The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
BOOK ELEVEN 159
CHAPTER 27
How the Devil used the serpent.
34. God, who has supreme power over all that He has created and who uses the ministry of His holy angels to mock the Devil—for the Devil's evil will is used to serve the Church of God— did not permit him to tempt the woman except by the serpent, nor the man except by the woman. In the serpent it was the Devil who spoke, using that creature as an instrument, moving it as he was able to move it and as it was capable of being moved, to produce the sounds of words and the bodily signs by which the woman would understand the will of the tempter. But in the woman, who was a rational creature and able by her own powers to speak, it was not the Devil who spoke, but it was the woman herself who uttered words and persuaded the man, although the Devil in a hidden way interiorly prompted within her what he had exteriorly accomplished when he used the serpent as an instrument. But if he acted solely by an interior influence, as he did in the case of Judas, whom he prompted to betray Christ,°° he could accomplish his purpose in a soul led?! by its pride and the love of its own power.
However, as I have already said, the Devil has the will to tempt man, but the power to do so and the manner of doing it do not depend on him.%? Since, therefore, he was permitted to do so, he tempted; and he tempted in the manner allowed him. But he had no knowledge of the fact that this temptation would profit certain members of the human race, nor did he will that result; and in this he was mocked by the angels.
CHAPTER
Did the serpent understand the words of the Devil? Other uses of serpents by the Devil.
35. The serpent did not understand the meaning of the words which were spoken through him to the woman, for we cannot