What do you think?
Rate this book
The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
The Good and Evil Serpent: How a Universal Symbol Became Christianized
A pathbreaking study of the serpent’s symbolic meanings from 40,000 BCE to the present day
In a perplexing passage from the Gospel of John, Jesus is likened to the most reviled creature in Christian the snake. Attempting to understand how the Fourth Evangelist could have made such a surprising analogy, James H. Charlesworth has spent nearly a decade combing through the vast array of references to serpents in the ancient world—from the Bible and other religious texts to ancient statuary and jewelry. Charlesworth has arrived at a surprising not only was the serpent a widespread symbol throughout the world, but its meanings were both subtle and varied. In fact, the serpent of ancient times was more often associated with positive attributes like healing and eternal life than it was with negative meanings. This groundbreaking book explores in plentiful detail the symbol of the serpent from 40,000 BCE to the present, and from diverse regions in the world. In doing so it emphasizes the creativity of the biblical authors’ use of symbols and argues that we must today reexamine our own archetypal conceptions with comparable creativity.
In a perplexing passage from the Gospel of John, Jesus is likened to the most reviled creature in Christian the snake. Attempting to understand how the Fourth Evangelist could have made such a surprising analogy, James H. Charlesworth has spent nearly a decade combing through the vast array of references to serpents in the ancient world—from the Bible and other religious texts to ancient statuary and jewelry. Charlesworth has arrived at a surprising not only was the serpent a widespread symbol throughout the world, but its meanings were both subtle and varied. In fact, the serpent of ancient times was more often associated with positive attributes like healing and eternal life than it was with negative meanings. This groundbreaking book explores in plentiful detail the symbol of the serpent from 40,000 BCE to the present, and from diverse regions in the world. In doing so it emphasizes the creativity of the biblical authors’ use of symbols and argues that we must today reexamine our own archetypal conceptions with comparable creativity.
744 pages, Hardcover
First published February 17, 2010
2 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 8, 2019
I read this book to know more about the serpent myth, but my 2-star rating has nothing to do with it being a good or bad mythological resource. I'm giving it a 2 because my feelings towards it are conflicted.
On the one hand, it offered a wide range of well-researched myths (concerning creation, gods, snakes, dragons and related symbols) from almost any culture you could think of, and they turned out to serve my purpose pretty well. On the other hand, however, it is such a redundant, disorganized and chaotic jumble of arguments and ideas that reading it is maddening.
The author repeats quotations, statements, and arguments over and over again (in some cases, tens of times), in different chapters, and with no coherence or rational order. Chapters contain multiple end-of-chapter 'Summary' sections, and sometimes he repeats exact sentences, without missing a comma. There are so many Deja Vu moments in this book that the reader would doubt his reading skills, or his sanity, or both.
Perhaps the author thinks repeating an argument is going to make it more persuasive…? Wait a moment! Yes! It does! And he knows it well... he is a trained pastor of the Church after all! They have been masters of this technique for thousands of years, brainwashing people for as long as history remembers.
As for the hypotheses, well, there are some interesting ones, as well as all kinds of half baked arguments, fallacious reasoning, oversimplifications, overinterpretations and to top it off, some conspiracy theories. In other words, your run of the mill religious dogma.
It reminds me of an old building, a school which had been converted into an office, that I used to go to when I was a child. There were all kinds of broken toys in its abandoned playroom; but if you were not afraid of getting in the trash, and were 'very' patient, and searched well enough, you could find some old treasures that you couldn't find anywhere else.
On the one hand, it offered a wide range of well-researched myths (concerning creation, gods, snakes, dragons and related symbols) from almost any culture you could think of, and they turned out to serve my purpose pretty well. On the other hand, however, it is such a redundant, disorganized and chaotic jumble of arguments and ideas that reading it is maddening.
The author repeats quotations, statements, and arguments over and over again (in some cases, tens of times), in different chapters, and with no coherence or rational order. Chapters contain multiple end-of-chapter 'Summary' sections, and sometimes he repeats exact sentences, without missing a comma. There are so many Deja Vu moments in this book that the reader would doubt his reading skills, or his sanity, or both.
Perhaps the author thinks repeating an argument is going to make it more persuasive…? Wait a moment! Yes! It does! And he knows it well... he is a trained pastor of the Church after all! They have been masters of this technique for thousands of years, brainwashing people for as long as history remembers.
As for the hypotheses, well, there are some interesting ones, as well as all kinds of half baked arguments, fallacious reasoning, oversimplifications, overinterpretations and to top it off, some conspiracy theories. In other words, your run of the mill religious dogma.
It reminds me of an old building, a school which had been converted into an office, that I used to go to when I was a child. There were all kinds of broken toys in its abandoned playroom; but if you were not afraid of getting in the trash, and were 'very' patient, and searched well enough, you could find some old treasures that you couldn't find anywhere else.
