Satan, Devil and Demons - Genesis 3:4-5

Satan, Devil and Demons

Common
Trinity
Soul
Heaven
Hell
Satan/Demons
  The Truth
   About Satan
  Every Satan
  Every Devil
  Edenic Covenant
  Satan Prelim
  Demon Prelim
  Genesis 3:4-5
  Genesis 6:2
  Job 1:6
  Isaiah 14:12-14
  Ezekiel 28:13-16
  Matthew 4:1-11
  Matt. 12:43-45
  Luke 10:18
  Luke 22:3,31
  John 12:31
   14:30; 16:11
  John 13:2,27
  2 Cor. 11:14
  James 2:19
  1 Peter 5:8
  2 Peter 2:4
  Jude 6
  Jude 9
  Rev. 12:7-9
"Saved"
Baptism
Resurrection
Antichrist

Unique
Catholic
Mormon
SDA
JW
British Israel
Church
of Christ
Pentecostal
Islam

Science
Miracles
Evolution
Creation
Carbon Dating

Inspiration
Partial
Contradictions
& Inaccuracies

Genesis 3:4,5: "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil."
Problem:: A typical interpretation of these verses is given in the following quotation:; "What the serpent said to Eve, did it think up and say of its own accord? Impossible! We know that no serpent has the brains of a man to understand God's command . . . {and} to converse with man in man's own language . . . Who, then, caused the serpent to talk to Eve? . . . It must have been some superhuman invisible intelligent creature . . . It must have been . . . {an} angelic son . . . now turned traitor to his own heavenly Father . . . Because of developing a greed for power over mankind, this rebellious son of God actually took steps to turn mankind away from obedience to God and to line mankind up on his side as rebels against Jehovah God."¹
Solution:

If angels can become such rebels what guarantee is there that believers who are to be made like them (Luke 20:35, 36) will not likewise become rebels?
God deals with three parties in the fall of mankind: Adam, Eve and the serpent. An alleged fourth - the devil - is not mentioned in the Genesis narrative.
God said to the serpent, "Thou hast done this". (vs. 14). Paul likewise says, "the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty". (2 Cor. 11:3). Now this language is entirely appropriate if the serpent were the guilty party, but the language is totally inappropriate if the helpless serpent had merely been used as a tool by a powerful angel. Why the curse on the serpent: "thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life", (Gen. 3:14) - a victim used by the devil for his own ends when the devil, the instigator, gets off "scot-free"?
The interrogation of Adam by God resulted in a typically human projection of the blame:
1. Adam blamed Eve (and God?): "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat". (vs. 12).
2. The woman blamed the serpent: "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat". (vs. 13).
3. The serpent blamed no one. The blame was not placed on a fallen angel, because there was no fallen angel to be blamed.
It is objected that serpents cannot talk because they lack man's brain power. Of course, serpents as they are known today do not talk, neither do asses. But an ass did speak in Biblical times: "the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet." (2 Peter 2:16). It is carefully outlined that the serpent was more "subtle" or "crafty" (Septuagint) than any beast of the field, (Gen. 3:1), its propensities being used to provide a trial of the integrity of the first parents.
Since the fall of man the seed of the serpent has been symbolically identified with sin. (e.g., Matt. 23:33).

Footnotes:

"Things In Which It Is Impossible For God To Lie", (Brooklyn, New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of N.Y., Inc., & Int. Bible Students Ass., 1965), pp. 158, 159. Return