Post by Indilwen on Aug 5, 2010 14:01:49 GMT 12
THE PERCEPTION OF THE SERPENT AS EVIL
Besides Adam and Eve, the other important denizen of the garden of Eden was the serpent. He is given qualities which rival and surpass those of Adam. Even Genesis concedes the point when it asserts that "the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts that God had made." The Haggadah describes the serpent as tall, two-legged and with superior mental powers. He was lord over all the beasts of Eden: "God spoke to the serpent, ’I created you to be king over all the animals. I created you to be of upright position.’" In the Haggadah there seems to be little doubt that he walked like a man.
In Genesis, the serpent was severely punished for his role in the downfall of Adam and Eve. His fate was henceforth to crawl on his belly. In this way, Genesis implies that at one time the serpent was a legged creature and lost his limbs as a result of the eating of the forbidden fruit. The Haggadah is more explicit and plainly states that "his hands and feet were hacked off."
In appearance, the legged-serpent must have been a fearsome creature, dominating all the animals as well as Man. In fact, when Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden, they wore "shirts of skin." But since Adam and Eve were vegetarian during this period and Man was not allowed to eat meat until after the Deluge, these "skins" must have been those sloughed off by the reptiles. Many ancient sources verify this.
Ancient Jewish legends indicate that the clothes worn by Adam and Eve were not only made of reptile skins but that they protected them from predators: "When they wore the coats, Adam and Eve were told, all creatures on earth would fear them." The serpent skins were symbolic of the ruling race, and not only reminded Adam and Eve of their origin but also acted as a talisman to protect them from wild creatures.
[Comment: Even today we still wear reptile skins - snakeskins, alligator skins, crocodile skins - many of which are quite expensive and set the wearer apart from the general multitude. And the serpent, primarily the cobra, was highly revered in such ancient cultures as those of Egypt and India.]
The notion of the serpent as evil is a fairly recent one, for it is one that developed during the early Christian era. In actuality, the Biblical serpent is often connected with godly knowledge, healing and immortality. The Hebrew word for the creature who tempted Eve is "nahash" which is usually translated as serpent but literally means "he who solves secrets."
Even in ancient Greek the word serpent posed problems in translation. In the Septuagint, the early Greek version of the Old Testament, the serpent is called "drakon." In ancient Greece the word "drakon" was used for all large fearsome creatures such as serpents, large reptiles, and other terrifying animals. Thus the term "drakon" carried over through semantic channels to the association of a large winged, legged serpent as dragon in Western literature and culture.
[Comment: Today the Greek currency is called a "drakma." It would be interesting to investigate the etymological source for this modern term.]
In all probability, the dragons and other fabulous creatures of mythology are but distorted forms of the serpent-god. It is a semantic problem fostered by man’s revulsion in linking his ancestry to a saurian god. Two streams of understanding seem to have contributed to the legend of the serpent as evil and repulsive.
The first is the master-slave relationship. Man replaced the Anunnaki as workers and began to perform all the menial and distasteful tasks. The memory of this domination by cruel and merciless reptiles was further exacerbated by the descent of the Nefilim in the days before the Deluge. These space men intermarried and lived among Mankind, and both Scriptures and Sumerian sources reveal that they were a barbarous and cannibalistic race.
By the time of the advent of the Deluge, Man had come to despise and even to persecute these saurian offspring. Ancient sources strongly suggest that anyone showing signs of serpent-god ancestry was hunted down and destroyed.
The second major factor in the evolution of the idea of them as evil was the enmity between Enlil and Enki. When the lands were reclaimed after the Deluge, Enlil saw to it that his sons were placed in charge of the lands of the Middle East and that Enki’s sons were allotted foreign lands such as Egypt and the Indus Valley. The sons of Enki returned to the Middle East, however, and his oldest son Marduk seized control of Babylon and claimed the coveted title of "fifty."
Enki is remembered as the creator and benefactor of Mankind and is associated with godly knowledge, healing, and immortality - exactly the qualities attributed to the serpent in the garden of Eden. Thus, the Biblical "Fall of Man" takes on the character of a confrontation between Enlil, the Elohim of the Old Testament, and Enki, the usurper serpent-god.
