The Serpent

Raj, I had never thought about approaching the serpent scenario as a "good" event. Meaning, what was there about the Serpent that should have made Adam and Eve think "this is bad?" Everything that was made was good ... why not this. The only thing that I can think of is that this is the first time that a contradiction enters into their life. God said not to eat it or one will die. The serpent says that I can eat it and that I won't die. Which one is true? But didn't God make the serpent, so wouldn't his words follow in line with him being a "good" creation of God? There is certainly a load of background info that is conspicuously absent. If you think about it ... reading it as best you can as though you have little background info (as hard as it is) WHERE IN THE WORLD DID SUCH A CREATURE COME FROM THAT OPPOSES THE CREATOR?

I don't find the thought of him being intelligent difficult to comprehend. After all, what WASN'T new to Adam and Eve? Everything they saw, touched, tasted, heard, or smelled was new. And who taught them how to speak? Somehow they were endowed with immediate intellectual faculties that gave them language, motor, and reason abilities. They did not "grow" in some sense, yet they did (since there were things that they did not know). I wonder if reading Job before hand would give some insights (many scholars believe this is the first book written in the Bible).