This is a question I had been wondering for a while - when the serpent talked to Eve, why wasn’t she surprised?
I found this article that explains.
Shouldn’t Eve Have Been Shocked that a Serpent Spoke?
This article is interesting, but it seems to be based on an assumption. Does someone know of any more evidence to confirm this, or evidence for a different reason entirely? I was wondering if all animals had the ability to communicate before the Fall?
Because in myths of a certain kind, beasts and men converse with each other.
Equids like Balaam's she-ass in Numbers, and one of the horses of Achilles, are examples of this literary motif:
And forth from its stand [Achilles] drew his father's spear, heavy and huge and strong, that none other of the Achaeans could wield, but Achilles alone was skilled to wield it, [390] even the Pelian spear of ash that Cheiron had given to his dear father from the peak of Pelion, to be for the slaying of warriors. And Automedon and Alcinous set them busily to yoke the horses, and about them they set the fair breast-straps, and cast bits within their jaws, and drew the reins [395] behind to the jointed car. And Automedon grasped in his hand the bright lash, that fitted it well, and leapt upon the car; and behind him stepped Achilles harnessed for fight, gleaming in his armour like the bright Hyperion.
Then terribly he called aloud to the horses of his father: [400] “Xanthus and Balius, ye far-famed children of Podarge, in some other wise bethink you to bring your charioteer back safe to the host of the Danaans, when we have had our fill of war, and leave ye not him there dead, as ye did Patroclus.” Then from beneath the yoke spake to him the horse Xanthus, of the swift-glancing feet; [405] on a sudden he bowed his head, and all his mane streamed from beneath the yoke-pad beside the yoke, and touched the ground; and the goddess, white-armed Hera, gave him speech:1 “Aye verily, yet for this time will we save thee, mighty Achilles, albeit the day of doom is nigh thee, nor shall we be the cause thereof, [410] but a mighty god and overpowering Fate. For it was not through sloth or slackness of ours that the Trojans availed to strip the harness from the shoulders of Patroclus, but one, far the best of gods, even he that fair-haired Leto bare, slew him amid the foremost fighters and gave glory to Hector. [415] But for us twain, we could run swift as the blast of the West Wind, which, men say, is of all winds the fleetest; nay, it is thine own self that art fated to be slain in fight by a god and a mortal.” When he had thus spoken, the Erinyes checked his voice.
Then, his heart mightily stirred, spake to him swift-footed Achilles: [420] “Xanthus, why dost thou prophesy my death? Thou needest not at all. Well know I even of myself that it is my fate to perish here, far from my father dear, and my mother; howbeit even so will I not cease, until I have driven the Trojans to surfeit of war.” He spake, and with a cry drave amid the foremost his single-hooved horses.
- from Iliad, Book 19, translated by A. T. Murray
Homer, Iliad, Book 19, line 387
Sometimes animals can speak only a limited number of times - in other stories, there is no hint of any limit.
As a narrative device, the serpent's ability to speak with a human being is a reminder to the hearer or reader that the story told in Gen 2-3 is set in an inaccessible, unrecoverable past, in which the rigid barriers, that in everyday life separate man from the beasts, did not exist; a past in which God walked in the Garden of Eden and was on familiar terms with men.
The conversation, and the whole story, is set in a mythic past, "before" the sort of everyday, historical, human existence that is the human condition now, in a past "once upon a time". And it has nothing to do with animal or human biology or geography.
The story can also, within its context in Genesis, serve as a story of "trans-gression", of "boundary-crossing" - in this example, an animal possesses the more than animal, human, attributes of intelligent speech & thought; and uses them to entice human beings to try to attain more than human, Divine, knowledge. Both the serpent, and the humans, court disaster by aspiring to be more than God made them; so they become less than they were.
There are several "trans-gression" stories in Genesis 2-9, a hint of one in 10.8-12, and the story in 11.1-9. The Flood story in 6.5-8.22 is an ironic reversal by God of the creation, in which the waters "trans-gress" the boundaries God set to them, and become the means of punishing the "transgressions" of "all flesh". The covenant with Noah is another Divine, creative, setting of boundaries of a very different kind.
These passages are not merely Holy Scripture - they are also literary creations of great artistry. ISTM that the literary qualities of much of the Bible deserve far more attention than those who read the Bible for its religious message perhaps give them.
