Here is what I am wondering and I guess this depends on composition of the stories. Ezekiel and Isaiah are clearly talking about some divine rebellion, yet Genesis doesn’t play out that way. The nachash is twice comparing to the animals around. This doesn’t seem like the author was referring to a divine being. So here goes. Knowing what Ezekiel and Isaiah says, did the author of Genesis deliberately try to de-supernaturalize the story by saying the nachash was an animal or was it the other way around? Did the authors of Ezekiel and Isaiah use the Genesis story as a sort of [biblically] internal midrash? Book of Chronicles can be said to be one large midrashic work as it tries to fill in gaps and give further treatment to existing stories. Is the same thing that is going on here with Genesis?
MSH
on March 28, 2016 at 7:37 pm
I think all three chapters deal with divine rebellion in the beginning of God’s world / God’s plan in different ways. Ancient readers would not think the serpent of the Gen 3 story was a mere animal, both because it talked (a stock technique in the ANE — deities often took the form of animals and spoke). So the “serpent was more subtle” idea is consistent — he was more subtle because he was actually not just an animal. There are just so many touchpoints between the three for a coincidental relationship.
Here is what I am wondering and I guess this depends on composition of the stories. Ezekiel and Isaiah are clearly talking about some divine rebellion, yet Genesis doesn’t play out that way. The nachash is twice comparing to the animals around. This doesn’t seem like the author was referring to a divine being. So here goes. Knowing what Ezekiel and Isaiah says, did the author of Genesis deliberately try to de-supernaturalize the story by saying the nachash was an animal or was it the other way around? Did the authors of Ezekiel and Isaiah use the Genesis story as a sort of [biblically] internal midrash? Book of Chronicles can be said to be one large midrashic work as it tries to fill in gaps and give further treatment to existing stories. Is the same thing that is going on here with Genesis?
I think all three chapters deal with divine rebellion in the beginning of God’s world / God’s plan in different ways. Ancient readers would not think the serpent of the Gen 3 story was a mere animal, both because it talked (a stock technique in the ANE — deities often took the form of animals and spoke). So the “serpent was more subtle” idea is consistent — he was more subtle because he was actually not just an animal. There are just so many touchpoints between the three for a coincidental relationship.