“Serpentine” Eve in Syriac Christian Literature of Late Antiquity

P. 92–114.

Minov S.

My primary goal in what follows would be to analyze the cluster of exegetical and rhetorical motifs containing “serpentine” imagery of Eve that appear in the works of Syriac authors. While speaking about “serpentine” traditions on Eve, I will focus my attention mainly on these two topics – explicit or implicit etymological connections between her name and the Aramaic word for “serpent”, and traditions about Eve falling in love or having sexual intercourse with the serpent. First of all, I shall provide a review of the “serpentine” Eve material in ancient Jewish and non-Syriac Christian sources. Afterward, I will deal in details with the question of “serpentine” Eve in Syriac Christian tradition.

Keywords: women, Syriac christianity

In book

With Letters of Light: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Jewish Apocalypticism, Magic, and Mysticism in Honor of Rachel Elior (Ekstasis 2)

Arbel D., Orlov A. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010.