Who tempted Eve? Satan or the serpent? Why did God punish the serpent?

[GreatestIam]

Who tempted Eve? Satan or the serpent? Why did God punish the serpent?

Dogma has Satan taking over a serpent with the power that God gave her when God cast her from heaven. I call Satan, her, because the early church depicted Satan as female. That is clear in Michal Angelo’s paintings in the Vatican.

If Satan took the serpent over and made it speak the words to temp Eve, then Satan would be culpable for the temptation and for God to punish the serpent would have been un-just.

Serpents cannot speak without supernatural help. Satan appears to be guilty while the serpent seems to be innocent.

Why did God punish the serpent instead of Satan?

Regards
DL

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

My bet is the serpent was Lilith and because God and Adam tossed her to the side she tricked Eve in eating from the tree of knowledge...

It would explain why the Devil was depicted as a female and why Eve was easily fool even after the stern warning...

 

[Indeependent]

My bet is the serpent was Lilith and because God and Adam tossed her to the side she tricked Eve in eating from the tree of knowledge...

It would explain why the Devil was depicted as a female and why Eve was easily fool even after the stern warning...

We'll just step back a moment and realize God gave the negative commandment to Adam.
There's a possibility that Adam ENHANCED the commandment by telling Eve that the tree can't even be touched.

As far as some satan is concerned, can't you guys keep to the text and drop the dogma?

 

[Mr. H.]

Dogma? More like Fable.

 

[PratchettFan]

Who tempted Eve? Satan or the serpent? Why did God punish the serpent?

Dogma has Satan taking over a serpent with the power that God gave her when God cast her from heaven. I call Satan, her, because the early church depicted Satan as female. That is clear in Michal Angelo’s paintings in the Vatican.

If Satan took the serpent over and made it speak the words to temp Eve, then Satan would be culpable for the temptation and for God to punish the serpent would have been un-just.

Serpents cannot speak without supernatural help. Satan appears to be guilty while the serpent seems to be innocent.

Why did God punish the serpent instead of Satan?

Regards
DL

God did it. If you put a three year old in a room with a brightly wrapped present sitting in the middle of the floor and tell the kid not to touch it, what do you think he is going to focus on? He might as well have put a neon sign over the top of the tree that said "GOOD EATS!" in flashing green and red. If he didn't want them to eat from the tree he wouldn't have put the tree there.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Considering both the serpent AND Satan are featured in the Tanach but with different names, roles, and identities, I'd have to say the serpent was just a serpent. Satan is mentioned in Job and elsewhere as an angel of the Lord's, not any sort of devil or 'equal and evil opposite' to God.

And it wasn't a snake, at least not in the beginning. Wasn't until God cursed it that it seemed to change shape 'crawling on the ground eating dust, biting at men's ankles' where it became snake'ish. As to why God cursed it (presumedly since God put it in the Garden in the first place he should have known it's propensity for mischief) I'd say the entire incident was to show how God isn't perfect. You're not perfect if you radically change things when you get upset. It shows that despite God's intentions, even his plans can fall apart. From the very first human he created, he began making mistakes. Man alone is not good God said, so only after parading every other animal before Adam hoping one of them might suffice for his 'help mate' did he then create a female human.

If God were depicted as perfect, I'd think followers would then in vain attempt to emulate that perfection and that'd cause no end of problems. Perfection can never be attained. And if the book's saying even God isn't perfect, then we wont be trying to attain perfection ourselves. That's my take away at any rate.

 

[GreatestIam]

My bet is the serpent was Lilith and because God and Adam tossed her to the side she tricked Eve in eating from the tree of knowledge...

It would explain why the Devil was depicted as a female and why Eve was easily fool even after the stern warning...

Fooled?

You seem to think it is a mistake to --- become as Gods,--- God's own words.

Why is developing a moral sense wrong?

The bible does say that we are to try to become as perfect as God and that is what A & E did. Right?

Regards
DL

 

[GreatestIam]

Considering both the serpent AND Satan are featured in the Tanach but with different names, roles, and identities, I'd have to say the serpent was just a serpent. Satan is mentioned in Job and elsewhere as an angel of the Lord's, not any sort of devil or 'equal and evil opposite' to God.

And it wasn't a snake, at least not in the beginning. Wasn't until God cursed it that it seemed to change shape 'crawling on the ground eating dust, biting at men's ankles' where it became snake'ish. As to why God cursed it (presumedly since God put it in the Garden in the first place he should have known it's propensity for mischief) I'd say the entire incident was to show how God isn't perfect. You're not perfect if you radically change things when you get upset. It shows that despite God's intentions, even his plans can fall apart. From the very first human he created, he began making mistakes. Man alone is not good God said, so only after parading every other animal before Adam hoping one of them might suffice for his 'help mate' did he then create a female human.

If God were depicted as perfect, I'd think followers would then in vain attempt to emulate that perfection and that'd cause no end of problems. Perfection can never be attained. And if the book's saying even God isn't perfect, then we wont be trying to attain perfection ourselves. That's my take away at any rate.

And brighter than the usual Christian take.

A shame that Christianity screwed up the older and wiser Jewish take on Eden.

They have not justified doing so in 2,000 years.

Regards
DL