I am availible to answer some questions

[Bucky Ball]

I would have to respectfully disagree with that as the origins of the serpent in Genesis. Most of the imported things came from the Babylonian myth system. There is a myth of Gilgamesh and the Serpent, which fits perfectly with the rest on the imported material.
(Sorry this is so long).
There was a precedent for a snake (and plant) that conferred immortality.
http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/forum/...ins?page=2

I'm sticking with the Egyptian Pharaoh as the talking snake because Egypt was always an adversary of the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians. All three empires controlled Egypt at various times and the Israelites/Hebrews/Jews were always claiming that Egypt was the bad guy. Plus, as I pointed out, the Egyptian Pharaoh's headdress had a snake on it.

Sorry about resurrecting a dead thread. I've been busy.
We know where the snake theme came from. It wasn't Egypt. It was the Babylonian system.

"From the Babylonians also comes the legend of of Adapa. The son of the God of Wisdom (Ea, also called Enki), broke the wing of the Storm bird, who had attacked him in what is today, the Persian Gulf. Ea summons Adapa, and warned him about his behavior, and told him he would be offered food and drink which would be deadly, and he must refuse it. When Anu, (one of the council of three highest gods), found out about the disclosure, attempted to foil Ea, by offering Adapa the bread of life, and the water of life, instead. He, Adapa, refused, and Anu sent him to earth as a mortal.

In the myth of Gilgamesh and the Serpent, Gilgamesh heard about a plant that held the secret to immortality. By much effort, he pulled it up from the bottom of the ocean. On the way back to his peeps, he set the plant aside at a spring where he stopped to take a bath. A serpent came up from the water and grabbed the plant. As it returned to the water, it shed its skin. In so doing, the serpent robbed humans of the potential for rejuvenation and acquired an ability to renew itself by shedding its skin.

So we have poisonous plants, ribs, Eve, death by eating stuff, bread of heaven, water of life, plants which offer immortality, and snakes which bring about death, and most important, Chaos and Order."

From my : (post 12) http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/forum/...=salvation