woman said: The serpent ledme astray, andl took a bite (Gn 3 : 1 3) . Nordoes this
Book XI 457 put the blame solely on the creator for whatever evil they do, while for anything good they do they wish to take all the credit for themselves. The woman, he said, whomyou gave with me, that is, whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and late; as though she was given him to ensure that she would not obey her husband, and neither of them God!
48. And the Lord God said to the woman: Why did you do this? And the woman said: The serpent ledme astray, andl took a bite (Gn 3 : 1 3) . Nordoes this one confess the sin, but puts the blame on another, the man's equal in impu dence, ifnot in sex. Nonetheless from these two there traced who is "his" descent without following their example, though certainly plagued by many more evils than they, one who said—and will go on saying till the end of the world: / said: Lord have mercy on me; heal my soul since l have sinned against you (Ps 41:4).
How much better if these two had done the same!
But the Lord had not yet broken sinners in; still to come were toil and trouble, pain and grief, death and all the wear and tear of the world—and the grace of God with which at the appropriate time he would come to the aid of a humanity, which he had taught by affliction not to be presumptuously self-confident and self-reliant. The serpent, she said, led me astray, and l took a bite, as if anybody's persuasive suggestion should be given preference over God's commandment!
The punishment of the serpent
36, 49. And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, accursed are you from all cattle andfrom all wild beasts which are upon the earth. Upon your bosom and your belly shall you walk, and earth shall you eat all the days of your life. And l will set enmities between you and between the woman and between your seed and between her seed. She will look outforyour head, andyou will look outfor her heel (Gn 3 : 1 41 5 ). The whole of this sentence is figurative in meaning, and all that the writer's credibility and the truth of the story guarantees is that we need have no doubt that it was actually uttered. The words And the Lord God said to the serpent are the writer's, to be taken in their proper literal sense; so it is true, therefore, that this was said to the serpent. All the other words are now God's, and it is left to the reader's free judgment whether they should be taken literally or figuratively, as we said earlier on at the beginning of this volume."
Accordingly, the reason the serpent was not interrogated about why it had done this would seem to be that it had not done it in its own nature and by its own
51. Book X1, 1,2 above.