Serpent seed

[Termin]

In response to the original thread, I would venture to suggest that it doesn't matter what people believed about Adam and Even and Kane and Abel any more than it matters what people believe about Lady Macbeth. They are all fictional characters.

Oh I agree, but this one, which I have yet to get into a full debate about with anyone, just amazes me as other claims are generally based on something, no matter how tenuous, that is in the bible, this concept is deliberately adding something to the book of genesis that is not there.

[Baruch]

That is the universal problem of exegesis.  How much do you include in your "bible"?  How do you use that content, and anthropology, archeology, linguistics etc to decide what a particular verse means?  in traditional rabbinic exegesis, there are four layers ...

1. Literal
2. Contextual
3. Circumstantial
4. Analogical

Of course most rabbis, let alone most people, don't actually do exegesis with this much rigor.  Only the greatest rabbis have done it, and even they are controversial.

[CrucifyCindy]

  I've only ran into this twice, and I'm hoping someone can fill me in on this.

  As I understand it , there are those who believe Cain was the love child of Eve and
Satan , and generally this doesn't lead to anything good. Question is

  How the hell can they seriously make such an assumption where there is nothing close in the bible that even hints that eve and Satan did the horizontal mambo ?

Is there any basis for this other than ignorance ?

I've seen the doctrine in the Mormon context and the 7th Day Adventist context. Any ways it is a highly racist doctrine attributing the paternal lineage of the black race to Satan since in these traditions Cain is the father of the black race.

[Baruch]

The best parts of the Bible, aren't in the Bible.  The clergy wasn't stupid enough to include all the good parts, because their plausibility quotient might tank.

[doorknob]

  I've only ran into this twice, and I'm hoping someone can fill me in on this.

  As I understand it , there are those who believe Cain was the love child of Eve and
Satan , and generally this doesn't lead to anything good. Question is

  How the hell can they seriously make such an assumption where there is nothing close in the bible that even hints that eve and Satan did the horizontal mambo ?

Is there any basis for this other than ignorance ?

actually the bible does not say that the serpent is satan That is just an assumption that christians make.

[Blackleaf]

actually the bible does not say that the serpent is satan That is just an assumption that christians make.

Well, a person who considers the Bible to be divinely inspired would quote Revelation 20:2.

"He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years."

Revelation gives the story that the devil caused 1/3 of the angels to fall to earth. It was after this that Satan tempted Eve.

[Baruch]

A serpent isn't a snake.  In popular folklore, the serpent became a snake, after loosing its limbs (in Genesis).  Technically a serpent is a kind of dragon.  Hence the translation in Revelations.  Though I think that particular reference is to astrology not mythology.  In Kabbalah, by gematria ... the value of "Messiah" is the same value as "Serpent" ... so they are equated.  So it would be seen that it was the Messiah who tempted Eve.  And the crucifixion of Jesus could be seen as a humbling of a serpent reduced (temporarily) to a mere snake.

In Genesis anyway, lots of things are borrowed.  It was a snake who stole the plant/pearl of immortality from Gilgamesh.