The serpent serves several functions in The Book of Genesis. It functions as a symbol of temptation, free choice, knowledge, and good vs. evil, as well as deception.

        When God sees that Adam and Eve deceived him he says to Adam:  “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then God said to Eve, “What is this that you have done?” Eve said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:14) God did not want Adam or Eve to even have the ability to think on his or her own.  Why would he have said to Adam:  “Who told you that you were naked?”(Genesis 3:14) It is clear that God wanted control of not only the actions of his creations, but also their thought process.  God does not immediately punish Adam and Eve for disobeying his command to not eat the forbidden fruit, but instead punishes the serpent first, as evident in the following passage:  “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life”. (Genesis 3:15)

        Since the recommendation by the serpent was so clearly in conflict with God’s word, the decision boiled down to whom Eve trusted, and whether or not she was tempted to think on her own, and make her own decision. Does she trust God, who created her, or the serpent that she did not know at all She could have protected herself by thinking who was most trustworthy or simply focus on God’s command. Her willingness to decide to listen to the serpent in the end had great ramifications.   Genesis is quite clear on the process by which Eve chose to disobey God. We are not told whether Eve asked further questions. Perhaps it is not important. The longer she thought about the idea of eating the forbidden fruit, the more she allowed her mind to focus on that suggestion, and the less she thought of God’s command.  

        The desires that Eve sees in the fruit are also important, for there are three things that the fruit could symbolize:  good for food, pleasant to the eye, and desirable to make one wise.  The apple is also a metaphor for the lust of the flesh or the appetites. What the eye sees becomes something that catches our attention. What makes us wise closely relates to how we think others might perceive us. In this case she thought she would be wise.  Desires have their place in our lives.  So when Eve saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Now the eyes of both were opened to the knowledge of the world. The serpent opened Eve’s eyes to see that God had given all the trees except one to eat from, but his question caused her to think that God had withheld the best from her.  This is important with regard to temptation, knowledge, and free choice. The dialogue between the serpent and Eve portrays many messages.  The most important, and most obvious to me is the ability of the serpent to show Eve how to think about choices in life, when to obey, when to disobey, and having the freedom to pursue knowledge, opening her eyes to all that is available to her regardless of the consequences.  Eve’s ability to persuade Adam to eat from the same tree and disobey God may have shown not only his loyalty to her, but also his fear of losing her if he did not pursue the same desires.

        Throughout the book of Genesis we have gained a lot of insight into how the serpent works tempting humans, introducing choices, and free thought, as well as the pursuit of knowledge.  We are tempted to do many things, most of the time we do the good things, but then again, there are some people who are tempted to do evil.  We sometimes have to make sacrifices in order to achieve what we believe is the right thing to do, sometimes the sacrifice we make means having to disobey rules and laws, and accept the consequences; but many times we also learn from our mistakes, so there is always something good and something bad to be gained from temptation and the pursuit of knowledge.

Works Cited

New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. New York: Nelson, 1992