The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer
Andy Naselli (a professor at Bethlehem College & Seminary and a pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church) writes helpful, theological books. My favorites include Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ (2016) and No Quick Fix: Where Higher Life Theology Came From, What It Is, and Why It’s Harmful (2017). If you haven’t read these yet, you should do so soon because they’re helpful and theological. Or did I say that already?
When Crossway announced Andy’s forthcoming (now published) book, The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer, I saved it to my Kindle wish list immediately. Then three months after it released, as I prepared to teach Rev 12 in our midweek Bible study at Faith Baptist Church, I added it to my arsenal of study aids since Rev 12 features the epic portrayal of “the woman, the child, and [drum roll] the dragon.” I’m glad I did.[1]
This book appears in a growing Crossway series called Short Studies in Biblical Theology. Each installment traces a thematic thread through Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, showing its correspondence to Christ and its impact on the Christian life. This particular volume follows the fascinating yet overlooked “serpent” theme from Gen 3 to Rev 20.
In the introduction, Naselli summarizes the Bible’s storyline as “Kill the dragon, get the girl!” with three main characters: (1) serpent (Satan), (2) distressed damsel (people of God), and (3) serpent slayer (Jesus). He notes that the serpent concept in Scripture refers to both devouring dragons and deceiving snakes. He then summarizes the plotline that most dragon-slaying stories follow, offering six examples from classic, popular literature that whet the appetite for the greatest dragon-slaying story ever, the one in the Bible.
The Bible gives us the greatest dragon-slaying story ever.
Chapter 1 gives an insightful, compact exposition of Gen 3 and serves as a useful commentary supplement for studying this passage that traces the serpent’s significance throughout this temptation/fall narrative. When Naselli examines the serpent’s tactics, he highlights the possible inception of worldliness by noting what a possible parallel between Gen 3:6 and both Lk 4:1-3 and 1 Jn 2:16. He also notes the start of the serpent’s offspring (Cain, et al.) launching an “ongoing battle” with the woman’s offspring, a battle which Scripture repeatedly links to the serpent motif. Along the way, Naselli introduces two prominent themes in Biblical Theology, (1) exile and exodus and (2) temple (but without any apparent connection to the serpent storyline). He affirms that the snake in Eden was Satan, citing explicit New Testament (NT) evidence since neither Gen 3 nor the rest of the Old Testament (OT) makes this connection clear. He also emphasizes the serpent’s deceitful intentions.
Chs. 2-3 trace the serpent-slaying thread between Genesis and Revelation, showing how the serpent’s strategy alternates between deception and destruction. Ch. 2 examines the serpent, while Ch. 3 examines six apparent instances of the serpent’s “offspring” in Scripture.
Ch. 2 offers a variety of evidence showing that the serpent motif in Scripture “usually symbolizes evil” and frequently portrays God’s enemies, with Satan himself being the ultimate serpent who tempts God’s people. Naselli explores at length the significance of Leviathan, the monstrous sea serpent in Job, and concludes that this creature was a real physical animal that also symbolized cosmic, evil forces. Naselli also foreshadows God’s eventual, total destruction of Satan, “the most powerful evil monster in the universe.”
Ch. 3 presents six instances of the serpent’s offspring in the biblical plotline: (1) Egypt/Pharaoh, (2) Canaanite and Moabite leaders, (3) the king of Babylon, (4) King Herod, (5) Pharisees/Sadducees, and (6) false teachers. Naselli draws clear connections between five of these actors and the serpent motif, but the connection with Canaanite and Moabite leaders is less clear. This connection cites no direct mention of a serpent or dragon, but relies on intriguing details like Goliath having “scaly armor” or apparent similarities between fatal blows to the head as when Jael drove a tent spike into Sisera’s head, a woman crushed Abimelech’s skull, or David struck Goliath in the head and beheaded him (cf. Gen 3:15). Though these connections are less explicit than the others, they are astute at the very least, deserve thoughtful attention, and seem persuasive. If so, then this chapter lends crucial perspective for reading OT historical books well.
Ch. 4 traces the serpent motif to its biblical climax in Rev 12 and 20. Just as Ch. 1 serves as a useful commentary supplement for studying Gen 3, so Ch. 4 also serves as a valuable aid for anyone studying Rev 12 and 20. Emphasizing the serpent’s destructive intentions, Naselli proposes thirteen notable truths about the dragon portrayed in these two passages. He offers many valuable comments here, though a few feel a brief an underdeveloped. For instance, to explain the significance of how the dragon’s tail “swept down a third of the stars of heaven,” he cites Dan 8:10 and quotes D.A. Carson to suggest metaphorical imagery, offering no further explanation.
This book provides valuable and enriching insights for all by pointing us to a crucial, biblical, yet neglected theme that culminates in Christ.
The reader will see that Naselli interprets Revelation from a gracious, amillennial standpoint that naturally influences how he understands certain details. For instance, he observes that the 1,260 days of Rev 12:6 “symbolize a period of intense suffering for God’s people before he delivers them,” then immediately harmonizes this period with the three-and-a-half-year Maccabean Revolt in 164 BC. This is a fascinating corollary, but it may also be helpful to observe the alternate possibility that this period may refer to the second half of a future, climactic seven-year tribulation.[2] This interpretive conversation aside, the chapter rightly and resoundingly concludes that “Jesus is coming back to slay the dragon and save his bride!” Whether readers are persuaded of a premillennial, postmillennial, or amillennial approach to Revelation, this book provides valuable and enriching insights for all by pointing us to a crucial, biblical, yet neglected theme that culminates in Christ.
In the conclusion, Andy offers six applications in keeping with the practical aim of the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series. Each of these applications are meaningful in their own right and worthy of the reader’s prayerful reflection. I would even suggest a seventh application, something like, “Conquer the serpent by living and speaking the gospel,” an application the book strongly implies in Ch. 4 (“they have conquered him [the dragon] … by the word of their testimony,” cf. Rev 12:11).
The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer is a relatively short book (only 160 pgs.), and the actual text body is even shorter if you subtract its appendix, extensive indexes, and frequent Scripture quotations (which includes lengthy passages on some occasions). This brevity makes the book easy to tackle, and doing so will give you a captivating, insightful lens with which to read the Bible. This is a helpful and theological resource that I gladly recommend.
[1] My Revelation commentary arsenal includes: Kendell Easley, Buist Fanning, John MacArthur, Grant Osborne, Robert Thomas, Paige Patterson, and John Walvoord. I find Fanning and Thomas especially helpful.
[2] I’ll admit that I prefer a premillennial approach to Revelation over an amillennial one in part because I’m uncomfortable applying John’s vivid description of Satan as bound, cast into, shut up, and sealed in the bottomless pit “so that he should deceive the nations no more” with how other NT writers portray Satan’s activities in the world today (Rev 20:3; cf., Rom 16:20; 2 Cor 4:4; Jam 4:7; 1 Pet 5:8; 1 Jn 5:18, etc.). Verses like these indicate that the serpent, Satan, continues his deceptive and destructive ways today and has not yet been prevented from doing so in the way that Rev 20:3 portrays.