Are you aware of any biblical references which speak of this angelic fall into demonhood? Because I can’t find any. From what I hear, this comes not from Scripture but from Milton.

I’ll let you have the last word

God communicates with symbols. This doesn’t mean they not historical entities, but they are symbols nonetheless. The serpent was cursed as an object lesson. He was no longer upright. Neither was Adam, but Adam’s feet were not removed from him, only from the Garden.

My book shows a serpent at the centre of almost all the parallel structures, including the Creation week, where sun moon and stars are wise rulers.

I don’t think the serpent was unequivocally synonymous with Satan any more than the donkey was synonymous with Balaam’s visitor. But serpents are consistently symbols of wisdom, and donkeys are consistently symbols of subdued, peaceful, Gentile kings/kingdoms under an obedient Adam. (In that case, Balak was the beast and Balaam was the false prophet.) When the Jew turns from God, the Gentiles miraculously speak with tongues as a warning. Types are the only way to understand the Bible.

Though an inner exegesis of the texts shows otherwise. The serpent and leviathan prove to be dynamic in meaningfulness, even ambivalent; never static and altogether harmonious or “clear.” While the serpent is equated with Satan/evil, this does not prove to be the case across the board (as I have shown with Genesis 1, where all creatures are blessed).

Likewise, Psalm 89 tells quite a radically different story about Leviathan compared to Psalm 104. Does it not?

In other words, it is never “clear” that the serpent is unequivocally synonymous with Satan, and Gen. 1 bolsters this. The implication is that the entrance of sin is squarely on the shoulder of humankind, not otherworldly angelic forces which fall/sin and then morph into animals in order to bring us down with ‘em.

Later Scripture make it pretty clear that the serpent was the being who became the Accuser (satan). And there is another instance where an angel speaks miraculously through an animal.

http://www.bullartistry.com.au/wp/2009/04/10/talking-animals/

Also, Job begins with Satan in God’s Garden-court, and ends with Leviathan, the dragon. As with Adam and Eve, there is a progression from heads to bodies, from persons to institutions, hence the False Prophet, Harlot and Beast at the end of the Old Covenant.

The serpent isn’t just a means toward salvation; yes, in a postfallen world it certainly is rendered as such, but it began as a fully functional and worthy creature made/wrought by the hands of our Creator/Artisan God.

A fitting analogy might be the Leviathan type: God does not wish to smash Leviathan out of existence, but rather sports with him, as seen in Psalm 104:26.

It was just an analogy, although Jordan sees that the two trees have parallels in bread and wine, obedience and wisdom, childhood and maturity, and priest and king.

I agree with your second paragraph. Like Daniel, like Jesus, if Adam had refused the serpent’s offer of a short-cut kingdom, God would have given it to him on a platter.

I don’t believe the serpent is at all a neutral figure. The serpent is only “health” when it takes the Covenant curses upon itself. It was lifted up in the way that Saul, Absalom, Haman and Jesus were lifted up.

So, let me get this straight: in your analogy, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is like alcohol and Eve is like the alcoholic? How can this be when creation is still without the presence of sin? If God created the all of creation, including the different trees and fruit, then it must serve a life-affirming purpose. Right?

Also, there is nothing in the mandate given by God which says humans are to never, ever eat of that particular tree, only that at this particular time and place Adam and Eve are to refrain from it. Like C.S. Lewis and others argue, the tree could quite possibly represent maturity and the ability to judge or discern weighty matters, and as Adam and Eve are still very much wet behind the ears, they must bide their time.

Also, I said nothing about “innocent ignorance” regarding the serpent — those are your words. The serpent is not a neutral figure, but an ambivalent, complicated one. Biblically speaking, he is not altogether pure evil; see Moses and the bronze serpent (serpent=health).

Looking forward to your response.

Those are not bad assertions in themselves, but they have one problem: this exact pattern is played out a thousand times throughout the rest of the Bible. It seems to me that Eve was simply “reading between the lines” in a good way. She wasn’t twisting God’s words. She was wisely staying away from the edge, the way an alcoholic might avoid working in a cellar door shop.

Also, in partial support of the idea that there was not a previous fall of Satan, Jordan believes that Satan fell when he tempted Eve.

I don’t think we can really argue for the serpent’s “innocent ignorance” unless we toss out the rest of the Bible. Some people do the same for Judas, but we have to be illogically selective in our readings to support either argument.

I’d be happy to send you a copy of Bible Matrix so you can see some more support for my reponses here. If interested, send me your postal address via the ‘Contact’ link at the top of the page.

Thanks for the interaction!
Mike