My students never fail to amaze me with their questions.
A student emailed me tonight at around 10:00 PM saying she was with another student from the class and they were "thinking about theology." The question that kept gnawing at them was, ""What did the serpent looked like it was before it was forced to slither?"
Admittedly, this question isn't my favorite, but since I wasn't asked it with 30 seconds left in class but rather through email, I actually though about it for a second. Here is how I answered.
I love questions like this, because it is hard to say if anyone knows the answer, but we can read into it a bit symbolically and learn some things.
First, I will answer your question with two paintings of different artists' representation of what they thought the "serpent" might have looked like:
1) The fall of man and the lamentation. Hugo van der Goes, 1479.
2) Fall and expulsion from Paradise. Michelangelo, 1512.
Keep in mind, the story is a myth, and the punishment the serpent receives is meant to symbolize the punishment Satan will receive when Jesus comes to save the world. So whether he was an angel whose wings God is cutting off, or a former lizard whose legs God removes, or a man who he reduced to a slithering serpent, Satan loses an "essential" aspect of his identity (sin and death) when Jesus comes and dies, thereby conquering sin and death. The snake having to slither symbolizes, or rather prophecies, Satan no longer having power over sin and death.
