Did Snakes Used To Have Legs?

Last updated on: September 29, 2016 at 5:48 pm by Jack Wellman

Did Snakes Used To Have Legs? 2016-09-29T17:48:37-05:00 Jack Wellman

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What happened in the garden where God said the nature of the snake changed?

The Fall

When God created the heavens and the universe, including of course the earth, He took it all in and declared it as very good. Genesis 1:31 says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” In the Garden of Eden, it was God Himself who planted a garden (Gen 2:8), and since it was God Who did it, it also must have been very good. The Garden was obviously well nourished because there were three rivers adjacent to it, so in this paradise, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Gen 2:15). Adam could have had anything he wanted in the Garden, except eating from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:17), so everything God had created was good, but there was only one thing that God declared “not good,” and that was that Adam was all alone (Gen 2:18), so God gave him a companion (Gen 2:21-23). Now everything was perfect in the Garden…until sin entered in, and man would fall…and fall hard.

Who was the Serpent?

Was the serpent which tempted Eve to take from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil a real snake, or was this serpent actually Satan himself disguised as a creature in the Garden of Eden? When the serpent tempted Eve to sin and take from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam also partook of it, placing him and all creation under the curse. This is where God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life” (Gen 3:14), but he was speaking more about Satan than only a snake, wasn’t he, because God also prophesied about the serpent’s end by telling him, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15). That final crushing would come at Jesus’ death (Matt 27, 28).

Who was Cursed?

The serpent was cursed in Genesis 3 and could apparently no longer walk upright (Gen 3:14), but does this mean that snakes once had legs? There is not enough in the text to make that determination, but the point is that the serpent, which is actually Satan, was cursed, but so was the creation, meaning the very nature of animals (snakes included) changed from good to having the fear of man, but some now being a danger to man. At one time it was said that Lucifer, who became Satan by his rebellion in heaven, was the greatest of God’s creation, but his pride caused him to fall as he wanted to sit on the very throne of God and receive worship; something Satan’s always lusted after. Isaiah wrote, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low” (Isaiah 14:12), because “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north” (Isaiah 14:13). In fact, he said, “I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north” (Isaiah 14:14).

Satan must have had a lofty position in heaven as Ezekiel wrote, “You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked” (Ezk 28:14). My point in all of these verses is, “Was it the snake which was changed or Satan who was cursed” that was the main point? The emphasis was clearly on Satan (as the serpent represented) that was cursed…and not necessarily the snake as we know it. Snakes were not the problem…it was Satan, and whether he entered into the snake to more easily encounter Eve or not, the main point is that Satan fell…and caused the fall of mankind. Does it really matter whether snakes had legs before the fall or not?

The Restoration

God, in Jesus Christ, is going to come again and create a new heaven and a new earth (Rev 21:1), and everything in the fallen creation will be restored again to its original state of being “good” (Gen 1:31). Today, there are good things in the creation, but there seems to be more and more of the results of the curse than even a few hundred years ago. Mankind has raped and pillaged the earth like no other creature, and as Christians yearn for the coming kingdom, even “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God [because] the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope” (Rom 8:19-20). Someday, “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 1:21). All you need to do is look at the cataclysmic events that afflict mankind to realize “that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 1:22-23).

Conclusion

It’s not so much that the nature of the serpent or snake changed, but that human nature did, and most certainly it wasn’t for the good (Rom 6:23). The serpent is clearly a depiction or reference to Satan, as the Apostle John wrote, “the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev 12:9), and the serpent in the Bible almost always refers to Satan (Rev 20:2), so the conclusion of the serpent is “the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev 20:10). Any other question regarding the serpent seems unimportant compared to who the serpent represented.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

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