{"id":7553,"date":"2020-11-27T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/?p=7553"},"modified":"2020-11-20T14:57:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T21:57:05","slug":"a-theology-of-the-devil-as-serpent-and-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/2020\/11\/a-theology-of-the-devil-as-serpent-and-dragon\/","title":{"rendered":"A theology of the devil as serpent and dragon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

All great stories have dragons in them.\u00a0Harry Potter<\/em>,\u00a0Lord of the Rings\u00a0<\/em>(I know, I know, they\u2019re only in the background in\u00a0LotR<\/em>), that naked one from HBO, even\u00a0Dealing with Dragons<\/em><\/a>. The Bible is exception insofar as it is true and sets the pattern that all of these fictional stories follow. A pattern outlined and explored in yet another excellent entry in the \u201cShort Studies in Biblical Theology<\/a>\u201d series,\u00a0The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Andrew Naselli.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image: Crossway<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this short book we get a biblical theology of the serpent as the villain of the Bible and his crushing defeat (heh) by Jesus. Beginning with the curse placed upon the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Naselli walks through the storyline of the Bible and touches on the places where conflict arises between God and the serpent. The book ends with the ultimate defeat of the serpent as prophesied in Revelation 12 and 20. Along the way, we get an exploration of the imagery of serpents and dragons (snakes are sometimes good in Scripture\u2013as the bronze serpent that cured snakebite, but more often evil) and the in-context exposition of specific Biblical events (Pharaoh\u2019s and Herod\u2019s massacre of the innocents, for example).<\/p>\n

The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer\u00a0<\/em>is short, well-written, and interesting. I especially appreciated the discussion of Job. I\u2019ve always found the \u201cLeviathan\u201d passage of Job interesting. Maybe this is because of my interest in political theory and Thomas Hobbes (my day job), or maybe it\u2019s because of my love of\u00a0Supernatural\u00a0<\/em>(where the leviathans were a sadly under-developed class of monsters who absolutely did not deserve to kill Bobby). In any case, Naselli is right to point out that the point of leviathan in Job is to establish that:<\/p>\n

\u201cGod created these powerful, fear-inducing creatures, and only God can control them. God is God; Job is not. Therefore, Job\u2019s respectful fear of God should surpass his respectful fear of Behemoth and Leviathan.\u201d (63)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whatever else the passage is doing, Naselli is certainly right about this point.<\/p>\n

Again, this little book is excellent. If you haven\u2019t already I strongly encourage you to start a \u201cShort Studies in Biblical Theology\u201d section on your bookshelf and make sure that\u00a0The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer\u00a0<\/em>is on it.<\/p>\n

Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the\u00a0City of Man Podcast<\/a>\u00a0and an Associate Professor of Political Science at\u00a0Southwest Baptist University<\/a>\u00a0in Bolivar, MO<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review of Andrew Naselli’s “The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1469,"featured_media":7556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[658],"class_list":["post-7553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-christian","tag-biblical-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nA theology of the devil as serpent and dragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Review of Andrew Naselli's "The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/2020\/11\/a-theology-of-the-devil-as-serpent-and-dragon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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