Question : Did Satan possess a real snake? What about Judas and Peter?

"Now the serpent was more subtil^vii than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Genesis 3:1).

THE SERPENT'S BACKUP.ⁱ The writer of Genesis makes no mention of who was behind this evil serpent yet in the revelation of the New Testament, it distinctly indicates that Satan was the author of the plot to seduce Eve (John 8:44; 2 Corinthians_11:3; 1 John 3:8; 1 Timothy 2:14; Revelation 20:2).

JUDAS' BACKUP. We are not told how Satan and the serpent are interrelated but the two are said to be in the deception of Mother Eve. Similarly, we are told that Satan and Judas Iscariot were guilty in the betrayal of Jesus which led to His crucifixion.

This being so, when we ask whether the snake was a real snake or did Satan possess the snake's body, should we not ask the same question with Judas and Satan? In other words, the question is, was the devil in the form of a snake or was he the first spirit to possess a created body, i.e., the snake's. Also, did he possess Judas' body?

Was it in a "form" of a snake? If the devil can take the form (schema^G4976) of an angel of light, did he also take the form of a serpent? 2 Corinthians 11:14 (BBE), “And it is no wonder; for even Satan himself is able to take the form of an angel of light.” Although the Bible does not identify the snake as the devil or Satan when he first appears on the scene in Genesis 3 we are assured it was. The New Testament says who the snake was. Revelation 12:9 (BBE), “And the great dragon was forced down, the old snake, who is named the Evil One and Satan, by whom all the earth is turned from the right way.” John 8:44 (BBE), Jesus accuses his adversaries as “You are the children of your father the Evil One and it is your pleasure to do his desires. From the first he was a taker of life.”

First, the snake and Judas are both individual entities. Genesis 3:1 (BBE), “Now the snake was wiser than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God truly said that you may not take of the fruit of any tree in the garden?” 2 Corinthians 11:3 (BBE), “But I have a fear, that in some way, as Eve was tricked by the deceit of the snake...” Luke 22:3 (BBE), “And Satan came into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve.”

THE SERPENT.  The snake was “wiser than any beast.” This is conclusive Biblical proof that the snake was a real, live “beast.” The CEV specifically identifies the snake as being “of the other wild animals that the LORD God had made.” The Hebrew word for “beast” is translated by the KJV translators in other passages as “life” (143 times), “living” (99), “beasts” (76), “creature” (6), “congregation” (2), “wild” (1), “company”, etc. The Greek Septuagint (LXX) which was used by the first Jewish Christians translates Genesis 3:1 as “But the serpent was most skilled of all the wild beasts, of the ones upon the earth whom the Lord God made ...”

The passage then certainly identifies the serpent as being a real serpent (snake) along with the living beasts and creatures that God had made during the Creation. That leaves Satan as governing or reacting with Eve by some means through or by the body of the serpent.

CULPABILITY. God punishes the woman and the man who obeyed the serpent in the original sin but God also punishes the creature, the serpent (Genesis 3:14). God is fair and just and would not punish if there were no responsibility (Deuteronomy 32:4), The part of the woman's seed bruising the head turns out to be a prophesy of Jesus with the perpetrator Satan so it can be separated from the snake's condemnation for it is the devil's punishment. But the curse of “upon your belly shalt thou go and dust shall you eat” would fit a literal snake itself. So, the conclusion is that it is a real snake that's being used by the evil Satan. Both are punished. The snake is therefore culpable. The snake's intelligence and communicative powers with Eve in the Garden suggest the miraculous ⁱⁱ nature of animals while existing in the Garden.ⁱⁱⁱ

POSSESSION AND NT. If we grant that in the New Testament Judas was possessed by Satan we must admit that such possession is different from the “possession” by unclean spirits. Those possessed by unclean spirits were sick and whom Jesus healed. The impotent man, for example, made whole by our Lord at the pool in John 5 is told in verse 14b “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” This reminds us of Jesus' command to the woman caught in adultery. No remark similar to that is made with the demon possessed. Whereas the sick are helplessly and continuously possessed by their respective demoniac spirits, the sick are never condemned verbally by the Lord. On the other hand, Judas is held guilty. Judas follows an apparent pattern of thinking and actions that is inconsistent with his followship to Jesus.

