Serpent seed

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"Serpent seed" is a term for the belief that Satan had sexual intercourse with Eve, and that Cain was the offspring of the union. Proponents include William M. Branham, the Pastor Arnold Murray, and Sherry Shriner, amongst others. Arnold Murray further believes that the descendants of Cain are the Kenites. Advocates suggest that modern Christian translations of the Old Testament reduce emphasis on this concept.

The serpent's seed, though not this specific belief, appears in Genesis 3:15, which in one translation states "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Most Christians and Jews do not believe the serpent seed doctrine since Genesis 4:1 states "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD."

A variation of this belief is central to the beliefs of Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists founded by Daniel Parker. Other variations of this belief occur in the Unification Church ('Moonies') and the Christian Identity movement. Some of these groups appear to use the doctrine as a rationalization for racist beliefs.

1 William Branham's teachings
2 Serpent seed belief in fiction
3 References
4 See also

[edit] William Branham's teachings

William Branham was not the first to preach this doctrine, but because his teachings on this doctrine are well documented, they are presented in summary here. William Branham taught that the fall of mankind resulted from Eve having sexual intercourse with an upright 'Serpent'* [1]. From this relationship, Cain was conceived and produced as a man/serpent hybrid. While from a scientific perspective, it is unusual to have interspecies hybrids that are fertile, it is not impossible as evidenced by animals such as the Beefalo/cattalo (a cross of an American Bison and a domestic European cow) and the Wolphin (a cross between a False Killer Whale and a Bottlenose Dolphin). The result of these interspecies cross-breeds is that they produce an offspring that has to breed back into one of its parental lineages. This would mean that Cain's children would have come through Adam's daughters, and the evidence of any difference between Adam and Cain's lineages would have been diluted with each successive generation.

William Branham was well aware of the potential racist connections of the doctrine but tried not to carry any of these racist interpretations into his teachings ('He Cares, Do You Care?', 21 July 1963).

William Branham supported the doctrine of the serpent seed with rationale from various scriptures including:

Genesis 3:1 [2] - The serpent was the most intelligent of all the beasts and could talk which lends support for the contention that the serpent was the 'missing link' in the creation, between apes and man.
Genesis 3:6b,7a [3] - the result of partaking of the 'fruit' was a knowledge that they were naked, a reference to the sexual nature of the sin.
Genesis 3:13 [4] - Eve’s claim that the serpent had 'seduced' her. The term ‘beguiled’ in the King James Version meant 'sexually seduced’ or ‘defiled’ rather than ‘deceived’ (which most contemporary translations give). The original Hebrew word is ‘nasha’ ("naw-shaw") which literally means to lead astray or to mentally delude, or to morally seduce.
Genesis 3:14 [5] - The serpent was previously an upright being and only became a 'snake' after it was cursed by God.
Genesis 3:16 [6] - The woman was cursed in childbearing; a punishment befitting the 'crime' (being sexual in nature)
Genesis 4:1,2a [7] - The failure of the Bible to refer to Adam 'knowing' his wife again before the birth of Abel meant that Cain and Able were twins. This was made possible through the process of heteropaternal superfecundation where the mother ovulates more than one egg and has more than one partner during her fertile period. One egg is fertilized with sperm from one partner, and the other egg from sperm of the second partner. Hence, Rev. Branham contended that Cain was the son (or seed) of the serpent and Abel was the son of Adam.
Genesis 4:25 [8] - Eve does not credit Adam with the fatherhood of Cain. She does not say God had given her another seed; that would have been Christ, for He was given. This son, Seth, was appointed instead of Abel. She recognizes her son that came by Adam; she does not recognize Cain for he came by the serpent. When she says “another seed instead of Abel”, she is saying that Cain was different from Abel, for if they were of the same father she would have had to say, "I have been given some more seed."
Proverbs 30:20 [9] - a unrelated Biblical comparison of the act of sexual intercourse to the act of eating. This provides support for the partaking of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil as an allegory for sexual intercourse.
John 1:13 [10] - Rev. Branham asserted that Cain and his descendants showed the characteristics of Satan, which were not shown by Abel, Seth and his descendants.# 2 Corinthians 11:2b,3 [11] - St. Paul is referring to the church and Eve in terms of chastity. A woman could be a thief, shoplifter, liar, or any one of many things and still be a virgin; but a loss of virginity can only come through sexual intercourse. Rev. Branham held that just as Satan, through the serpent, used perverted seed to create a perverted life (Cain); so Satan now seeks to pervert the Word of God to destroy the virginity of the Bride of Christ (the Church).
Rev. Branham held that there is no Biblical indication that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a physical tree or that its fruit was physical fruit. Similarly, the tree of life was not a physical tree but rather is an allegory of Christ both in the three times in Genesis (Genesis 2:9 [12], 3:22& 24 [13]) and in the three times it is referred to in the book of Revelation (Rev. 2:7 [14], 22:2 [15], 22:14 [16]). This assertion was also referenced to John 6:53-57 [17] where Christ invited his disciples to eat His flesh and drink His blood.
Jude 1:14 [18] - Rev. Branham noted that Cain was excluded from Adam's physical lineage, inferring that Cain was not of that lineage.

In spite of William Branham's statements that God does not consider nationality in his plan of grace and salvation, Branham's critics refuse to separate his teachings from racist origins. Branham critics also claim that he taught that a person's lineage could prevent them receiving salvation regardless of how sincere their faith was.

Critics also point to Genesis 4:1 [19] as denying that Cain was of the serpent because Eve states that Cain was "from the Lord". However, Rev. Branham was of the view that since all life comes from God, Eve's statement in itself does not discount the serpent seed doctrine. He was of the view that people follow the nature of their parents. Adam was a son of God and Eve, a daughter of God. The creation of God could not have any evil in it. Why then was Cain a liar and a murderer? Where did that nature come from when Adam's son, Abel, was born, he was a gentle, sweet, humble, meek person like Adam? It could also be added that Jesus told the pharasees that they where of their father the devil see below. JOHN 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

[edit] Serpent seed belief in fiction

The belief has turned up in some works of fiction, such as The Illuminatus! Trilogy. In it, a character mentions in a memo pertaining to unusual conspiracy theories:

"Does Mr. Capote know that the Illuminati (according to sacred Birch doctrine) began in the Garden of Eden when Eve made it with the snake and gave birth to Cain? That all the descendants of snake-man Cain belong to a super-secret group known as the Illuminati, dedicated to absolutely nothing but the meanest low down evil imagined in the Satanic mind of man?"

The detective who discovers the memo doesn't believe that conspiracy, but instead believes there is a conspiracy of "[f]eeding him balderdash like that stuff about the Illuminati coming from the planet Vulcan or being descended from Eve and the Serpent."