As mentioned in Part 1, Genesis 1-3 provides Scripture’s own unique character categories that subsequent characters often fall into. Grasping these character categories is key to both understanding the plot conflict and perceiving the unified nature of the metanarrative.
(For ease of use and understanding, we’ll use the terms “actor” instead of “character” or “individual character” and “role” instead of “character category” for the rest of this blog post.)
God Himself gives us the roles we should keep an eye out for as the story progresses.
Then Yahweh God said to the serpent… “I will put hostility between you and between the woman, and between your offspring and between her offspring; he will strike you on the head, and you will strike him on the heel.”
Genesis 3:14a, 15 LEB
Many Christians are familiar with this passage as an early messianic prophecy that the serpent (Satan) would strike Jesus with the cross but would himself be dealt a fatal blow in the process. (Romans 16:20 adds a wrinkle to this interpretation. See Chapter 8 of The Epic Gospel We’ve Forgotten.) And while it certainly points to Jesus, what modern Christians often miss is that this passage provides a framework for how to read and understand many Old Testament narratives as well. Key to this understanding is identifying the roles in this passage and how they are repurposed in following narratives.
The Serpent & the Serpent’s Offspring
At first glance, the role of the serpent seems straightforward. The serpent is later identified as Satan. Since Satan is an actor that appears at various points throughout the storyline, the serpent/Satan (the actor) and the serpent (the role) are closely linked. However, other narratives portray actors as playing or replaying the role of the serpent. Since Satan is the serpent, these other actors who are portrayed as serpents should be understood as being the serpent’s offspring. The devil is their father (e.g. Matt. 12:34, John 8:44).
An example we easily miss in English is the character Nahash in 1 Samuel 11. In Hebrew, this name is the same word used for the serpent in Genesis 3. The character’s name is “serpent.” Naturally, he fills the role by warring against Israel, Yahweh’s firstborn son (Ex. 4:22).
Another example we easily miss in English is the serpentine portrayal of Goliath. In Hebrew, “the word for bronze, nehoshet, sounds like the word for serpent, nehesh” (https://bcsmn.edu/david-and-goliath/). Goliath’s bronze armor is described in great detail to give the impression that this giant looked like a serpent when he walked onto the battlefield. Yahweh also told the serpent in Genesis 3 that it would go on its belly and eat dust. Goliath is killed from a strike to the head and then falls face down into the ground (1 Sam. 17:49). Goliath dies on his belly, with his face in the dust.
Like Goliath playing the role of the serpent, other actors can be portrayed as serpentine when they match the description of the serpent’s future in Genesis 3:15 (e.g. being struck in the head). They can also appear as serpents when they replay the serpent’s role as deceiver. Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, is a particularly intriguing example. Even at birth, Jacob emerges grabbing the “heel” of his brother, another nod to Genesis 3:15. While he isn’t “striking” it, he has latched onto it as a serpent might latch onto its victim when it bites. Jacob is portrayed from birth as a snake, and for quite a while, he fits the profile nicely.
Just as the devil deceived Eve, Jacob and his mother deceive Isaac to obtain the blessing. The problem here is that Jacob is the man through whom God would carry on Abraham’s blessing—a blessing that was meant to make Abraham’s family the conduit of God’s blessing to the world (Gen. 12:2-3). Here was a man who was the offspring of a woman (as one was promised in Genesis 3), but he played the role of the serpent or the serpent’s offspring rather than that of the woman’s offspring. God’s ability to use even an actor playing an inverted role like this is worth meditating on.
Another example of a serpentine actor—one of my favorites—is Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite army in Judges 4-5. Like Goliath, he is killed by being struck in the head, this time not by a stone but by a tent peg that is driven through his temple while he sleeps. Embarrassingly (in those days), he was killed by a woman named Jael.
Judges has another serpentine figure who is (almost) killed by a woman in chapter 9. As Abimelech attacked a tower, a woman at the top of the tower threw a millstone on his head, crushing his skull. Abimelech survived just long enough to instruct his sword-bearer to kill him so that he didn’t die with the embarrassment of being killed by a woman.
So, why all the serpentine actors? Scripture replays these roles with different actors in ways that are never identical, and this is key to understanding how Scripture can make theological commentary on itself. For example, the fact that Judges has two stories of a woman killing (or almost killing) the serpent figure is a notable shift from the original promise God made to the serpent in Genesis 3:15.
God clearly indicated that the offspring would be male. When the serpent slayer is twice a woman in the Judges narrative, it provides a poignantly unexpected twist to the expectations of the role. The notable absence of a capable male in these narratives is a damning indictment on the patriarchy of that era. Where are all the good men?
Replaying the same role with different actors also provides a multi-dimensional view of the role. In the case of the woman’s offspring, this concept is key to understanding how the Old Testament paints a picture of the expected Messiah. More on that in the next post.
Epic Gospel 