and

References the Evil Principle, envying their felicity, causes another Authorities. tree to spring up in the garden, and sends a wicked spirit, who, assuming the form of a serpent, persuades them to eat its fruit, and this fruit corrupts them. Evil feelings stir in their hearts; Ahriman becomes the object of their worship instead of Ormuzd; they fall under the power of demons, and become a prey to sin and misery. If we could certainly assign this narrative to a time anterior to the contact of Zoroastrianism with Judaism, it would constitute a most remarkable testimony, and as such it has been usual to adduce it. But the fact that it appears only in the later books, and the very close resemblance which it bears to the account given in Genesis, render it probable that we have here, not a primitive tradition, but an infiltration into the Persian system of religious ideas belonging properly to the Hebrews.

The part The part taken by the serpent, as Satan's instrument in taken by the serpent. effecting the fall of man, has been regarded by many as the origin of that widespread dread and abhorrence in which the serpent was held, especially in the East, and of that very common symbolism by which the same noxious creature was made the special Emblem of the Evil Principle. But it may with plausibility be argued that the instinctive antipathy of man to the animal, and its power of doing him deadly injury, sufficiently account both for the feeling and for the symbolism.

"Dict of Bib. Antiquities."

In the "British Museum" there is a seal, brought from Babylon, which has two figures sitting, one on each side of a tree, with their hands stretched out towards it, while at the back of one there is a serpent.

In engravings from gems and other ancient remains of Western Art, are similar representations. A fruit-laden tree, a man and woman, a destroyer of the serpent, are the principal portions of the various pictures.

NOTE ON NATURE OF THE SERPENT.

(By Dr. DUNS.)

References and Authorities.

Was the

true serpent

The first question that meets us is, "Was the serpent a true serpent?" The answer to this is given in the narra- Serpent a tive. It is mentioned as one of "the beasts of the field which the Lord God had made," and when the curse was uttered against it, it was in the words, "Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field." It is impossible to explain away the natural meaning of these words by alleging that "this serpent was no common beast, no ordinary serpent." Neither does it strengthen one's trust in the narrative to be assured that the whole transaction is designed to bring before us Satan only. There are expressions here which forbid such a construction. It has been urged that the presence of the Hebrew article before the original word points to a difference between this and all other serpents; but a little familiarity with the Scripture use of the term would have shown how groundless this is. In Num. xxi. 9; Eccl. x. II; Amos v. 19, the same form is used; and in these passages there can be no doubt that a common serpent is referred to.

The passage in Genesis introduces us both to the true reptile, and to Satan, the head of sin. This combination has been overlooked. The language of the Bible is peculiarly exact in all references to the creature so intimately associated with the temptation. The word in this passage is Nahash, and corresponds to the Greek term Ophis, from which, in natural science, the great order of true serpents is named-Ophidia.

DR. DELITZSCH ON THE NARRATIVE OF

THE FALL.

Heb. Nahash, Greek Ophis. Dr. Duns.

universal fact.

"The story of the Fall, like that of the Creation, has The Fall an wandered over the world. Heathen nations have transplanted and mixed it up with their geography, their

and

References history, their mythology, although it has never so comAuthorities. pletely changed form, and colour, and spirit, that you cannot recognise it. Here, however, in the Law, it preserves the character of a universal, human, world-wide fact; and the groans of Creation, the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and the heart of every man, conspire in Delitzsch. their testimony to the most literal truth of the narrative."

Dr.

Satan the agent.

DR. PORTER ON THE AGENCY OF SATAN.

The original temptation did not come from God. God is not the author of sin. Neither did the temptation originate in man himself. Man was created holy. Everything as it came forth from the Creator's hand was good. The evil sprang from without, from another being, Dr. Porter animated by another principle. Kitto also says, "That Dr. Kitto. agent is the devil, or Satan; and the general opinion is that he employed or actuated the serpent as his instrument."

So also

Kalisch.

NOTES ON GENESIS iii. 1-6.

Ver. I. THE SERPENT; "almost throughout the East the serpent was used as an emblem of the evil principle." "Eve may not have been surprised at speech in an animal Speak. Com. which apparently possessed almost human sagacity."

SUBTIL; wise, sagacious; with deteriorated meaning, cunning.

HATH GOD SAID; questioning often precedes doubting. Ver. 5. KNOWING GOOD AND EVIL; having a clear understanding of all moral questions. The truth is kept Evil known back out of sight, that the knowledge of evil cannot be only by Experience. had, by a creature, apart from the experience of it.

Ver. 6. GAVE ALSO UNTO HER HUSBAND; Bengel says, "The serpent deceived the woman; the woman could not

Bengel. deceive the man, but she persuaded him."

"No researches have explained the origin of evil, and

and

how it was possible for a holy being to entertain a sinful References desire. We know what produces evil, but not how it is Authorities. produced, for this reason, among others, that it is contrary to our original nature; is an alien; and had its origin in another world and among a different order of beings. We only know that God created man 'sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.'"

Inglis.

NOTE ON PROBATION FOR A MORAL BEING. "Div. Foot.

(By W. GRIFFITHS, M.A.)

prints," etc. p. 145.

"From Adam's position it would be possible, either to rise to great heights of nobleness, or sink into lowest depths of infamy. Indeed, no other alternative offered. The happiness or the misery must have followed, and which would depend on conduct or choice. With care, in walking according to the light afforded, and a slight degree of self-denial, boundless scope for advance presented itself. But indifference and self-indulgence would give advantage to the lower side of humanity; and appetite, once let loose, would soon triumph over reason. Creatures endowed with faculties above those of instinct must thrive or miscarry, according to the use to which they put their higher powers. And the resentment of the passions that are kept under must always occasion difficulty in the way of right action. Temptation or probation is not, therefore, to us an accidental or arbitrary arrangement, but one inevitable. The only condition, suited to a creature of a mixed rational and appetitive nature, is à state of moral trial. It always has been, and cannot but w. Griffiths, be, the lot of man.”

M.A.

CHAPTER
PTER XIV.

THE BEGINNING OF DEATH.

"In one view, sin is the fall of virtue, in the other it is the disorder and penal dislocation bcth of the soul and of the world. As crime, it demolishes the sacred and supernatural interests of character; as a force, operating through and among the retributive causes arranged for the vindication of God's law, it is the disruption of nature, a shock of disorder and pain that unsettles the apparent harmony of things, and reduces the world to a state of imperfect or questionable beauty.”—Dr. Bushnell. "The effects of sin upon our first parents themselves were- (1) Shamea sense of degradation and pollution; (2) Dread of the displeasure of God, or a sense of guilt, and the consequent desire to hide from His preThese effects prove the loss, not only of innocence, but of original righteousness, and with it of the favour and fellowship of God. Man was entirely and absolutely ruined. The other forms of evil consequent on his disobedience were merely subordinate. They were but the expressions of the Divine displeasure, and the consequences of that spiritual death in which the threatened penalty essentially consisted.”—Dr. Hodge.

sence.

and

References IN the previous chapter we examined the narrative Authorities. of man's fall, and we have found that the very essence of it was this: knowing the will of God, man chose, under the persuasion of his senses (affected as they Self-will the were by external things), to follow his own will, and take the ordering of his life into his own hands. This introduced a fresh and disturbing element into nature,

Man's act of

essence of his fall.