Genesis 3:1 Was there a Talking Snake in the Garden?

Was there a talking snake in the Garden of Eden? Did a snake slither up to Adam and Eve and start a conversation with them to deceive them? I'm sure most of you have seen the paintings of the temptation, the naked man and woman holding an apple with the snake near by. We've all heard this story taught this way in Sunday School as a child. However, is this what the Bible says? Do we take every scripture literally in the Bible? Do we know when to take something literally and when to know that it is just a symbolic reference. Too many Christians want to take everything completely and totally as if the Bible was written in a text book style. But the problem is that the book is not a textbook and it contains many, many mysteries, puzzles and hidden truths that are not self-evident on surface only reading of the text. The Bible is written in a multitude of literary styles and God purposely hid many of the truths not from us, but for us to find. So here is the challenge how do you encode secrets for someone to find without using a standard encryption system. The government encrypts information to keep it out of the hands of other governments. Web sites encrypt credit card and customer information to keep it out of the hands of criminals. What we can see is that God obviously had an enemy that was trying to steal information and use it against us. So God encoded the text and the message within so that He could reveal it at the appropriate time, which I believe is now.

So the question remains was there a talking snake in the garden? I'll have to tell right now that there is absolutely no way based upon scripture that there was a physical talking snake. You see where I stand so let's find out why. Here is what the beginning of Genesis 3:1 says to us, read it very carefully and then I'll explain it.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

Let's do some close analysis of the exact wording of this verse. This is what the Holy Spirit said to me when I studied the verse and it changed my perspective dramatically when I saw it. I read this verse and the Holy Spirit asked me this question, "Did you notice that didn't say 'other'?". I immediately knew what He was talking about. When I studied Geometry in High School, I remember a part of the class dealt with "sets" and "set theory". Do you understand what a set is? A set is a grouping of related items. Within sets you can also have subsets. Then you can have multiple sets with some common or overlapping members that are in more than one set. For example, a set could be Animals, under that could be a subset of mammals, under that could be a subset of birds, fish, land animals and on and on. Each set or subset is a grouping of related items. In other words every member of the set has the same characteristics and can be easily identified as belonging to the group. So why did I go through all of that math explanation and overview? Do you see it? What would change if you added the word "other" to the verse? Read this and see what changes:

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any "OTHER" beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

Now do you see it? What comprises the set "beasts of the field"? What are members of that set? Isn't a snake one of those beasts of the field that the Lord God made? So what happens when you take out the word "other" like the verse really says. The conclusion has to be that the serpent was not a member of that category of the made or created creatures of the field. In other words, there was no physical talking snake based just upon reading and understanding this verse correctly. So let's find some other scriptures that help us to confirm what I just taught you. Here is one verse that I know most don't immediately associate with Genesis, but it is related even though you've never seen it.

1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation overtaken you but such as is common to man:

What are we talking about that occurred in Genesis 3? Of course we are talking about the temptation of Adam and Eve by the serpent. So what does God tell us about temptation in 1 Corinthians? He says every time we are tempted by the enemy it is a common occurrence. In other words it is natural, not supernatural. Did you realize that it is illegal for Satan to tempt you supernaturally? Have you ever seen a talking snake? I've been to many zoos and if there were any talking snakes, I didn't see any. No you see a talking snake would be a supernatural temptation and that would not be common to man. We can therefore conclude that this would be illegal and if Satan can't tempt you this way, he can't tempt Eve that way either. This scripture is an example of a universal truth. In other words this scripture applies across the board to every person in the human race. There are some scriptures that only apply to Israel, there are some scriptures that only apply to men, some to women, some to the church, some to whatever. However, there are those scriptures like this one that will apply to everyone. These represent spiritual laws and God enforces these. The Bible says God watches over his words to perform them and this would be an example.

Have you ever been tempted by Satan? Sure you have whether you admit it or not. How did he come to you and try to tempt you? It was in your mind, by using your thought life to tempt you to do something that you shouldn't, say something you shouldn't, or whatever. If Satan tempted you this way, then he tempted Eve this way. Do you think we can find any scripture to confirm this? Of course we can if we look:

2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty , so your minds be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

It is amazing what the Bible says when you look for it and understand it and apply it to Genesis 3 correctly. You see this verse is written to the church and it said Eve was deceived by the serpent because of his trickery. But did you notice how he did it? It was in Eve's mind, not a talking snake in the garden. Satan is still the subtle deceiver and he works and operates in the same way that he has always worked. He tries to deceive you in through same avenues in your mind. That is why we are instructed in the Bible this way:.

2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Apparently our minds are still the battle grounds for the enemy and we are responsible to police them and exercise our authority to keep the enemy out of them.

Now we have a problem for those who want to take every scripture literally. You see the problem is that the serpent is a purely symbolic reference to a spiritual being not directly named or identified in the book of Genesis. However, that does not mean God did not identify who the serpent was later. We just have to find it:

Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him.

We can see from this verse in Revelation the true identity of the symbolic serpent is given to us to be Satan, the deceiver. This verse also contains another symbolic reference and calls Satan the great dragon. Apparently Satan's strength and ability has increased substantially at the end more than he had at the beginning. You can see why God used a symbolic reference in both places. By comparing these two symbolic references we can gain additional information about this enemy. So we just learned a valuable lesson, of why we can't take everything in the Bible literally. Then we also learned that we can't study any book of the Bible independently in a vacuum. We must use the Bible to interpret the Bible. We must see what God's says about the subject in other places because He always provides additional information that is critical for us to see in order to correctly understand what is being taught.

That is why I can say with confidence that there was no physical talking snake in the Garden of Eden!