![]() In the surrounding region, a late Bronze Age Hittite shrine in northern Syria contained a bronze statue of a god holding a serpent in one hand and a staff in the other. Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a serpent eating its own tail that represents the perpetual cyclic renewal of life, the eternal return, and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, leading to immortality.Īrchaeologists have uncovered serpent cult objects in Bronze Age strata at several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two at Tel Megiddo, one at Gezer, one in the sanctum sanctorum of the Area H temple at Hazor, and two at Shechem. The serpent was a widespread figure in the mythologies of the Ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. ![]() In one of the oldest stories ever written, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the main character and eponymous protagonist Gilgamesh loses the power of immortality, stolen by a snake. See also: Serpent (symbolism) and Snakes in mythology Ouroboros, single and in pairs, depicted on the door arch of S.S. Unlike Christianity, the other major Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Islam, do not have a concept of "original sin", and instead have developed varying other interpretations of the Eden narrative. In mainstream (Nicene) Christianity, the doctrine of the Fall is closely related to that of original sin or ancestral sin. The narrative of the Garden of Eden and the fall of humankind constitute a mythological tradition shared by all the Abrahamic religions, with a presentation more or less symbolic of Judeo-Christian morals and religious beliefs, which had an overwhelming impact on human sexuality, gender roles, and sex differences both in the Western and Islamic civilizations. The serpent is most often identified with the hubristic Satan, and sometimes with Lilith. In the New Testament, the Book of Revelation makes use of ancient serpent and the Dragon several times to identify Satan or the Devil ( Revelation 12:9 20:2). In the Book of Exodus, the staves of Moses and Aaron are turned into serpents, a nāḥāš for Moses, a tannin for Aaron. The tannin, a dragon monster, also occurs throughout the Hebrew Bible. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, it is also used in conjunction with seraph to describe vicious serpents in the wilderness. Nāḥāš occurs in the Torah to identify the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Nāḥāš ( נחש), Hebrew for "snake", is also associated with divination, including the verb form meaning "to practice divination or fortune-telling". The serpent was a symbol of evil power and chaos from the underworld as well as a symbol of fertility, life, healing, and rebirth. The symbol of a serpent or snake played important roles in the religious traditions and cultural life of ancient Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan. Serpents ( Hebrew: נָחָשׁ, romanized: nāḥāš) are referred to in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.
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