(123) But this I must needs say, that Moses has wrote very right, but the true Understanding or Meaning, out of what the Earth proceeded, remained hidden to Moses, and them that have come after him in the Letter, and the Spirit has kept it hidden to this very Time.

(81) Hence that takes its Original, that the Devil is called 'the old Serpent'; and also, that there are Adders and Serpents in this corrupted World, moreover, all Manner of Vermine, or venomous Broods of Worms, Toads, Flies, Lice, and Fleas, and all such like Things whatsoever; and from hence also tempestuous Weather of Lightening, Thundering, Flashing, and Hail-stones, take their Original in this World. Observe, [1 Rev. 12. 9.]

(6) But the Spirit in Moses means here quite another Sort of Water; which the Devil can neither understand, nor comprehend: But if it should have been declared so long a Time ago, then the Devil would have learned it from Man, and had without Doubt strowed his hellish Chaff also into it.

(3) And God cursed the serpent, and was wroth with it for ever. . . .

(45) The serpent is true to the principle of wisdom, for it tempts man to the knowledge of himself. Therefore the knowledge of self resulted from man's disobedience to the Demiurgus, Jehovah. How the serpent came to be in the garden of the Lord after God had declared that all creatures which He had made during the six days of creation were good has not been satisfactorily answered by the interpreters of Scripture. The tree that grows in the midst of the garden is the spinal fire; the knowledge of the use of that spinal fire is the gift of the great serpent. Notwithstanding statements to the contrary, the serpent is the symbol and prototype of the Universal Savior, who redeems the worlds by giving creation the knowledge of itself and the realization of good and evil. If this be not so, why did Moses raise a brazen serpent upon a cross in the wilderness that all who looked upon it might be saved from the sting of the lesser snakes? Was not the brazen serpent a prophecy of the crucified Man to come? If the serpent be only a thing of evil, why did Christ instruct His disciples to be as wise as serpents?

(2) This Description shows once more, that the dear Man Moses was not the original Author thereof; for it is very obscurely, and not fully expressed, though indeed it has a very excellent Understanding and Meaning. [See ch. 21. v. 1. 11. ch. 26. v. 122, 123. and first Apology for Balthazar Tÿlchen, Part 2. No 15.] And

(93) For Moses writes, Und es war Finsterniß auf der Tieffe. And it was Dark on the Deep. The Word (auf) on, signifies the outermost Birth or Geniture, and the Word (in) signifies the innermost Birth or Geniture. [Gen. 1.]

(78) In that Manner he also deceived our Mother Eve, saying; If she did but eat of the forbidden Tree, then she should be wise or witty, and be like God; but this Smelling or Stirring the Council likewise rejected. [Gen. 3. 5.]