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Originally Posted by John Wilkes Booth
i always interpreted 'eating dust' as being related to 'crawling on its belly.' i.e. not to be taken as literally eating dust for sustenance.
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So when do we take the bible literally and when do we assume they are just f-ucking around? And how do account for it being sentenced to crawl about on its belly? Did it fly before?
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as for the snake talking - i don't know exactly what the correct explanation is for that but from what i've read there's actually no evidence in the text itself to support the idea that the snake was anything other than a snake. the idea that it was satan seems to have been a later christian interpretation. perhaps when the jewish text in question was written it was just a moral fable. fables very often do assign human traits to animals.
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In fact, there is no evidence that the snake that talks and the one that god curses were even the same. It reads like two stories being interpolated into one. The talking snake is a hero. In that version, god is a tyrant and a liar. He told Adam & Eve not the eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge or they would die. That was a lie. They ate it and did not die. The snake told them they wouldn't die and he spoke the truth. He said their eyes would be opened and, according to the author, that is exactly what happened. What did the snake do that was wrong?
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another interesting interpretation i've heard for the snake talking is that it has more to do with adam and eve prior to the fall than it has to do with the snake itself. i.e. before the fall, man was in perfect harmony with nature and could speak to animals. after the fall, god put enmity between mankind and the rest of the natural world. this has parallels with the story of enkidu in the epic of gilgamesh, who went through a similar transition after his encounter with the harlot that introduced him to the wonders of civilization, thereby depriving him of his harmonious relationship with the natural world.
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There is no enmity between man and animals? Quite the opposite. We ride horses, we drink cow's milk and raise livestock for food, keep dogs and cats as pets--what enmity? The enmity is between man and god. That much can't denied.