Essay On Serpent Symbolism

Cultures all around the word use different animals or figures to symbolize other things. When someone says the word “snake,” things such as a gardner snake or a rattle snake might come to mind. Now when a person hears the word “serpent”, depending on the cultural location, many different images can come to mind. The serpent is used in a latin term meaning, “A word used in mythological or religious contexts to denote a being that looks like a snake but has a heightened sense of intelligence” (Serpent). The serpent received the characteristic of intelligent because of snakes. The snake was labeled as one of the most wise animals because its natural instincts to have “herbal knowledge and entheogenic association” (Serpent). The serpent can be known to be in the form of a snake, but it is more about the symbolism, rather than the actual form. A serpent is not something that can be found when walking in the woods. Instead, it is the term used to represent and bring imagery in mythological and religious …show more content…
The reason the serpent is so different from the other cultures is because of the religious difference. In the cultures mentioned before, there is more than one god that is worshiped. Since there were many different gods, it allowed room for the serpent to be worshiped. On the contrary, according to the Bible, where Genesis is found, there shall only be one God. Isaiah 44:6 states, “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.” In a Christian cultural context if anything is to try and take the place of God, it is evil. While in the other cultures, the serpent was worshiped because of its godly status. I find it interesting that the motivation for the serpent deceitfulness in Genesis was to be viewed as the same authority as God had with his