Day 1 - a talking snake! (Spooky/Scary/Weird stories from the Bible)

Day 1: A Talking Snake and a Flaming Sword

Introduction to this new series:

The Bible has a lot of stories that probably many have never heard - those who are part of churches that use the Revised Common Lectionary are only hearing about 40% of the Bible over the three-year cycle. That leaves out a lot of stories! We get maybe 15% of the Old Testament, 75% of the New Testament, and only 110 or so of the 150 Psalms. It’s a shame how much is left out - and in my own opinion, it definitely comes across that the creators of the Revised Common Lectionary were afraid of many of the scary/terrifying/violent texts. If one looks through the Psalms, for example, at the ones that are missing or the verses that are missing from the Psalms that are included, they are often of the sort of “I want my opponents to die” or “God will destroy them and send them to Sheol!” or are strong in lament or suffering. For example, Psalm 88 does not show up at all, even though it can be a cathartic and helpful lament for people who are sick and suffering, who feel like the world is crashing down around them and that God doesn't care or is entirely absent. For Psalm 62, the lectionary includes only verses 1-8, which are very nice words, but verses 9 through 11 are left out. These verses are: 

9 But those who seek to destroy my life

    shall go down into the depths of the earth;

10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword;

    they shall be prey for jackals.

11 But the king shall rejoice in God;

    all who swear by him shall exult,

    for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

I’m not sure why the lectionary creators were so afraid of texts like these. Were they uncomfortable with the words? Or did they think that the average preacher wouldn’t know how to handle such verses? Do they think the people in the pews aren’t spiritually mature enough to hear such texts? I simply don’t know, but it feels kind of insulting that they apparently felt the need to scrub and whitewash the biblical texts so that we wouldn’t be made uncomfortable or be challenged or that we aren't trustworthy enough to be the holders of such sacred, but difficult, texts. Whatever it is they thought they were saving us from, I wish they had trusted us all instead. But that's my own soapbox lament about the lectionary, and I won't mention it again in this series, I promise!

So to make up for these deficiencies, I’m exploring passages from the Bible that mostly get left out, and many of which I imagine the majority of folks in the pews have never heard (or read, since so many people don’t read their Bibles, and so can be quite surprised at some of the stuff in it), and which I think could also make for a terrific Halloween-style movie. I’m going to post a story and a little commentary each day from now until Halloween.

Today's Story:

Today we start the series with a story that begins with a talking snake and ends with a levitating, flaming sword. It’s a story that most people know - even people not at all involved in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam! It’s a big part of Western culture. But for some reason, the story is cut up and shows up as separate parts in the lectionary over different years. And since it’s likely not being read in churches as a full story (and often, probably skipped over entirely), many of us might have some mistaken memories of what’s actually in the story because we’re only hearing about it in references in TV shows, movies, books, articles, etc., or getting it piecemeal and incomplete.

So here it is.

Context: this is the final verse of Genesis Chapter 2 and the first 8 verses of Chapter 3. This comes from the second creation story in the Bible. The first creation story is the day-by-day creation story of Chapters 1 and the first few verses of chapter 2. The second story is the one with Adam and Eve, which begins with Adam existing, then the creation of animals, and then God makes a companion for the human who then becomes named Eve. We pick up the story right after Eve has been created from Adam's rib.

Genesis 2:25 

And the man and his wife [Adam and Eve, though Eve has not yet been named] were both naked and were not ashamed.

Genesis 3:1-8

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,[a] knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

A talking serpent? That’s a bit creepy! But Eve doesn’t seem startled or taken aback by it at all - which is probably because she’s in Eden, and there shouldn’t be anything dangerous in there at all. This might not be a horror story per se, but it is the story of the loss of innocence and an attempt by an ancient peoples to explain why life is so difficult. This was a somewhat common creation story in the ancient Near East, with numerous variations. These stories look at the current day situation: painful childbirth, people die, it’s hard work tilling the land to create barely enough food, major day-to-day struggles just to stay alive, famines, plagues, droughts... So they came up with the idea that at one time life must have been easy and wonderful and, well, edenic. For the Hebrew peoples, this became the Garden of Eden. And then came the question, What happened that we aren't there any more? They decided that it must have been our fault. We must have done something to annoy the gods (or for the Hebrews, God). What did we do? We tried to become like them. They ate from the fruit of the one tree God told them not to eat from. This begs the question, What kind of a God creates an Eden, puts people in it, and then also puts in a tree that they aren’t supposed to eat from? That’s part of the scary in this story, I think - Adam and Eve, or humanity, has been set up to fail. And who created the snake? It had to be God. So what's up? And why such a horrific and severe punishment? Well, I'm not here to answer those questions today - I leave those questions with you, so you can experience the story without my interference (but I will add the note that these stories are also not meant to be taken literally, as a factual account of history, but are allegorical/mythological, so don't go too literal with it).

Here’s the rest of Chapter 3, which explains much of how life is suffering, and ends with some supernatural stuff that would look great in a movie.

Genesis 3

8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,

    cursed are you among all animals

    and among all wild creatures;

upon your belly you shall go,

    and dust you shall eat

    all the days of your life.

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman

    and between your offspring and hers;

he will strike your head,

    and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will make your pangs in childbirth exceedingly great;

    in pain you shall bring forth children,

yet your desire shall be for your husband,

    and he shall rule over you.”

17 And to the man[b] he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

    and have eaten of the tree

about which I commanded you,

    ‘You shall not eat of it,’

cursed is the ground because of you;

    in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;

    and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your face

    you shall eat bread

until you return to the ground,

    for out of it you were taken;

you are dust,

    and to dust you shall return.”

20 The man named his wife Eve[c] because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man[d] and for his wife and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “See, the humans have become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now they might reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent them forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which they were taken. 24 He drove out the humans, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

3.5 Or gods

3.17 Or to Adam

3.20 In Heb Eve resembles the word for living

3.21 Or for Adam

 All text is from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.