The direct comparison of the nachash--- as a shining higher form of life than Eve--- to all the other beasts in the field, though... would be weird, wouldn't it? Unless perhaps he was both at the same time..?

And, as ritarick23 speculated, if the animals perhaps commonly communicated with A&E, we wouldn't be insulting Eve too badly by thinking she talked to a snake.

And thanks for the response Pastor David! Now knock me out of the water!

James, expound on your statement above...

"Now the [shining one,] was more [possessed of wisdom] than any [living being] of the field (why, 'of the field?') which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman..."

I guess the target phrase becomes in my mind, "of the field."

I wonder if Eve's perception of spiritual reality was more directly meaningful. She saw a snake (of the field,) who she also perceived to be an angel of light, at the same time as being a snake. I think everyone can agree that there is weirder stuff in the Bible.

Ok, So Brother James, you are getting tripped up with "of the field" But this is simply not a good translation as calling him a "beast" or calling the Cherubim, "beasts" in Revelation 4.

Personally I view it as a clarification that he was not man. But something other than man. And as I pointed out in my previous post, the structure of Genesis 3 will show that the Cherubim of the last verse (Genesis 3:24) requires a similar spirit-being to correspond with them in the first verse (for the structure of the whole chapter, Genesis 3, is a great Introversion).

It is foolishness to imagine that the wisdom of the snake was observed by Adam and Eve in how it related to cows and horses. And then Eve just couldn't help herself to be convinced by this snake to disobey Almighty GOD and to believe what the snake said about becoming a god by eating of the tree, after seeing how it had tripped up the possum and even the boll weevil.

Never was Satan's wisdom so craftily used as when he secured universal acceptance of this traditional belief: it has succeeded in fixing the attention of mankind on the letter and the means, and blinding the eyes to the solemn fact that the Fall of man had to do solely with the Word of God, and is centered in the sin of believing Satan's lie instead of the LORD's truth.

The temptation of "the first man Adam" began with the question "Hath God said ?" The temptation of "the second man, the LORD from heaven" began with the similar question "IF thou be the Son of God", when the voice of the Father had scarcely died away, which said "This IS My beloved Son". All turned on the truth of what GOD had said.

The Word of God being questioned, led Eve, in her reply, to 1) omit the word "freely" (Genesis 3:2, compare Genesis 2:16); then, 2) to add the words "neither shalt thou touch it" (Genesis 3:3, compare Genesis 2:17); and finally, 3) to alter a certainty into a contingency by changing "thou SHALT SURELY die" (Genesis 2:17) into "LEST ye die" (Genesis 3:3).

Thank you Pastor David, you have helped me with a question that I have asked for years.
But now that leads to another question. Is this were satan crosses the line? or did he do that some time earler?
Thanks to all.
God bless,
Richard

Brother Richard, elaborate on your question a bit...

Was this all part of satans fall, or did he fall before man was created? I know that satan was full of pride, thinking he was better then God Himself. So I guess what I am asking, is, was this the last straw for him, or was it over for him before he temped Eve?
God bless,
ps: sorry it took so long to get back to you, but it was a great day here in new Hampshire, so went to play golf.