| has gloss | eng: The Serpent (, nahash) first appears in the Garden of Eden, according to the Hebrew Bible (the Tanach) of Judaism, where he lured Eve with the promise of forbidden knowledge, and denying that mortality would be a result. The Serpent is identified with wisdom: "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made" (Genesis 3:1). There is no indication in Genesis that the Serpent was a deity in its own right, although it is one of only two cases of animals that talk in the Pentateuch (Balaam's ass being the other). While the identity of the Serpent as Satan is implied in the Christian Book of Revelation, in Genesis the Serpent is merely portrayed as a deceptive creature or trickster, promoting as good what God had directly forbidden, and particularly cunning in its deception. |
