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QUESTION V. Why the devil assumed the form of a serpent rather than any other.1
QUAESTIO V. Cur diabolus serpentis formam potius quam aliam quampiam assumpserit.
Supersunt duae quaestiones, priusquam ad explanationem Mosaicae historiae transeamus, hoc loco enodandae. Altera est, cur daemon sub specie & forma serpentis, potius quam vel hominis vel alius cuiuspiam animalium, Evam adoriri, & scelus illud perficere voluerit. Altera quaestio est, cur Moses de serpente tantum locutus sit, nullum de diabolo qui per serpentem locutus & maleficium illud operatus est, verbum faciens.
There remain two questions to be untangled in this place, before we pass to the explanation of the Mosaic history. One is, why the demon wished to attack Eve and accomplish that crime under the appearance and form of a serpent, rather than of a man or of any other animal. The other question is, why Moses spoke only of the serpent, making no word of the devil, who spoke through the serpent and wrought that evil deed.2
Primo igitur quaeritur, Cur daemon speciem serpentis assumpserit potius quam vel hominis vel maiorum bestiarum, cuiusmodi sunt cameli, elephantes: aut cur non ipse oculis Evae inaspectabilis, per voces tamen humanas ab ipso formatas in aere, quae scilicet ab Eva possent exaudiri & intelligi, eam non tentaverit? Respondet Augustinus ad hanc quaestionem dupliciter. Nam in libro 11. super Genesim ad litteram, capite 3. ad hunc modum scribit: Non est putandum quod diabolus serpentem per quem tentaret elegerit: sed cum decipere cuperet, non potuit nisi per quod animal posset, a Deo permissus est. Nocendi enim cupiditas inest cuique a se, sed potestas a solo Deo est. Significat igitur Augustinus, propterea daemonem non esse usum alio animali quam serpente, quia solius serpentis ad illam tentationem exequendam usus a Deo ipsi permissus est.
First, then, it is asked: Why did the demon assume the appearance of a serpent rather than of a man or of the greater beasts—such as camels and elephants? Or why did he not, himself invisible to Eve's eyes, yet through human voices formed by him in the air which could be heard and understood by Eve, tempt her? Augustine answers this question in two ways. For in book 11 On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter 3, he writes in this manner: It must not be thought that the devil chose the serpent through which to tempt; but, since he desired to deceive, he could not do so except through that animal through which he was permitted by God. For the desire of harming is in each one from himself, but the power is from God alone. Augustine signifies, therefore, that the demon used no other animal than the serpent, because the use of the serpent alone, for carrying out that temptation, was permitted to him by God.3
At idem libro 14. de Civitate Dei, cap. 11. aliam quidem probabiliorem affert causam: Diabolus, inquit, male suada versutia in hominis sensum serpere affectans, cui utique stanti (quoniam ipse ceciderat) invidebat, colubrum in Paradiso corporali, ubi cum duobus illis hominibus cetera etiam terrestria animalia subdita & innoxia versabantur, animal scilicet lubricum & tortuosis anfractibus mobile, operi suo congruum, per quem loqueretur elegit: eoque per angelicam praesentiam praestantioremque naturam spiritali nequitiae sibi subiecto, & tanquam instrumento utens, fallaciam sermocinatus est feminae. Sic Augustinus.
But the same, in book 14 of the City of God, chapter 11, brings forward another and indeed more probable cause: The devil, he says, with ill-persuading craft striving to creep into man's sense—whom, since he himself had fallen, he envied for standing—chose, to speak through it, a snake in the corporeal Paradise, where, with those two human beings, the other earthly animals also dwelt, subject and harmless—a slippery animal, namely, mobile in tortuous windings, suited to his work; and using it, made subject to his spiritual wickedness by his angelic presence and more excellent nature, and as an instrument, he spoke deceitfully to the woman. Thus Augustine.4
The Master of the Sentences adds besides, in book 2, distinction 21: Lest the demon's fraud should be too manifest, he did not come in his own appearance, lest, being openly recognized, he should at once be repelled. Lest, his fraud being too hidden, it could not easily be guarded against, he was not permitted to come in any other form than the serpent's—which, indeed, was quite suited to the detecting of his malice, so that through that which was outward the woman could easily perceive the craft of the tempter. The demon would indeed have wished to come in the appearance of a dove: for this, as a harmless and simple animal, would have been a most fitting instrument for the devil to deceive the woman; but it was not consonant and fitting that, through an unclean and malign spirit, the dove should be made hateful and odious to man—in whose appearance the Holy Spirit was afterward to appear to men. Thus far from the Master.5
Addit praeterea Magister sententiarum libro 2. distin. 21. Ne fraus daemonis, ait, nimis esset manifesta, in sua specie ille non venit, ne aperte cognitus, statim repelleretur. Ne nimis occulta eius fraus non facile caveri posset, non in alia forma venire permissus est quam serpentis, qua nimirum eius detegendae malitiae admodum congruebat, ut per illud quod foris erat, astutiam tentantis facile posset femina animadvertere. Voluisset quidem daemon in specie columbae venire: haec nempe, ut animal innoxium & simplex, ad mulierem decipiendam congruentissimum diabolo fuisset instrumentum: sed non erat consentaneum & conveniens, ut per immundum & malignum spiritum redderetur homini columba invisa & exosa, in cuius postea specie Spiritus sanctus hominibus erat appariturus. Hactenus ex Magistro.
