וְהַנָּחָשׁ֙ הָיָ֣ה עָר֔וּם מִכֹּל֙ חַיַּ֣ת הַשָּׂדֶ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשָׂ֖ה יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהִ֑ים וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ אֶל־הָ֣אִשָּׁ֔ה אַ֚ף כִּֽי־אָמַ֣ר אֱלֹהִ֔ים לֹ֣א תֹֽאכְל֔וּ מִכֹּ֖ל עֵ֥ץ הַגָּֽן׃
Ngayon, ang ahas ay higit na tuso kaysa sa lahat ng hayop sa parang na ginawa ng Walang-Hanggang Diyos. At sinabi nito sa babae: “Talaga bang sinabi ng Diyos: Huwag kayong kakain mula sa alinmang punungkahoy sa halamanan?”
The Midrash of Philo
Why does Moses say that the serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field? (Genesis 3:1).
Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis
The entry of the Serpent (Gen. 3:1) is due to the need of some means of uniting Mind and Sense-perception for their joint apprehension of objects, and of eliciting their activities. (71 ff.)
Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis
[53] “And the two were naked, Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed.” “Now the serpent was the most subtil of all the beasts that were upon the earth, which the Lord God had made” (Gen. 2:25, 3:1). The mind that is clothed neither in vice nor in virtue, but absolutely stripped of either, is naked, just as the soul of an infant, since it is without part in either good or evil, is bared and stripped of coverings: for these are the soul’s clothes, by which it is sheltered and concealed. Goodness is the garment of the worthy soul, evil that of the worthless.