SIMON PETER AND SATAN. Peter's actions at times cause Jesus' condemnation of him calling him Satan. The address to Satan is the same that Jesus made to Satan directly in the face-to-face wilderness temptations: “Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” (Matthew 4:10). Notice that Jesus addresses Peter the same way when he has one of his contrary^iv action.

Matthew 16:23, “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan [Satanas^G4567] : thou art an offence unto me.” This is the name given to the serpent. This name according to Barnes properly means “an adversary or an accuser.” Was Peter repentant? We are not told that Peter repented nor that Jesus forgave him but the command of “get behind me” surely is forgiven and dropped because one week later Peter along with James and John is personally selected and taken by Jesus to witness His transfiguration (Matthew 17:1).

Jesus calls Judas a “devil” in John 6:70. The word means “traducer”^G1228, i.e., an accuser, slanderer or maligner but it is generally accepted that Jesus is using “devil” for Judas in a similar way that He had used the name Satan for Peter. We know that Judas Iscariot was a practicing thief (John 12:6). Is that why Jesus so judges him? But when Judas makes his decision to go to betray Jesus with the Sanhedrin people, the Bible says Satan “entered into him” (Luke 22:3). Later that week at the last supper when he is about to fulfil this traitorous act John 13:27, “And after the sop Satan entered into him.”

ENTERING A SECOND TIME IN A WEEK. Obviously, Satan has not been possessing Judas all this time because he now “enters” him a second time within a week. Since the expression is different, it is not conveying the same possession as was causing the miserably infirmed bodies. Notice: 1. It is “Satan” and not unclean spirit/s entering. 2. It is the “devil” (diabolos) and not the so-called possessive demoniac or unclean spirits entering Judas. 3. It occurs both times in conjunction with the separate two fruitive evil actions, ^v first in going to offer his services to the priests and second, to carry it out. This is consistent with his lifestyle of being a thief. He ends up with Satan apparently using him in the same way that Satan used the serpent in the beginning.

Just as the serpent was condemned, so was Judas Iscariot. So he too is a responsible entity. The Bible says that he repented with sorrow after he saw that Jesus was taken and condemned which was not the result that he thought it would be (Matthew 27:3). Unfortunately, for Judas, it was not the godly sorrow spoken of in 2 Corinthians 7:9&10 that works repentance to salvation. Rather, it was "the sorrow that works death." Judas Iscariot returns the money but commits suicide. Acts 1:26 tells us “that he might go to his own place”, i.e., “peculiary his, as befitting his awful sin.” ^vi This confirms his part of the responsibility for the betrayal of Jesus.

It is significant that the serpent's punishment is a curse upon its respective animal "kind" (Genesis 1:25) whereas Judas' punishment is upon him individually. This is in addition to the consequence of the initial sin of which we all suffer.

This supports the conclusion that the participation of Satan with the serpent and Judas is not of the same category as the demon-possessed appears to have been. John 13:2, “And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.” This relationship is similar to what we read of disobedient King Saul who submitted to an evil spirit when seeking to harm David. 1 Samuel 16:14, “But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.”

It is the same way that all of us are tempted by “the prince of the power of the air.” Ephesians 2:2b,3 (BBE), “the spirit who is now working in those who go against the purpose of God; Among whom we all at one time were living in the pleasures of our flesh, giving way to the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and the punishment of God was waiting for us even as for the rest.”

The same spirit works in us all to thwart the good plan of God as he did in the serpent and in Judas Iscariot. But God in His great love and mercy is available to us all. God offers us forgiveness and grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ who has bruised the head of Satan.

== GAYLON WEST THROW OUT THE LIFELINE

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