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Why all the Similarities ?The Serpent and more…

Universal Beliefs & Symbols

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John 3:14-16 (NIV)

14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life

in him.”16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and

only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have

eternal life.

Why all the Similarities ?The Serpent and more…

Universal Beliefs & Symbols

Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World

Temple of the Feathered Serpent, or Temple of Quetzalcoatl, Teotihuacan

Adam, Eve and the Serpent in the Garden

Middle East America

The Hammurabi Code Room at the Louvre

Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World

"If a man has destroyed the eye of another free man, his own eye shall be destroyed. If he has broken the bone of a free man, his bone shall be broken" (Code Hammurabi, 196-197:15).

Legal Codes

"And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe" (Exodus 21:23-25)

Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World

The Law Giver

God Shamash sitting on a Mountain giving

the Law to Hammurabi

Yahweh giving Law to Moses on a Mountain

Utnapishtim laid out the boat of 120 cubits.His relatives "all the beasts and animals of the field" boarded the boat.The flood and wind lasted six days and six nights, flattening the land.All humans had turned to clay

"all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened". Rain falls for 40 days, the water rises 150 days, and all the high mountains are covered (Genesis 8:14)

We revealed to him: "Build the Ship under Our supervision and as We reveal. When Our command comes and water bubbles up from the earth, load into it a pair of every species, and your family-except for those among them against whom the word has already gone ahead. And do not address Me concerning those who do wrong. They shall be drowned.“ Qur'an, 23:27

Emperor Yao is facing the problem of flood waters that "reach to the Heavens".

Shujing, or "Book of History", 500 BCE or earlier,

Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World

Over 600 Flood stories from all over the world

Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet 11: Story of the Flood

Epic of Gilgamesh

Torah Qur’an China

Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World

Universal Patriarchy or Male DominanceConfucianis

mJudaism Buddhism Islam Christianity

A woman was to be subordinate to her father in youth, her husband in maturity, and her son in old age

Mencius 372 – 289 BC

"I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband,

and he will rule over you”

Gen 3:16

An appropriate aim is for women to aspire to be reborn as male. They can become a male by moral actions and sincere aspiration to maleness. Being born a female is a result of bad karma.

https://en.wikipedia.org/

wiki/Women_in_Buddhis

m

Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other,..

http://corpus.quran.com/

translation.jsp?chapter=4&verse=

34

23 For the husband is the head of the wife … 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also

wives should submit to their husbands in everythingEphesians 5:23-24

15 But women

will be saved through

childbearing…1 Timothy 2:15 (NIV)

Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World

Universal Patriarchy or Male Dominance

Hindu sati where a Hindu woman is burned alive with the corpse of her

husband

Monreale Cathedral, Norman architecture, ca. 1180 AD

Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man (ca 1615) Rubens

Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504The Fall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Michelangelo

You Know I want to talk about women, but I better talk about the Serpent

Serpent, not only in the Garden but all over the WorldJoseph Campbell said, “We find the symbolism of the

serpent, tree, and garden of immortality already in the earliest

cuneiform texts, depicted on Old Sumerian cylinder seals, and represented

even in the arts and rites of primitive village folk

throughout the world.”

Worship of serpent-gods existed among the Israelites during the period of the Judges and

Kings4 ”He (King Hezekiah) removed the high places, and brake the images,

and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days

the children of Israel did burn incense to it”2 Kings 18:4

Universal Presence of the Serpent & Serpent Worshiphttp://www.godawa.com/chronicles_of_the_nephilim/Articles_By_Others/Moorehead%20-%20Universality%20of%20Serpent%20Worship.pdf

Cylinder seal depicting a Garden of Eden story. A man and woman sitting under the seven branched Tree of Life with the snake on the right. Akkadian Cylinder Seal, 2330-2150 B.C.E.

Mesopotamia2330-2150 B.C.E.

The "libation vase of Gudea " with the dragon Mushussu , dedicated to Ningishzida. The caduceus is interpreted as depicting the god himself.

Ningishzida is the earliest known symbol of snakes twining around an axial rod.

Sumeria2100 BC, short chronology

http://www.nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/darkbible2.htm

Gilgamesh had the branch of life in his hand; all he had to do was return home. But half-way across the desert an oasis lured him to

take his rest. A snake ate the plant and he lost immortality

Old Babylon, 18th century BC

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=picture+gilgamesh+losing+plant+of+immortality&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-003

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=Cobra+frieze+from+Saqqara%2C+Egypt&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-003

Cobra frieze from Saqqara, EgyptApep: an evil Egyptian god: the deification of darkness and chaos.

