Sárospataki Füzetek 15. (2011)
2011 / 4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK
HOUWELINGEN, P. H. R. VAN This takes us back to Genesis 2:11-12. The four rivers of paradise produce sedimentary deposits. Carried along by the water, the various rocks and minerals form deposits — including precious stones — in the alluvial plains. The Pishon winds around the land of Havilah (the ‘sandy region’): gold is found there. Most exegetes identify Havilah with the Arabian peninsula (Gen. 25:18 and 1 Sam. 15:7). In that case, the Pishon, which flows through the land, could correspond to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea together. Some exegetes, however, have suggested an identification of Havilah with India. In any case, the gold of Havilah is of outstanding quality (see the note in Gen. 2:12); aromatic resin and onyx stones are found there as well. This is rare, a land of pure gold and a variety of precious stones; the wealth of the faraway land of Havilah was not found anywhere else. But in the new city of God, these riches are freely available to all its inhabitants. Water, gemstones and gold: a paradisiac combination, promising a princely life of glorious splendour. 7. The removal of the dragon-serpent: the paradise curse lifted In John’s visions, there are three references to the serpent of paradise. It is ‘the serpent of old’, the first snake, the snake from the beginning (6 Ő'pc ó áp^aíog: Rev. 12:9; 20:2; cf. 12.15). He has grown into an enormous red bloodthirsty dragon-serpent, strikingly similar to the beast John sees arising from the sea in the next chapter (Rev. 13:1). In John’s description, this great red dragon is a representation of the devil, or Satan (Rev. 12:9; 20:2). Just as he was when he instigated the Fall, he has again become a mortal danger to the woman and her offspring (Rev. 12:15, cf. 12:4). In the book of Revelation, the serpent of old is portrayed as the ‘great deceiver’. He is the one who ‘leads the whole world astray’; he ‘deceives the nations’ (Ttkavav; Rev. 12:9; 20:2). The book of Genesis tells us that the snake was the craftiest of all the animals. As crafty as he might be, he is and remains a creature. What he did in paradise was ‘deceive’ (a7tocräv: Gen. 3:13 LXX; cf. 2 Cor. 11:3). Some translations have the woman declare ‘the serpent misled me’, for ‘to mislead’ and ‘to deceive’ are almost synonymous.34 Genesis may not say so explicitly, but from the New Testament it becomes clear that Satan himself was at work in the snake. Deception, leading people astray: that too is the tactic of the beast out of the earth (Rev. 13:14, 19:20). He will act as an apocalyptic instrument of Satan (Rev. 20: 8,10). The serpent of old takes on an increasingly monstrous form. If it is true that John identifies the dragon with the serpent of paradise, then he does something unique. Never before has the snake that deceived man in paradise been explicitly identified with the devil, or Satan.35 At the same time, this representation would no doubt also have evoked mythical associations with the first readers of Revelation, the seven churches in Asia Minor. Bauckham points to the ambiguity in pagan representations of the day: the snake was not only regarded as symbolic of divinity (as in the cult of Asclepios); it also represented opposition to the gods (as with Hercules and the Hydra). Sooner or later, however, hostility towards 34 Louw/Nida, Greek-English Lexicon, 366-367. 35 For an overview of biblical references to the serpent, see Aune, Revelation, 606-607. 22 Sárospataki füzetek 2011/4
