What is the big deal about the curse on the serpent?

Question

God curses the serpent.

The reading is: "You are cursed above all the cattle and above all beasts of the field."

Is that not curious?

Does this mean that all cattle and other beasts are cursed?

Why are they cursed?



IF THEY ARE NOT CURSED, WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL ABOUT THE CURSE ON THE SERPENT

Answer 1

All animals are cursed because of man's sin. Everything is destined to die of disease etc. Originally, the animals were meant to live eternally with man.

Answer 2

It was a biblical shot at explaining why (most) humans are afraid of snakes. (another part of the passage adds that humans will find them disgusting forevermore)

I'd imagine that whoever wrote that passage of the bible didn't like the poor things, and attempted to pass on the sentiment. Especially since it wasn't a serpent that did the bad "Adam and Eve" thing, but Satan disguised as a serpent. So cursing the snake is really unwarranted even by biblical standards.

Other than that, I don't think the snakes really care all that much. In fact, it worked to their advantage. While cows and lambs were being sacraficed to God, the snake stayed pretty much under the radar.

Answer 3

do u know a snake(serpent) will not live or abide in a cattle field,or where any beast of the fields would b found.no not cursed He told then to b fruitful and multiply,to cover the face of the earth.thats a blessing.its the same for the serpent today as then,representing that devil,ud just have to read the whole book to truly understand

Answer 4

OK, this will be a long answer, but I hope a comprehensive one.

If you haven't already figured it out, at some point along the line Christianity stopped living in peace alongside other religions. Along with coopting the religious celebrations of other people and other faiths, the church began to rewrite the beliefs of other relgions in order to discredit them.

As a result, there was a mass conversion of older Deities from other religions into saints or demons, and also the attribution of evil to those creatures that had been associated with these earlier Deities.

Pan, the horned, cloven-footed God of nature, was converted into Satan. Some Goddesses, like Bride (aka Brigit, Bridget, etc.) were converted into saints; I suspect that this happened because the people's affection for these Goddesses was too great to permit the church to try to assign evil to them.

Snakes and/or serpents were often portrayed with Goddesses - the most famous of these being the Minoan Goddess figure holding two snakes in her uplifted hands. You can read about Her here:

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/minoan_snake_goddess.html

and see a drawing of a statue of Her here:

http://www.goddessgift.net/images/Stamp%20Snake%20Goddess.jpg


Naturally, if the mythology of Christianity held that women were subordinate to men, the depictions of Goddesses, and their associated symbolism, would NOT be considered "good" by the church.

Interestingly enough, you can hear echoes of the old ways in the biblical story in Genesis - it's the serpent who tempts Eve into disobedience...the snake or serpent that had long been associated with female Goddesses, female divine power.

The message is pretty overt - women should NOT follow the older ways in which the Female was divine as well as the Male - this would result in punishment by the god of the bible, and all sorts of calamities would befall humans if woman claimed her own intelligence or power.

This same overt message is clearly seen in the statues of Mary in which she is depicted standing on a snake. This is, according to Christianity, the proper attitude of women - rejecting our ages-old place alongside men as equals, rejecting the Female face of the Divine in favor of only the Male half, eyes modestly downcast lest she see anything that might re-ignite in her the memories of her stolen power.

Ya gotta wonder why women are the backbone of a religion that did this to us.

Answer 5

The Book of Revelation has shown the readers who had the understanding that it was "The Old Dragon" with many legs and can walk until the time it tempted Adam and Eve and was cursed by God to become "The Ancient Serpent" that was cursed to walk on its belly. The significance there is that it is the same "Devil" who tempted Jesus in the mountain and the "Satan" who hid behind Peter and lured Peter to call Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Answer 6

Everything came under the curse at the overthrow - including the very ground. But Jesus came to undo the curse by becoming a curse for us - Galatian 3:13. The cross is the start of the restoration of all things. There is a full redemption of all things that the Bible talks about that all of creation groans and travails to see come into full view.

Answer 7

I don't know. Serpents were probably chosen for the story because snakes are oftentimes dangerous and bite. You can't really trust them. So whoever was writing the story said, well - If I liken Satan to a snake, the imagery alone will tell the readers that this is a character not to be trusted.

Personally - I like snakes/serpents. Hail Leviathan. Hail Dagon.

Answer 8

I don't know. I wouldn't take it too seriously.

Personally, I don't like the idea of sheep being superior to goats. Goats ROCK. Sheep are stupid and walk around with poopy butts because they're all woolly and they crap down their fuzzy flanks. How is that superior to a goat?

As my grandmother says, "goats have human eyes." They do. Very soulful. And they're super-cute. I wouldn't have a pet sheep, but I'd like a pet goat.

I don't think serpents are cursed. I see them around sometimes, and they don't seem cursed to me. Cattle seem to have a worse time of it--they get crammed into feedlots and slaughtered, whereas serpents get to hang out in their (limited) territory and slither and eat deer and birds and lizards and stuff. Snakes rock, too.

More serpents. More goats. Less sheep.

Answer 9

Serpents/snakes are important in many different food chains and play an important role in bio-diversity. It would be foolish for someone to curse them or completely get rid of them. Snakes are not cursed, now go hug a snake and tell it you love it.

Answer 10

The whole earth was cursed the moment sin entered into it.