Herein we provide quotations and citations on Serpent and Dragon (within a Satanic context) from Philo of Alexandria (20 BC-50 AD). The fuller complete result consists of quotations of those sections within the text that refer to Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Devil, Satan, demons, serpent and dragon. The point is not to elucidate these references but to provide relevant partial quotations and citations. See my section on Angels here, Cherubim and Seraphim here, Satan here and Demons here.
Serpent and Dragon in Philo of Alexandria’s On the Creation and Questions and Answers on Genesis.
On the Creation
LV It is said that the old poisonous and Earthborn reptile, the serpent, uttered the voice of a man. And he on one occasion coming to the wife of the first created man.
LVI And any one who follows a reasonable train of conjecture, will say with great propriety, that the aforesaid serpent is the symbol of pleasure, because in the first place he is destitute of feet, and crawls on his belly with his face downwards…And the serpent is said to have uttered a human voice, because pleasure employs innumerable champions and defenders who take care to advocate its interests, and who dare to assert that the power over everything, both small and great, does of right belong to it without any exception whatever.
LVIII But what has been already said is sufficient to show what the reasons were on account of which the serpent appears to have uttered a human voice.
Questions and Answers on Genesis, I
31 Why does Moses say that the serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field? (#Ge 3:1). One may probably affirm with truth that the serpent in reality is more cunning than any beast whatever.
32 Did the serpent speak with a human voice?
33 Why did the serpent accost the woman, and not the man? (#Ge 3:2). The serpent, having formed his estimate of virtue, devised a treacherous stratagem against them, for the sake of bringing mortality on them…Since therefore, in his old age, the Serpent (the ancients believed that the serpent became young again by casting his skin. Ovid says—Anguibus exuitur tenui cum pelle vetustas [My punishment is greater than I can bear]) strips himself of his scales from the top of his head to his tail, he, by his nakedness, reproaches man because he has exchanged death for immortality.
34 Why the serpent tells the woman lies, saying, “God has said, Ye shall not eat of every tree in the Paradise,” when, on the contrary, what God really had said was, “Ye shall eat of every tree in the Paradise, except one?”
36 Whence was it that the serpent found the plural word “gods,” when there is only one true God, and when this is the first time that he names him?…the devil proceeds with great art, speaking by the mouth of the serpent.
46 Why the man says, “The woman gave me of the tree, and I did eat;” but the woman does not say, “The serpent gave to me,” but, “The serpent beguiled me and I did eat?”
47 Why God curses the serpent first, then the woman, and the man last of all?…The first offence was the deceit practised by the serpent; the second was the sin of the woman which was owing to him when she abandoned herself to his seduction…But this order is very admirable, containing within itself a perfect allegory; inasmuch as the serpent is the emblem of desire, as is proved, and the woman of the outward sense; but the man is the symbol of intellect.
48 Why the curse is pronounced on the serpent in this manner, that he shall go on his breast and on his belly, and eat dust, and be at enmity with the woman?…since the serpent is the emblem of desire, representing under a figure a man devoted to pleasure.
50 Why God, as he had pronounced a curse on the serpent and on the woman which bore a relation to themselves and to one another, he did not pronounce a similar one upon the man.
In the next segment, we will consider Philo’s Allegorical Interpretation.