[Comment: Curiously in the book The Stellar Man by John Baines, the duplicitous Archon of Destiny, who tricked Moses and subsequently thereby became the usurper of power on this planet from the more "people-friendly" former Archon ruler, was known by the letter Y. Does this Y refer to Yahweh and therefore to Crown-Prince Enlil?]
The same conflict is seen in the Tale of Adapa when Enki prevented An (Enlil later came to represent An as he became the senior god) from tampering with his creation. There are echoes of this dissension in the Third Book of Enoch, when this Patriarch was to be given godhood and immortality. The "angels" representing the older order protested that God was revealing divine secrets to Man. They remind him that "did not the primeval ones give you good advice when they said ’don’t create man’?"
To the conservative and older gods, man was considered to be an inferior animal, for time and time again he is criticized for his sweaty and dirty mammalism. In the Third Book of Enoch man is scorned by the minor gods or angels who characterize him as "mankind born of woman, blemished, unclean, defiled by blood and impure flux, men who sweat putrid drops." This disgust of the angels towards their sweaty and hairy mammal cousins is reiterated throughout the Old Testament where this dislike is masked under the imagery of the "weakness of the flesh."
The Anunnaki delighted in their reptilian appearance - their sleek, lustrous, and gleaming bodies - and mammal traits were repugnant to them. From an objective point of view, the elegance and beauty of the reptile form has much to recommend it. It is difficult to see how physical repugnance to these creatures developed.
The problem of revulsion is a difficult one, and better left to psychoanalysts. It seems largely to be a learned experience, a result of what we are taught when we are young. On the other hand, the lingering memory of the brutish and barbarous treatment by the reptilian ancestors may exist in our subconscious and contribute to the dislike of reptiles.
[Comment: Again we can single out another difference between the cultures of the Ancient Greeks and Hebrews. In Greece the gods and goddesses were considered to represent the ultimate in physical beauty and perfection. And as has been noted earlier, one of the primary reasons for the creation of Judaism in the first place was a rebellion against all things Greek. Thus, this revulsion to Saurian Gods may have originated at the same moment in time when Moses and his priests had to deal with the consequences of his pact with the "evil" Archon, ultimately leading to the Judaic religious traditions and this notion of the "repulsiveness" of anything reptilian.]
source: www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vida_alien/alien_watchers.htm
Besides Adam and Eve, the other important denizen of the garden of Eden was the serpent. He is given qualities which rival and surpass those of Adam. Even Genesis concedes the point when it asserts that "the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts that God had made." The Haggadah describes the serpent as tall, two-legged and with superior mental powers. He was lord over all the beasts of Eden: "God spoke to the serpent, ’I created you to be king over all the animals. I created you to be of upright position.’" In the Haggadah there seems to be little doubt that he walked like a man.
In Genesis, the serpent was severely punished for his role in the downfall of Adam and Eve. His fate was henceforth to crawl on his belly. In this way, Genesis implies that at one time the serpent was a legged creature and lost his limbs as a result of the eating of the forbidden fruit. The Haggadah is more explicit and plainly states that "his hands and feet were hacked off."
In appearance, the legged-serpent must have been a fearsome creature, dominating all the animals as well as Man. In fact, when Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden, they wore "shirts of skin." But since Adam and Eve were vegetarian during this period and Man was not allowed to eat meat until after the Deluge, these "skins" must have been those sloughed off by the reptiles. Many ancient sources verify this.
Ancient Jewish legends indicate that the clothes worn by Adam and Eve were not only made of reptile skins but that they protected them from predators: "When they wore the coats, Adam and Eve were told, all creatures on earth would fear them." The serpent skins were symbolic of the ruling race, and not only reminded Adam and Eve of their origin but also acted as a talisman to protect them from wild creatures.
[Comment: Even today we still wear reptile skins - snakeskins, alligator skins, crocodile skins - many of which are quite expensive and set the wearer apart from the general multitude. And the serpent, primarily the cobra, was highly revered in such ancient cultures as those of Egypt and India.]
The notion of the serpent as evil is a fairly recent one, for it is one that developed during the early Christian era. In actuality, the Biblical serpent is often connected with godly knowledge, healing and immortality. The Hebrew word for the creature who tempted Eve is "nahash" which is usually translated as serpent but literally means "he who solves secrets."