At vero Moses Barcepha in libro de Paradiso capite 27. enucleatius hanc quaestionem tractans, daemonem tradit non apparuisse humana specie, quod sciret Evam non ignorare, alium praeter se suumque maritum hominem esse nullum: nec Deum permisisse ut daemon hominem simularet, ne iustam aut certe probabilem haberet Eva sui erroris excusationem, quod ab homi-
But Moses Bar Cepha, in the book On Paradise, chapter 27, treating this question more thoroughly, reports that the demon did not appear in human form, because he knew that Eve was not ignorant that there was no man besides herself and her husband; nor did God permit the demon to feign a man, lest Eve should have a just, or at least probable, excuse for her error—namely, that by a hu[man being]...6
...ab homine sibi simili fuisset circumventa. In figura vero maiorum bestiarum non apparuit, quod hae species vastorum animalium nimio metu concussissent & perturbassent mulierem. Quod si eius audisset verba mulier, cuius speciem aut figuram vidisset nullam, nonne eo magis fuisset consternata, nec eius dictis auditum aut assensum accommodasset? Prae ceteris autem animalibus diabolus serpentem sibi in organum delegit, vel potius solum omnino animalium a Deo permissum induit. Primo, ut eo facilius malitia eius deprehendi posset. Tum quia serpens omnium animalium est tortuosissimus, & ad nocendum homini callidissimus atque insidiosissimus, nocendique cupidissimus: videlicet lin-
...she had been circumvented by a man like herself. But he did not appear in the figure of the greater beasts, because these appearances of vast animals would have struck and disturbed the woman with too much fear. And if the woman had heard the words of one whose appearance or figure she saw none, would she not have been the more dismayed, and not have lent ear or assent to its words? Above the other animals, the devil chose the serpent for his instrument—or rather put on the one animal altogether permitted by God. First, so that his malice could the more easily be detected. Then, because the serpent is the most tortuous of all animals, and the most cunning and treacherous for harming man, and the most desirous of harming: namely with its ton[gue]...7
...gua, morsuque venenato exitialis homini. Deinde, ut intelligeretur ad quantam vilitatem & miseriam propter peccatum daemon esset abiectus, ex similitudine serpentis, qui non sublimis & rectus ingreditur, sed humi prostratus humiliter serpit. Postremo, ut quemadmodum inter hominem & serpentem naturalis est inimicitia & odium, sic existimemus inter daemonem & hominem perpetuum esse dissidium spiritale. Haec fere Barcepha.
...tongue, and deadly to man by its venomous bite. Next, so that it might be understood to how great vileness and misery the demon was cast down on account of sin, from the likeness of the serpent, which goes not lofty and erect, but creeps humbly, prostrate on the ground. Lastly, so that, just as between man and the serpent there is a natural enmity and hatred, so we should reckon that there is between the demon and man a perpetual spiritual discord. Thus, in the main, Bar Cepha.8
Translator’s notes
- Fifth question of the disputation on the serpent. Sentence/exposition continues on the next page (catchword 'SUPER'). Running footer: 'KKK 3'. ↩
- Statement of the two remaining questions of the serpent-disputation (QUAESTIO V and VI): why serpent-form, and why Moses names only the serpent. ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'Duplex responsio Augustini ad quaestionem propositam' (Augustine's twofold answer to the proposed question). First answer (Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram XI.3): the demon used the serpent because only the serpent's use was permitted him by God (the will to harm is the demon's own, the power is from God). ↩
- Augustine's second, 'more probable' answer (De Civitate Dei XIV.11): the slippery, winding serpent was the fittest instrument for the devil's creeping craft. ↩
- Peter Lombard (Sent. II d.21): the serpent-form was a mean between too-manifest and too-hidden fraud; the demon would have preferred the (harmless, simple) dove, but that form was reserved for the Holy Spirit. ↩
- Moses Bar Cepha (De Paradiso c.27): the demon did not take human form (Eve knew there was no man but Adam), and God forbade it lest Eve have an excuse. Sentence continues on the next page (catchword 'ab homi' = ab homine). ↩
- Bar Cepha continued: not human form (Eve would suspect a fellow man), not great beasts (too frightening), not invisible (she would be more alarmed); the serpent was chosen as tortuous, cunning, and venomous. Sentence continues (catchword 'lin' = lingua). ↩
- Bar Cepha's remaining reasons: the serpent figures the demon's vile abjection (creeping on the ground) and the perpetual man-demon enmity. ↩