Kaja tnpndiaiif. nnd Cohia di capdlo, oi Hooded ind Specttcled Isnike'-
ton's Illusti-afions), excepting the authority of Herod- otus, Pausanias, and Bochart, which, with all the respect due to their names, is not now sufficient to establish the existence of a kind of serpent whose structure is con- trary to the laws of zoological organization. In Isa. xiv, 29, and xxx, 6, the epithet C]S1"'2, meophepk, vi- hrating (rendered " flying" in the A. V.), is another form for " winged," and occurs in passages unconnected with the events in Exodus. Both bear metaphorical inter- pretations. A further confirmation of the " fiery ser- pents," or '■ serpents of the burning bite," being najas, occurs in the name Ras om-Hai/e (Cape of the Haje serpents), situated in the locality where geographers and commentators agree that the children of Israel were af- flicted by these reptiles. Should it be objected that these are the haje and not the spectacle-snake, it may be answered that both Arabs and Hindus confound the species.
3. Ak-s/iub (nriJDI^', Sept. a(nric, A. V. "adder") is found only in Psa. cxl, 3, " They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is imder their lips." The latter half of this verse is quoted by Paul from the Sept. in Rom. iii, 13 (" asp"). The poison of venomous serpents is often employed by the sacred writers in a figurative sense to express the evil tempers of ungodly men; that malignity which, as bishop Home says, is " the venom and poison of the intellectual world" (comp. Deut, xxxii, 33 ; Job xx, 14, 16).
It is not possible to say with any degree of certainty what particular species of serpent is intended by the Hebrew word; the ancient versions do not help us at all, although nearly all agree in some kind of serpent, with the exception of the Chaldee paraphrase, which understands a spider by aks/inb, interpreting this He- brew word by one of somewhat similar form (UJ"^3S;', akkabisJi). The etymology of the terra is not ascertained with suflicient precision to enable us to refer the animal to any determinate species. Gesenius derives it from two Hebrew roots (i;J33>, akdsh, "to turn backward," and 3|ry, akab," to lie in wait"), the combined meaning of which is "rolled in a spire and lying in ambush;" a description which would apply to almost any kind of serpent.
The number of poisonous serpents with which the Jews were acquainted was in all probability limited to some five or six species, and it is not improbable that the (ikshiib may be represented by the To.ricou of Egypt and North Africa. At any rate, it is unlikely that the .lews were unaecpiainted with this kind, which is com- mon in Egypt and probably in Syria. See AtinER.
4. Pethen driQ, from an obsolete root prob. signifying to tirist or to be strong; Sept. aoTTiQ, ^paKMV, flarriKicTKOQ), The Hebrew word occurs in the six following passages: Deut. xxxii, 33; Psa. Iviii, 5; xci, 13; Job xx, 14, 16;
SERPENT
577
SERPENT
The loxiLoa i^hchik an
ncola) of Egjpt.
Isa. xi, 8. It is expressed in the passages from the Psalms by " adder" in the text of the A. V. and by "asp" in the margin; elsewhere the text of the A.V. has "asp" as the representative of the original word pefhen.
That some kind of poisonous serpent is denoted by the Hebrew word is clear from the passages quoted above. We further learn from Psa. Iviii, 5 that the jjetlieii was a snake upon which the serpent-charmers practiced their art. In this passage the wicked are compared to " the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, Avhich will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charm- ing never so wisely ;" and from Isa. xi, 8, " the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp," it would appear that the pethen was a dweller in holes of walls, etc. The question of identity is one widch it is by no means easy to determine. Bochart contributes nothing in aid to a solution when he attempts to prove that the pethen is the asp {llieroz. iii, 156), for this species of serpent, if a sjjecies be signified by the term, has been so vaguely described by authors that it is not possible to say what known kind is represented by it. The term asp in mod- ern zoology is generally restricted to the Vij^era aspis of Latreille; but it is most probable that the name, among the ancients, stood for different kinds of venom- ous serpents. Solinus (c. xxvii) says, " plures diversai- que sunt aspidum species;" and /Elian (A\Anim. x,31) asserts that the Egyptians eniunerate sixteen kinds of usp. Bruce thought that the asp of the ancients should be referred to the cerastes, while Cuvier considered it to be the Egyptian cobra {Naja haje). Be this, however, as it may, there can be little doubt that the Hebrew name jwthen is specific, as it is mentioned as distinct from akshub, shephiphon, tsiphoni, etc., names of other members of the Ophidia.
Oedman {Vermisck. Samvil. x, 81) identifies the pe- then with the Coluber lebetinvs, Linn., a species described b}' Forskal (Besc. Anim. p. 15). KosenmuUer (^Nol. ad Uieroz. iii, 156), Dr. Lee {lleb. Lex. s. v. "|nB), Dr. Har- ris {Nat. Hist, of Bible, art. " Asp"), Col. H. Smith {Encyc. Bib. Lit. art. "Serpent"), believe that the/j('^/;e?ji>f Script- ure is to be identified with the Coluber btrtan of Porskal. Oedman has no hesitation in establishing an identity between the C. lebetinus and the C, bo'tan; but from Forskal's descriptions it is most probable that the two species are distinct. The whole argument that seeks to establish the identity of the C. b<vtan with the pethen of Scripture is based entirely upon a similarity of sound. Rosenmidler thinks that the Aral)ic word bo'tan ought to be written pwtan, and thinks there can be no doulit that this species represents the pethen of Scripture. Oedman's argument, also, is based on a similarity of sound in the words, though he adduces an additional proof in the fact that, according to the Swedish natural- ist quoted above, the common people of Cyprus bestow the epithet of koiiphe (Kot'tpt]), "<ieaf," upon the C.lebeti- hus. He does not, however, believe that this species is IX.— U 0