April 13, 2015
It was one of the most thought provoking books I've ever read. You'll never look at the Garden of Eden story the same again. The author, who is one of the world's best biblical scholars, concludes that serpent is a mistranslated of the Hebrew because the creature is listed as a beast of the field and not a creeping thing. It also clearly has feet and never lies to Eve because it simply asks a question. It is impossible to lie in an interrogative remark. Also, in the ancient world serpents were associated with healing and immortality so our view of serpent imagery has been corrupted. The book engages in a cross cultural analysis of serpent imagery which hits Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Palestine. Also, the book drives home the point that we really have lost contact with our world and consequently the world of symbols.
March 4, 2025
This book is built around a focus on John 3:14, a verse I've been thinking about and exploring to varying degrees over the past year or so. Charlesworth argues that the author of John portrays Jesus as a good and wise serpent.
Short Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. The physiology of snakes
3. Archeological portrayals of snakes
4. Positive Greek and Roman symbolism
5. Full spectrum symbolism in the fertile crescent
6. Hebrew Bible symbolism
7. Focus on John 3.14 and related NT works
P.12 - He notes that commentaries often avoid much discussion of “Jesus as serpent”, something I noticed while going through commentaries at the end of last year.
Some questions I had going into reading this book was how much was the serpent portrayed as deceitful or deceptive? And in what ways does this manifest? These questions did not get explored.
He briefly mentioned snakes camouflage while resting but didn't get into natural deceit in snakes like those harmless ones that look harmful or ones that use their tails as bait.
He did not get into the deceptive Jesus stuff or how that could relate to serpent imagery. Where he faults the majority of scholars for believing serpent symbology to represent evil, I think he avoids the topic of deceit for similar reasons. He disapproves of Ambrose's commentary presumably because he thinks deceit is bad, when in reality, just as with serpents, it can be good or evil.
He did a good job arguing that snakes were seen in a positive light by many in the ancient world but he failed to account for positive and negative assessments of deceit, and thereby failed to explore and include an important aspect of snakes and snake symbology. One reason why this aspect is important is because many times he refers to the popular notion that the snake is Satan and Satan is the ultimate deceiver and liar, who has tricked the entire world.
He covers the serpent in the garden and has lots of similar thoughts and comments that I had while reading it for a deception study last year. He missed Williams’ Deception in Genesis for this book, which could have improved the scholarly comments that he did include. This whole section was well done and highly informative, but he misses the deceptive potential for questioning. You can purposefully load questions with false assertions and this fact appears to escape his awareness. Therefore the questions from the serpent could be considered misleading or deceptive, although without knowing the serpent's intent or knowledge, any guess at deceptiveness will be speculative and inconclusive.
The works of Detienne are also absent from the bibliography and book.
He closes by saying Isaiah 14:29 is a prophecy about Jesus.
Overall there is a lot of good information about the portrayals and symbology of snakes in the ancient world but it falls short of amazing due to the blind eye turned towards the role of deceit.
Some other reviews didn't care for the repetition but overall I enjoyed the writing style.
Here are some quotes from the book:
"...the Egyptians, early Jews, and Jesus used the snake to symbolize wisdom." p.52
"The bifid tongue of the snake symbolized duplicity, and thus lying (cf. 2.8). Many early Jewish texts interpret Genesis 3 so that the serpent is the liar and the source of lies." p.206
"...Philo of Alexandria ... claimed that the serpent "deceives by trickery and artfullness."" p.206
"In To the Bishops of Egypt, Athanasius also likened the traching of Arius and those with him to the poison of a snake. He urged the bishops in Egypt to "condemn them as hypocrits, who hide the poison of their opinions, and like the serpent flatter with the words of their lips." pp.206-207
"In antiquity and modernity, the serpent symbolized such duplicity." p.207
"Dan is likened to a serpent that guards Israel: "Dan shall be a snake by the roadside" (Gen 49:17 [NRSV])." p.217
"Likewise, the unattractive features of God are either unperceived or sidestepped. Many to whom I point out the apparent correct interpretation ... recoil with shock that conceivably God could say something misleading and the serpent speak the truth." p.277
"God is indeed the liar, in some ways, but he is primarily the Creator and has the right to make demands." p.309
"Clearly, the serpent in the wilderness is a symbol of the Son of Man, Jesus, the Christ, according to the Fourth Evangelist." p.415
Short Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. The physiology of snakes
3. Archeological portrayals of snakes
4. Positive Greek and Roman symbolism
5. Full spectrum symbolism in the fertile crescent
6. Hebrew Bible symbolism
7. Focus on John 3.14 and related NT works
P.12 - He notes that commentaries often avoid much discussion of “Jesus as serpent”, something I noticed while going through commentaries at the end of last year.
Some questions I had going into reading this book was how much was the serpent portrayed as deceitful or deceptive? And in what ways does this manifest? These questions did not get explored.
He briefly mentioned snakes camouflage while resting but didn't get into natural deceit in snakes like those harmless ones that look harmful or ones that use their tails as bait.
