„Und die Schlange war listiger als alle Tiere des Feldes (Gen 3, 1)“. Das Motiv der Schlange in Gen 3

Abstract

The stories of Adam and Eve, which are to be found on the first pages of the Book of Genesis, and especially the narrative about the serpent and the fall of man, belong to one of the most famous biblical texts. There is almost no person who has never heard of these motifs. According to it, the serpent was the one who deceived Adam and Eve and drove them away from the Lord. In the later Jewish and especially Christian narratives, the serpent was seen and explained as the devil himself. But why was the serpent chosen to represent humanity’s chief adversary? Why did the writer of the Genesis 3 use an animal such as serpent as the character that tricked the first men and pushed them away from God’s embrace? Why did the author from the ancient past, not having contemporary rich knowledge of the colorful world of angels and demons, take the snake as a primary antagonist to describe the transgression of God's commandment? This paper attempts to analyze the Biblical text in its own scriptural context, but also in the context of various religious and cultural narratives and motifs from the ancient world, such as different Egyptian or Canaanite motifs, as well as the famous Epic of Gilgamesh. The goal is to try to give an answer to the question: Why is the snake understood as the main enemy of humanity in the story, but not some other animal, such as fox or even a wolf?

Keywords

• adam
• eve
• paradise
• garden of eden
• fall
• snake
• serpent
• genesis