The Serpent Seed Doctrine
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Research
Ridiculously talented artist and good friend Miko Punsalan brought this little gem of alternate religious history to my attention a while back, and it struck me as something rife with storytelling and story-making potential. Another one for ye ol’ research notes:
Briefly stated, the “serpent seed” doctrine revolves around an interpretation of Genesis 3:15 which states that there are races of mankind on earth which are directly descended from Satan himself. This doctrine maintains that Satan (the “serpent”) cohabited with mother Eve and engendered a race of men, which are not descended from the direct union of Adam and Eve. It also maintains that this “serpent seed” race is yet present on the earth, and the Blacks and/or the Jews are generally alleged to be the products of this Satanic union with Eve. There are variations on this belief, at least one of which is that the serpent seed race now on earth descended from men of a pre-Adamic race; that they came from the “Satanic” world which preceded the Adamic age, and are not descended from Adam at all. Another is that Cain was the son of Satan and Eve, not the son of Adam and Eve (this variation is utterly ridiculous since Genesis 4:1 states “Adam knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain”).
— excerpt from Steven M. Collins’ “Serpent Seed Heresy” essay
This notion makes a point of noting that the serpent wasn’t cursed to crawl on his belly until after he was cast out of the garden, which hints that he appeared as a man-like creature to Eve. In any case, while I am in no way supportive of racial and anti-semetic sentiment of any sort, some interesting elements of this may come in handy in a future story. We’ll see.
Tags: serpent seed
