Was the serpent then Satan? Although the Bible tells us that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of Light, or masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), there are difficulties in assuming that something like this happened in the Garden of Eden. Theologian Henry C. Thiessen comments:
the serpent is neither a figurative description of Satan, nor is it Satan in the form of a serpent. The real serpent was the agent in Satans hand. This is evident from the description of the reptile in Genesis 3:1 and the curse pronounced upon it in 3:14 [
upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy Life ].3
The Bible tells us that, just before Judas left the Upper Room to go and betray Jesus, Satan entered into him (John 13:2627). Likewise demons can, under certain conditions, indwell either human bodies or animal bodiesfor example, the time when Jesus cast out a legion of devils from a man, and they then entered a herd of pigs which ran down a steep place into the sea (Mark 5:113). It is therefore proper for us to conclude that Satan appropriated and used the body of a specific serpent on this occasion to carry out his subtle purpose of tempting Eve to sin.
It is also clear that the use of euphemisms about the serpent, such as calling him the personification of evil, or labelling the whole incident myth or theological poetry, will not do. The Bible presents this episode as a personal encounter between Eve and Satan, as real as that between Christ and Satan in the wilderness.
The identification of the serpent as the one whose body Satan used raises further questions, such as does Satan speak audibly?
Satan speaking?
When Satan tempted Jesus, he did so with words. Jesus replied and their conversation is recorded for us in both Matthews and Lukes Gospels (Matthew 4:111; Luke 4:113), although we are not told anything about the way Satan appeared on this occasion.
Concerning the temptation of Eve, Christian writer and expositor J. Oswald Sanders writes:
It has been suggested that just as the speaking of Balaams ass was a divine miracle, so the speaking of the serpent was a diabolic miracle.4
Where did Satan come from?
God has chosen not to tell us very much about the origin and apostasy of Satan.5 From the Bible we learn that he is the chief of the fallen angels (called demons or devils), and is the great adversary of God and man (Job 1:612; 2:16; 1 Peter 5:8).
He fell through pride (1 Timothy 3:6), and we deduce that this event must have been after the sixth day of creation, when God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:31), and before the Fall of man, recorded in Genesis 3.
Concerning his present abode, it is incorrect to think of Satan as the ruler of Hell, as the Bible makes no such reference. Rather, Jesus called him the prince of this world (John 12:31: 14:30; 16:11), and the Bible also calls him the god of this world [or age] (2 Corinthians 4:4), and the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). It speaks of Satan going to and fro in the earth, and
walking up and down in it (Job 2:2; 1 Peter 5:8), and of his activity in the heavenly places [or realms] (Ephesians 6:1112).
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