Pharaoh’s Egypt

Isis and Nephthys as serpent goddesses, c. 1300 B.C., Tomb of Seti I, Valley of the Kings, Thebes.

Crete: Knossos, Minoan Culture

tumblr_m9jfj1Vxbo1retgeoo1_1280.jpg

Snake Goddess

Gorgon, pediment of the Temple of Artemis in Corfu

Greece 590-580 B.C

The Hesperides in the garden with apples on a tree,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis,_Corfu#/media/

File:Close_up_of_Gorgon_at_the_pediment_of_Artemis_temple_in_Corfu.jpg

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/apples.html

Asclepius, God of Medicine and Healing using snakes

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asklepios_-_Statue_Epidauros_Museum_2008-09-11.jpg

Asclepius with his daughter Hygieia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius#Sacred_places_and_practices

Greek & Roman

Hercules stealing the golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides. Detail of The Twelve Labours Roman mosaic from LIiria (Valencia, Spain). between 201 and 250 AD

Rome 200 AD

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperides

The early, pre-Canaanite

Phoenicians serpent god called the Basilisk.

Phoenicians

https://inannafilm.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/5-basilisk.jpg

Astarte - Consort to Baal, she is here depicted with two

foals in ecstatic dance, her typically upraised arms

grasping serpents

The most famous divine serpent in Viking or Norse mythology was Jormungand, the Great Divine World Serpent. Jormungand is the son of Loki, the Teutonic Satan. 's arch-enemy is the god Thor.

Jormungand, the Great Divine World Serpent

Viking or Norse mythology

Thor in battling the Midgard Serpent" (1788) by Henry Fuseli

Kukulkan (Snake God, Chichen Itza, Maya

Temple of the Feathered Serpent, or Temple of Quetzalcoatl, Teotihuacan

Pre-Hispanic America

Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism

Lord Krishna dancing on the serpent Kaliva; while the serpent's wives pray to Krishna

Nāga , deities or beings, taking the form of great snakes found in:

Krishna dancing over snake Kaliya

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Naga2.jpghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliya

Southeast Asia: Snakes adored and respected Everywhere

India: Buddha being shielded by Naga (Serpent ) Mucalinda

https://www.flickr.com/photos/albill/364164595/?ytcheck=1

Snake God Worship

India: Hinduism

Azhi Dahaka is the Sky Serpent of Iranian creation mythology. pinterest.com

Iranian Sky Serpent

Mami Wata, "serpent priestess" painted by German by

Schleisinger

Mami Wata, "serpent priestess“ , venerated in West, Central, and

Southern Africa, and in the African diaspora in the

Americas.

West, Central, Southern Africa, the

Americas

Mami Wata, "serpent priestess“

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mami_Wata

The Rainbow Serpent is a common deity, often a creator god, in the mythology of Aboriginal Australia. It is named for the obvious identification between the shape of a rainbow and the shape of a snake. The Rainbow Serpent is one of the oldest continuing religious beliefs in the worldThe Rainbow Serpent is considered to be the ultimate creator

of everything in the universe

Rainbow Serpent of Aboriginal Australia

Australian Aboriginal rock painting of the "Rainbow Serpent".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Serpent

Damballaserpent spirit and "The

Great Master“ who created the cosmos Sky Father and the

primordial creator of all life. He rules the mind,

intellect, and cosmic equilibrium. Damballah La Flambeau, by the Haitian

artist Hector Hyppolite

CARIBBEANVoodoo religions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damballa

The Serpent: a Universal Symbol of Good and Evil

& much More

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_brotherhoodsnake08.htm

9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient

serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Revelation 12:9 (NIV)“2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, “Revelation 20:2

Serpent - Symbol of Satan and Pure Evil

http://doubleportioninheritance.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-serpent-seed-doctrine-true-or-false.html

Serpent - Symbol of Satan and Pure Evil

Apep- an evil Egyptian god (He appears in art as a giant serpent) : the deification of darkness and chaos. Opponent of light and Ma’at (order/truth).

Set speared Apep

Serpent -Speaking. Anthropomorphic Characteristics

http://doubleportioninheritance.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-serpent-seed-doctrine-true-or-false.html

“…He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any

tree in the garden'?"Genesis 3:1

Ancient painting ofNuwa and Fuxi

Naga Figure Gasa Dzong

Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. (NIV)The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made (NLT)

Serpent Symbol of Craftiness, Wise or Shrewdness

2 Corinthians 11:3 |

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,

"be ye therefore wise as serpents “Matt 10:16]

Believers are poor, culturally isolated; awareness of other religions is minimal. Few have traveled more than a few miles from home. Little more than the Bible is read. Life revolves around the church.

