the Genesis narrative, not anywhere else.

  The story is allegorical. As suggested by Jewish exegesis, in the narrative the serpent has both hands and legs (and obviously fingers and feet/toes). It loses these to the curse of Genesis 3:14.

  In Judaism the talking snake is also not identified with Satan the Devil or any type of demonic being. Instead it is a type of personification that plays off the innocence of Adam and Eve. Their innocence is exemplified by their being nude (in Hebrew 'arummim,) whereas the serpent is "shrewd" ('arum). The play on words is lost in English, of course.

  The narrative of the "serpent" and the transgressions of Adam and Eve set the tone for the Torah which follows. Remember that this is the beginning not of a history book but the foreshadowing framework for the Law of Moses, with the "sin" of Adam and Eve only setting the tone anticipating the need for the Torah (which, by the way, arrives later at Mt. Sinai and generally fills the rest of the Book of the Law, overtaking the narrative).

  In Judaism the "serpent" is neither the "snake" of our current zoology nor the Devil in disguise. The narrative describes not the origin of sin, but merely describes the innate human appetite for evil that has Torah as its antidote. That this story is meant specifically to describe the Jewish position only and not a historical origin of humanity lies in the fact that Jews see the Torah as binding only on the nation of Israel, not Gentiles. It could therefore never be literal, historical, or universal.
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  Vidiot

  ThirdSon - "Did snakes have legs?"

  Way back in pre-Mesozoic times, I think.

  Before humans ever saw them, 'cause we didn't, you know, exist yet.