talking snake

[Confused Ape]

נחש

v. to guess
nm. snake, serpent

What if the "snake" in the story was just human reasoning, a guess?

The other topic goes into detail about snake symbolism.

Why does Genesis make it sound as if the serpent had legs before it was cursed?

Genesis

Genesis 3:14 And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Maybe somebody in the dim and distant past found a fossil like this one but with both legs visible.

Studying how snakes got legless

A 95-million-year-old fossil is helping scientists understand how snakes lost their legs through evolutionary time.

Found in Lebanon, the specimen is one of only three examples of an ancient snake with preserved leg bones.

One rear leg is clearly visible but researchers had to use a novel X-ray technique to examine another leg hidden inside the fossil rock.