80 have died due to snake bite

West Virginia and BeyondPicking up snakes is a demonstration of one’s faith in God.

"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak

with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover," (Mark 16:17-18).

Serpent-Handling Sign of FAITH

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_handling

Not a candidate for a Snake handling Church

“Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.“Numbers 21:9

Saved by Looking at Serpent

4 He (King Hezekiah) removed the high places, and brake the images,

and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that

Moses had made: for unto those days the children

of Israel did burn incense to it

2 Kings 18:4

https://en.wikipedia.org/w

iki/File:M

ichelangelo_Buonarroti_024.jp

g

Worship of serpent-gods existed among the

Israelites during the period of the Judges and Kings

14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:14-16 NIV

Lifted Up Serpent pointing to Jesus

Gorgon, pediment of the Temple of Artemis in Corfu

Serpent- Symbol of Fertility

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis,_Corfu#/media/File:Close_up_of_Gorgon_at_the_pediment_of_Artemis_temple_in_Corfu.jpg

Historically, serpents and snakes represent fertility or a creative life force.

Because they resemble phallic symbols, snakes often represent fertility in myth and literature, according to the Myths Encyclopedia.

http://www.wikisymbol.com/246/sobi2details

Fertility Goddess. She carries snakes

Ouroboros as emblem of mortality and new life,from George Wither's A Collection of Emblems, Ancient and Modern, 1635

Death

New life

Eternal recurrence

Serpent Symbol of EternityOuroboros, the Greek symbol of eternity, consisted of a snake curled into a circle or hoop, biting its own tail.

The Ouroboros (serpents) eat themselves and are reborn from themselves in an endless cycle of destruction and creation.

"The power of life causes the snake to shed its skin, just as the moon sheds its shadow to be born again. They are equivalent symbols. Sometimes the serpent is represented as a circle eating its own tail. That's an image of life. Life sheds one generation after another, to be born again. The serpent represents immortal energy and consciousness engaged in the field of time, constantly throwing off death and being born again. There is something tremendously terrifying about life when you look at it that way."

Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Greek - Pelasgian creation mythEurynome "The Goddess of All Things spontaneously generates the serpent Ophion, who mates with her. She bids Ophion to incubate it by coiling seven times around until it splits in two and hatches "all things that exist ... sun, moon, planets, stars, the earth with its mountains and rivers, its trees, herbs, and living creatures".

Serpent Ophion co-Creator

Australian Aboriginal rock painting of the "Rainbow Serpent".

The Rainbow Serpent is considered to be the ultimate

creator of everything in the universe

Rainbow Serpent

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Serpent

Creator

Buddha’s best friend was a snake that shielded him from sun and storms. Buddhist legends say Buddha got

his deep understanding from the king of the serpents.

Serpent Protector and Imparter of Wisdom

http://www.drachen-fabelwesen.de/drachen-arten/indische-veden-naga-schlangen-drachen.html

Snake statue guards Thailand's Patong beach

https://biblescienceguy.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/snake-smaku.jpg

Protectors and Guardians

Serpent Symbol of Desire (Kama) in - Hinduism

The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man (about 1615) by Rubens

…and Christianity

 In honor of Asclepius, a particular type of non-venomous snake was often used in healing rituals, and these snakes — the Aesculapian Snakes — crawled around freely on the floor in dormitories where the sick and injured slept. These snakes were introduced at the founding of each new temple of Asclepius throughout the classical world. From about 300 BC onwards, the cult of Asclepius grew very popular and pilgrims flocked to his healing temples (Asclepieia) to be cured of their ills.

Healing with Snakes RitualsMedical Symbols from Around The World

http://gnosticwarrior.com/healing-centers-asclepius.html

Many cultural universals were diffused through travel, migration, and other forms of transcontinental communication.

Cultural universals are basically human responses and occur inevitably because all humans

have things in common, birth death, need food, need shelter need fertility

Cultural universals are basically human responses to social institutional needs

Things to Ponder! Why so many Similarities and Universals?

People may have experienced certain Global Events“Noah’s” or Utnapishtim Flood

"What does it say about what all of us have in common that so many of these stories contain similar elements-the forbidden fruit, the woman?. . . After years and years of reading these things, I am still overwhelmed at the similarities in cultures that are far, far apart. . . . How do you explain these similarities?" Bill Moyers in 1987 interviewed Joseph Campbell , http://www.worldmag.com/2006/08/snakes_on_the_brain

The Serpent: a Universal Symbol of Good and Evil

& much More