Genesis 3:1-2 … lip service

3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Earlier we learned the Hebrew word used for breathe or breathing is “naphach”. Here the word “serpent” is “nachash” Strong’s H5172 which means “to hiss, or whisper a magic spell”.

The word ‘subtil’ here is the word “aram”.{H6191 עָרַם  used only in the derivative sense, through the idea perhaps of smoothness}

We can see here the serpent was unique……a separate and distinct living being…but in a very negative way. Now did the spirit of Satan overtake and possess a poor, unwitting snake? Or was the snake a physical form that Satan took on, different and apparently appealing; a form willed by his own doing in order to be visible and so that he might communicate with Adam and Eve?

Satan is able to counterfeit anything and I agree this could well have been Satan’s attempt to mimic God by creating counterfeit life. However, in my understanding, this is a literary use of parallelism, Satan had used the characteristics of the serpent to writhe his way into the lives of Adam and Eve telling both of them lies about God and the purpose man had in the garden.

Additionally, Satan does have the ability to appear in any form he chooses {seen as a river to Abraham in the book of Jasher} and it is more likely he appeared in the form of a being common to the garden.

The Malakim are a type and class of angels present in the garden. The term “Mal’akh” simply means the one who is sent, often translated as “messenger”. The word mal’akh suggests that it is the form of the root “maqtal” denoting “the tool” or “the means of performing it”. We can determine that these angelic host were placed into the garden as helpers to Adam and Eve to teach them how to tend the plants.

This position as Malakim would be the open door Satan had to spin his web of deceit. Jubilees tells us “And after the completion of the seven years, which he had completed there, seven years exactly, [8 A.M.] and in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the serpent came and approached the woman.”

It is worth noting that the destruction of the flood came on the “second month, on the seventeenth day of the month” Genesis 7:11

² And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

Should we take the position that Satan took on the form of an actual snake, notice how the conversation appears to of a nature course of action. Eve isn’t at all shocked that the serpent talks. According to the book of Jubilees “And on that day on which Adam went forth from the Garden, he offered as a sweet savior an offering, frankincense, galbanum, and stacte, and spices in the morning with the rising of the sun from the day when he covered his shame. And on that day was closed the mouth of all beasts, and of cattle, and of birds, and of whatever walks, and of whatever moves, so that they could no longer speak: for they had all spoken one with another with one lip and with one tongue.”