The Snake, the Serpent, the Dragon

In Genesis 3 we read about the Fall of Adam and Eve. The snake is described as cunning, which puts emphasis on its ability to manipulate and deceive. It is often portrayed as an ordinary snake, sometimes with the face of a man. This naturally leads us to think of the snake’s temptation as purely intellectual. We picture Adam and Eve in the Garden, the snake innocuously whispering in their ears, slowly chipping away at their sensibilities, steadily casting doubt upon their trust in God.

But as Dr. Scott Hahn points out in Lord, Have Mercy, the Hebrew word for “snake” in Genesis 3 is the same “nahash” that’s used throughout scripture— notably in Isaiah 27 to describe the Leviathan, an enormous sea serpent. And if we identify the snake in the Garden of Eden as the Devil, then we also see it described in Revelation 12 as a “great red dragon” and “that ancient serpent.”

So beneath the cunning arguments and smooth deceptions of the snake lies a hidden threat. Remember that Jesus calls the Devil “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44) and then picture yourself in the Garden with the great red dragon, that ancient serpent telling you to do the one thing God had forbidden.

And that is the hidden threat behind every temptation we face. We may be presented with a temptation that appears ordinary, innocuous—a plain snake that while potentially dangerous, is undeserving of our fear. But behind every snake looms a terrible threat to our very existence, with the power to destroy our communion with God.

Thus we are meant to resist every temptation like our lives depend on it—because they do. For how many of us can refute the exhortation from Hebrews 12: “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood”? It may seem folly to think that we stand a chance against Satan, and on our own we would have no more success than our first parents. It is only by putting on the Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17) that we have the ability to resist the Devil and his temptations, and find the courage to become warriors and, perhaps, martyrs.

So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending!

The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien