Research source

He is at once the 'Nachash beriach' and 'Nachash aktalon'--the 'Cross-bar serpent' and the 'Tortuous…

Date of account: Published 1879
Source: Demonology and Devil-lore
Reference: Demonology and Devil-lore · selected passage 216
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

He is at once the 'Nachash beriach' and 'Nachash aktalon'--the 'Cross-bar serpent' and the 'Tortuous serpent'--which we meet with in Isa

Published source text

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Source passage

Source text · mention only

He is at once the 'Nachash beriach' and 'Nachash aktalon'--the 'Cross-bar serpent' and the 'Tortuous serpent'--which we meet with in Isa. xxvii. 1: 'In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent.' The marginal translation in the English version is 'crossing like a bar,' instead of piercing, and the Vulgate has serpens vectis. This refers to the moral function of the serpent, as barring the way, or guarding the door. No doubt this is the 'crooked serpent' of Job xxvi. 13, for the astrological sense of it does not invalidate the terrestrial significance. Imagination could only project into the heavens what it had learned on earth. Bochart in identifying 'Nachash-beriach' as 'the flying Serpent,' is quite right: the Seraph, or winged Serpent, which barred the way to the tree of life in Eden, and in some traditions was the treacherous guard at the gate of the garden, and which bit Israel in the wilderness, was this same protean Apophis.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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