He did not get into the deceptive Jesus stuff or how that could relate to serpent imagery. Where he faults the majority of scholars for believing serpent symbology to represent evil, I think he avoids the topic of deceit for similar reasons. He disapproves of Ambrose's commentary presumably because he thinks deceit is bad, when in reality, just as with serpents, it can be good or evil.
He did a good job arguing that snakes were seen in a positive light by many in the ancient world but he failed to account for positive and negative assessments of deceit, and thereby failed to explore and include an important aspect of snakes and snake symbology. One reason why this aspect is important is because many times he refers to the popular notion that the snake is Satan and Satan is the ultimate deceiver and liar, who has tricked the entire world.
He covers the serpent in the garden and has lots of similar thoughts and comments that I had while reading it for a deception study last year. He missed Williams’ Deception in Genesis for this book, which could have improved the scholarly comments that he did include. This whole section was well done and highly informative, but he misses the deceptive potential for questioning. You can purposefully load questions with false assertions and this fact appears to escape his awareness. Therefore the questions from the serpent could be considered misleading or deceptive, although without knowing the serpent's intent or knowledge, any guess at deceptiveness will be speculative and inconclusive.
The works of Detienne are also absent from the bibliography and book.
He closes by saying Isaiah 14:29 is a prophecy about Jesus.
Overall there is a lot of good information about the portrayals and symbology of snakes in the ancient world but it falls short of amazing due to the blind eye turned towards the role of deceit.
Some other reviews didn't care for the repetition but overall I enjoyed the writing style.
Here are some quotes from the book:
"...the Egyptians, early Jews, and Jesus used the snake to symbolize wisdom." p.52
"The bifid tongue of the snake symbolized duplicity, and thus lying (cf. 2.8). Many early Jewish texts interpret Genesis 3 so that the serpent is the liar and the source of lies." p.206
"...Philo of Alexandria ... claimed that the serpent "deceives by trickery and artfullness."" p.206
"In To the Bishops of Egypt, Athanasius also likened the traching of Arius and those with him to the poison of a snake. He urged the bishops in Egypt to "condemn them as hypocrits, who hide the poison of their opinions, and like the serpent flatter with the words of their lips." pp.206-207
"In antiquity and modernity, the serpent symbolized such duplicity." p.207
"Dan is likened to a serpent that guards Israel: "Dan shall be a snake by the roadside" (Gen 49:17 [NRSV])." p.217
"Likewise, the unattractive features of God are either unperceived or sidestepped. Many to whom I point out the apparent correct interpretation ... recoil with shock that conceivably God could say something misleading and the serpent speak the truth." p.277
"God is indeed the liar, in some ways, but he is primarily the Creator and has the right to make demands." p.309
"Clearly, the serpent in the wilderness is a symbol of the Son of Man, Jesus, the Christ, according to the Fourth Evangelist." p.415
July 19, 2024
Such a thoroughly researched and bulletproof historical study exploring and uprooting commonly accepted ideas… this book makes its point exhaustingly as if its audience were also scholars of religious texts, in fact it is written unnassailably as if presenting the facts to an unreceptive panel of traditionalist academics So it makes its point then hammers the point home then screws the point in further and countersinks its point
That being said this book is a real slog to read through. I’m a voracious reader but NOT a member of any sort of religious idea circles and being just a reader and enjoyer of ideas and not involved in the argument the style of the book was very repetitive and dull. The book seems to believe its reader needs ALOT of convincing and having no skin in the game I did find this comprehensive style of writing to be a bit of a slog.
That being said this book is a real slog to read through. I’m a voracious reader but NOT a member of any sort of religious idea circles and being just a reader and enjoyer of ideas and not involved in the argument the style of the book was very repetitive and dull. The book seems to believe its reader needs ALOT of convincing and having no skin in the game I did find this comprehensive style of writing to be a bit of a slog.
July 12, 2021
Good summary of evidence about serpents in ancient world but absolutely infuriating to read. If all the irrelevant gratuitous art references and repetitive information was removed (and the author could get to the point quickly) this book would be 200 pages and much more readable. I couldn’t get past the terrible writing style which was disorganised and painfully long winded. Some interesting arguments were made but they weren’t worth the pain of reading.
January 29, 2019
This book is freakin' amazing.
Warning: It is an academic book and controversial so he footnotes the living snot out of it, with pictures and detailed analysis that can only come from an academic. It is not for the faint of heart.
I still loved it and bought it AFTER I read it. (I had checked it out of the library.)
Warning: It is an academic book and controversial so he footnotes the living snot out of it, with pictures and detailed analysis that can only come from an academic. It is not for the faint of heart.
I still loved it and bought it AFTER I read it. (I had checked it out of the library.)
May 23, 2022
I really enjoyed this book. It was a slow read, as I had to put it down so often to look up pictures of the art work, etc. he discussed in the book, or to look up passages in the TANAKH and New Testament. It certainly helps if you can understand some Hebrew and Greek.
March 5, 2021
Bought this book to help with my dissertation and it was invaluable. Brilliant research, translation quotes and exploration of view points.
February 4, 2016
thorough, interesting narrative...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews