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Replying to JehovahsWitness in post #20]
What bible version has it that a ventriloquist was involved?
In English snake and serpent are synonymous. The Encyclopaedia Britanica notes
SNAKE, (suborder Serpentes), also called serpent, any of more than 3,400 species of reptiles distinguished by their limbless condition and greatly elongated body and tail.
I wasn't asking which version of encyclopedia. I asked which version of bible
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
The one read with critical thinking skills. (Demonstarted in the above post #4)
There is no version of any bible given in post #4.
For that matter, there are no identifiable critical thinking skills re that post either.
Which version are you using which identifies a SNAKE as being the critter which tempted Eve?
The Hebrew word used in the Genesis account is "nachash" (נָחָשׁ); language experts understand this to be a generic, or general, term which applys to all snakes or serpentlike creatures, and it is often used along with other Hebrew words that denote a particular kind of snake (Ps 58:4; 140:3; Pr 23:32) .
From the information you provided, we can evaluate that the use of the word "Serpent" denotes the Familiar Gene, as biologists continue to do re sorting Species into specific Specie categories.
Serpent means "Classification Reptilia" "Of the Reptilian Family"
Thus, the Serpent was a member of the Reptilian Family - no doubt the dominant one at that, since he/she could also talk. Like humans are the dominants of the Ape Specie/Family because of our complex language systems.
OP: Did a snake really speak in the Garden of Eden?
No, snakes cannot talk, they have not been created with the intelligence to speak nor have they vocal cords or the ability to do so.
The snake in the Genesis accounts was a dumb beast being maniupulated in a similar way to how a VENTRILOQUIST makes a dummy "speak" by projecting his voice so that he listener is unaware of WHO really is speaking.
Claiming that the Reptile Eve was speaking with, was a snake AND didn't really have the power of speech and that Eve was actually hearing a supernatural being called "Satan" who was "being a ventriloquist", is Supernaturalizing. [
re the Family of Supernaturalism.]
Claiming that the Reptile Eve was speaking with, was a snake would have this reader wondering what exactly the punishment was from YHVH for what the snake did... as the snake was already slithering around in the dust...when he/she wasn't dangling around in trees totally unaware he/she was being used as a puppet.
This Hebrew term corresponds to the Greek ophis (ὄφις) as confirmed by 2 Corinthians 11:3.
Whether Ophis is an equivalent or similarly used as the Hebrews nachash isn't overly apparent.
One thing is clear though. The emphasis is on resemblance re biology. It was Adams job to be the biologist and I am sure he knew a dumb snake from a talking lizard, if I am following the story correctly.
I am not prepared to assume Eve was stupid in that regard either.
The Greek Family mixed and matched and the consequence of that is Christianity and its mythologies moving well away from how the Hebrew Family first told their stories.
We know that by the images which arise from the Greek/Roman Family influence, such as the example below, depicting a "supernatural" being influencing a natural being - something prevalent in the Greco-Roman coupling re Family belief systems, which often resulted in religions being formed and cultivated.
The Hebrews saw such religions as Paganism and false worship of imagined beings which - unlike YHVH - didn't exist anywhere in Nature and certainly didn't have the great and mighty powers of ventriloquism.
) than the western-type dragon. 
