Saints and serpents ☘️

I hope you enjoyed some Corned Beef and Cabbage with a Guinness or Tullamore D.E.W. this week! It was St. Patrick’s Day after all—the day when everyone attempts to prove their Irish heritage through some distant great-ancestor. Who wouldn’t want to be from this beautiful emerald island, filled with shamrocks, leprechauns, and castles? And famously not filled with snakes.

Legend has it that we can thank St. Patrick for driving out these cringy reptiles, but is there any truth to it? Unfortunately, probably not, though it is a fun story ripe with symbolism and adventure. More than likely, the absence of snakes has more to do with these critters not making it onto this land mass before it broke off from mainland Europe at the end of the Ice Age.

Nevertheless, Christians hold on to the importance of St. Patrick driving out the snakes because of the deep symbolism of the snake in Judeo-Christian mythology. The snake, or serpent, rears its ugly head in the third chapter of Genesis and has historically been linked to HaSatan (הַשָּׂטָן), the Hebrew word meaning “The Satan” or “The Accuser;” but how did we get from nachash (נָחָשׁ), the Hebrew word for serpent, to Satan? Despite what you may have learned in Sunday School, Satan is never actually mentioned in Genesis 3, nor is the serpent explicitly linked to Satan in this chapter. Rather, the association isn’t named until much later in the Biblical text, at the very end in Revelation— “The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:9a NRSVUE, emphasis mine). 

The concept of Satan as the great adversary of God is absent in the Hebrew Bible, where this figure, HaSatan, is actually depicted as working for God, as in the story of Job, where God sends HaSatan to test Job’s loyalty to God (Job 1:6-12). It isn’t until long after the Old Testament was written that the idea emerged of a ruling demonic being which would come to be known as Satan. However, at the time Genesis was written, this would have been a completely foreign concept. Rather, a more likely interpretation of this crafty serpent would be to associate it with the great enemy of God’s people found elsewhere in the Old Testament—idolatry.

In the Ancient Near East, the pantheons were filled with serpent-gods. These gods were affiliated with eternal life, fertility, and cunning—themes intricately linked to the Genesis story of The Fall. In this light, the serpent in Genesis 3 represents the twisting of all that God offers to humanity. The message is clear—following the deceptive idols of this world that falsely promise life, protection, and abundance will bring death and separation from the One who can actually deliver on these promises.

Another support for this theory is that the verb form of nachash (נָחָשׁ), the Hebrew word for serpent, is Lenachesh (לְנַחֵשׁ), meaning to practice divination or sorcery (think the snake-like hissing whisper of incantations to access hidden knowledge). Often tied to pagan practice, divination is forbidden by God (Deuteronomy 18:10-12 and Acts 19:19) because it makes an idol of knowledge over mystery, control over surrender, and trust in magic over trust in God. 

The serpent’s association with idolatry and pagan practices probably explains why 12th century hagiographers (Saint biographers) created the legend of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland. It would have been a great allegory for his missionary work of converting Celtic Druids to Christianity, especially since the serpent is a common symbol in these pagan practices. The good news is that there is no historical evidence that these conversions were violent in nature, despite the tone implied by the image of St. Patrick driving the snakes into the sea to drown. So no need to boycott this worldwide holiday. Enjoy the festivities as we celebrate the Patron Saint of Ireland and his place in the timeless mythology of the crafty serpent.