The worship of the serpent traced throughout the world, attesting the temptation and fall of man by the instrumentality of a serpent tempter / By the Rev. John Bathurst Deane.

  • John Bathurst Deane
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The worship of the serpent traced throughout the world, attesting the temptation and fall of man by the instrumentality of a serpent tempter / By the Rev. John Bathurst Deane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    eat: And their eyes were opened V’ Between the action, “ they did eat” and the effect, “ their eyes were opened,” there is no room for interpo- lating any other cause for the illumination, than the eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The copulative conjunction and points out the cause—namely, the fruit of the tree. The seduction of Eve by the serpent is as far from being allegorical as the other cir- cumstances of the Fall. Satan had determined to bring about the destruction of man, and, therefore, would approach to the accomplish- ment of it in the most subtil manner. For this purpose, we are taught to believe that he as- sumed the form of the serpent, probably because the nature of that animal most nearly resembled his own : for “ the serpent was more subtil than all the beasts of the field.” His own form was spiritual; he could not, therefore, have shown himself to Eve as he really was. He appeared, consequently, under a disguise to which she had been accustomed, and at which she would not be startled. A beautiful but mute animal crossed her path, ascended the tree of knowledge, and plucked 1 Gen. iii. 6, 7.