HAYATE SOTOME (Japan) " Everything had language " : Vazha-Pshavela's " Snake Eater " from the Perspective of Animal Studies
Hayate Sotome u-tokyo.academia.edu
HAYATE SOTOME (Japan) " Everything had language " : Vazha-Pshavela's " Snake Eater " from the Perspective of Animal Studies
The following paper is an attempt to explain the background story for the Biblical tale of Adam, Eve and the Serpent. It is based upon the Author’s belief that many ancient documents are deliberately written in a simplified or obscure form for various reasons similar to the form as suggested by Pythagoras below ; “Their writings also, and all the books which they published, most of which have been preserved even to our time, were not composed by them in a popular and vulgar diction, and in a manner usual with all other writers, so as to be immediately understood, but in such a way as not to be easily apprehended by those that read them. For they adopted that taciturnity which was instituted by Pythagoras as a law, in concealing after an arcane mode, divine mysteries from the uninitiated, and obscuring their writings and conferences with each other.” (Iam:p56) Note carefully the reference to “an arcane mode” a statement that casts great suspicion on all “arcane” writings. In this paper we will discuss the link between the Biblical Adam and Eve tale and the Book of Enoch, a link that does not appear to have received much attention from modern scholarship. During the course of the discussion a strong candidate for the real life identity of the talking Serpent is sought after, identified and named. It is a relatively short paper discussing only the relevant sections of Genesis 1 – 3 and the Book of Enoch, Chapters 7 – 10.

Snake Worship in theology is compared in this paper, a comparison between ancient Pagan societies and modern industrialization. The study proves the following facts. Snakes are not to be treated as an enemy or a danger to mankind. Herpetology proves, snakes are highly evolved in a mating dance and the use of neurotoxins to humanely kill prey. Snakes have always been revered in ancient societeies, with speacial habitats in the form of arboretums created for them. That the Book Of Genesis, describes the fall of industrialized man, and the rise of sin, that of rape. Rape must be eliminated, and the religions of nature be reinstated.

If today's exegetes often locate Gen 3 in the sapiential milieu, it is worth comparing this text with the narratives in 2Sam 13-17. Here wisdom appears in the context of manipulation and flattery, and the terms טוב and טוב ורע also serve this purpose (similar to the serpent in Gen 3!). This reality is not taken seriously enough by the modern emphasis on human freedom of choice over good and evil. The second part of this contribution confronts the exegetical results with ethical concepts of the 20th century, some of which praise human autonomy. In contrast, Bonhoeffer and Barth see the original sin in the human will to know good and evil.