Even in ancient Greek the word serpent posed problems in translation. In the Septuagint, the early Greek version of the Old Testament, the serpent is called "drakon." In ancient Greece the word "drakon" was used for all large fearsome creatures such as serpents, large reptiles, and other terrifying animals. Thus the term "drakon" carried over through semantic channels to the association of a large winged, legged serpent as dragon in Western literature and culture.
[Comment: Today the Greek currency is called a "drakma." It would be interesting to investigate the etymological source for this modern term.]
In all probability, the dragons and other fabulous creatures of mythology are but distorted forms of the serpent-god. It is a semantic problem fostered by man’s revulsion in linking his ancestry to a saurian god. Two streams of understanding seem to have contributed to the legend of the serpent as evil and repulsive.
The first is the master-slave relationship. Man replaced the Anunnaki as workers and began to perform all the menial and distasteful tasks. The memory of this domination by cruel and merciless reptiles was further exacerbated by the descent of the Nefilim in the days before the Deluge. These space men intermarried and lived among Mankind, and both Scriptures and Sumerian sources reveal that they were a barbarous and cannibalistic race.
By the time of the advent of the Deluge, Man had come to despise and even to persecute these saurian offspring. Ancient sources strongly suggest that anyone showing signs of serpent-god ancestry was hunted down and destroyed.
The second major factor in the evolution of the idea of them as evil was the enmity between Enlil and Enki. When the lands were reclaimed after the Deluge, Enlil saw to it that his sons were placed in charge of the lands of the Middle East and that Enki’s sons were allotted foreign lands such as Egypt and the Indus Valley. The sons of Enki returned to the Middle East, however, and his oldest son Marduk seized control of Babylon and claimed the coveted title of "fifty."
Enki is remembered as the creator and benefactor of Mankind and is associated with godly knowledge, healing, and immortality - exactly the qualities attributed to the serpent in the garden of Eden. Thus, the Biblical "Fall of Man" takes on the character of a confrontation between Enlil, the Elohim of the Old Testament, and Enki, the usurper serpent-god.
[Comment: Curiously in the book The Stellar Man by John Baines, the duplicitous Archon of Destiny, who tricked Moses and subsequently thereby became the usurper of power on this planet from the more "people-friendly" former Archon ruler, was known by the letter Y. Does this Y refer to Yahweh and therefore to Crown-Prince Enlil?]
The same conflict is seen in the Tale of Adapa when Enki prevented An (Enlil later came to represent An as he became the senior god) from tampering with his creation. There are echoes of this dissension in the Third Book of Enoch, when this Patriarch was to be given godhood and immortality. The "angels" representing the older order protested that God was revealing divine secrets to Man. They remind him that "did not the primeval ones give you good advice when they said ’don’t create man’?"
To the conservative and older gods, man was considered to be an inferior animal, for time and time again he is criticized for his sweaty and dirty mammalism. In the Third Book of Enoch man is scorned by the minor gods or angels who characterize him as "mankind born of woman, blemished, unclean, defiled by blood and impure flux, men who sweat putrid drops." This disgust of the angels towards their sweaty and hairy mammal cousins is reiterated throughout the Old Testament where this dislike is masked under the imagery of the "weakness of the flesh."
The Anunnaki delighted in their reptilian appearance - their sleek, lustrous, and gleaming bodies - and mammal traits were repugnant to them. From an objective point of view, the elegance and beauty of the reptile form has much to recommend it. It is difficult to see how physical repugnance to these creatures developed.
The problem of revulsion is a difficult one, and better left to psychoanalysts. It seems largely to be a learned experience, a result of what we are taught when we are young. On the other hand, the lingering memory of the brutish and barbarous treatment by the reptilian ancestors may exist in our subconscious and contribute to the dislike of reptiles.
[Comment: Again we can single out another difference between the cultures of the Ancient Greeks and Hebrews. In Greece the gods and goddesses were considered to represent the ultimate in physical beauty and perfection. And as has been noted earlier, one of the primary reasons for the creation of Judaism in the first place was a rebellion against all things Greek. Thus, this revulsion to Saurian Gods may have originated at the same moment in time when Moses and his priests had to deal with the consequences of his pact with the "evil" Archon, ultimately leading to the Judaic religious traditions and this notion of the "repulsiveness" of anything reptilian.]
source: www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vida_alien/alien_watchers.htm