http://www.askwhy.co.uk/awmob/awcmyth/myt120PROPropheciesSerpent.html
Prophecies of the Figure of a Serpent
Christian Mythology.
Dr Michael Magee's Mystery of Jesus Pages.
AskWhy! Publications
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel (Gen 3:15).
This text is often cited by Christian writers and controversialists as
prefiguring the mission of the Christian saviour, the destruction of the
serpent, alias the devil. St John calls the grand adversary of souls which
deceiveth the whole world, the dragon, the serpent, the devil, and Satan (Rev
12:8). The serpent is the devil. The dragon, the serpent, the devil and Satan
are all one. Indeed many of those professed Christians, who never read the
Christian holy book, think Jesus actually crushed the head of a serpent.
If It shall bruise thy head is a prophetic reference to a saviour, it is a
curious one because the neuter pronoun it always refers to a thing without sex.
Perhaps Christians should consider the implications of this if they want to
persist in it as a reference to Jesus. Plainly it refers to the seed.
The serpent is found in several heathen systems of older date than Genesis,
proving that Christians who assume it to be a revelation from heaven are
ignorant of religious history.
Some of the other saviours perform a drama with a serpent. Osiris of Egypt
bruised the head of the serpent after it had bitten his heel. Hercules contended
with a serpent which guarded the tree with golden fruit in the midst of the
garden Hesperides, the Greek Eden. Its head is shown under his foot.
The same
tradition appears in the Phoenician fable of Ophion or Ophiones.
Krishna of India is shown on ancient sculptures and stone monuments with his
heel on the head of a serpent. In the ancient temples of India the image of
Krishna is sculptured sometimes wreathed in the folds of a serpent which is
biting his foot, and sometimes treading victoriously on the head of a serpent.
The ancient Persians had the tradition of a virgin, from whom they predicted
would be born, or would spring up, a shoot, a son, that would crush the
serpent's head, and thus deliver the world from sin. Both the serpent and the
virgin are shown in their zodiac.
In an ancient Etrurian story, instead of the son, it is the woman herself who
stands with one foot on the head of a serpent biting a twig of an apple tree to
which an apple is suspended. Its tail is twisted around a celestial globe,
reminding us of the dragon of Revelation hauling down one-third of the stars
with his tail (Rev 12:4). In the Etrurian zodiac, the head of the virgin is
surmounted with a crown of stars�doubtless the same legend from which John
borrowed his metaphor of a woman with a crown of twelve stars on her head (Rev
13). The Regina Stellarum (Queen of the Stars) spoken of in some of the ancient
religions is the same fable. The myth of Achilles being vulnerable in the heel,
as related by Homer, might be a remnant of the same tradition.
Consider now the story of the original transgression and fall of man�two
cardinal doctrines of the Christian religion. These doctrines also are taught in
heathen faiths whose antiquity even antedates Moses. In the Persian tradition
the first man and first woman, Mashya and Mashyoi, were pure, and submitted to
Ormuzd, their maker. But Ahriman, the evil one, saw them and envied them their
happiness. He approached them under the form of a serpent, presented fruits to
them, and persuaded them that he was the maker of man, of animals, of plants,
and of the beautiful universe in which they dwelt. They believed it. Since that
time Ahriman was their master. Their natures became corrupt, and this corruption
infested their whole posterity. This story is in the Vendidad of the Persians.
The Indian story is that the Gods, who were evidently not originally immortal,
tried every means to obtain it. After many inquiries and trials, they realised
they would find it in the tree of life. They succeeded, and by eating once in a
while of the fruits of that tree, they kept their immortality. A snake saw that
the tree of life had been found by the gods of the second order. As he had been
entrusted with guarding the tree, he became angry because his vigilance had been
deceived, that he poured out a large amount of poison, which spread over the
whole earth.
Not dissimilar is the story of Revelation:
And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he
might cause her to be carried away of the flood (Rev 12:15).
The idea of a snake or serpent inundating the earth from its mouth is so far
removed from nature that one must be borrowed from the other, or both come from
a common source. Since the Hindu religion precedes the time of Moses, the
question is settled as to which who borrowed from who.
Note that three out of four of the principal doctrines of Christianity are
taught in the two heathen mythological stories of creation, Original Sin, the
fall of man caused by a serpent, the consequent corruption and depravity of the
human race. These doctrines cannot be, as Christians claim, important truths
revealed from heaven, but plainly are originally heathen.
� Mike Magee. 1993. All rights reserved.
Books by author, M.D. Magee, of above research:
The Hidden Jesus:
the Secret Testament Revealed
The Mystery of Barabbas:
Exploring the Origins of a Pagan Religion
Who Lies Sleeping?
