How Can Christians Believe That A Serpent Spoke—They Don’t Have The Phonetic Ability To Do So?
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, January 22, 2026 (Donate)
For over twenty-five years, I have heard this common
allegation raised against the book of Genesis. Over time, I have refined my
response to this objection, and today my answer has become quite simple. I
respond with a question:
How do you know the phonetic
ability of the serpent before the curse and before its physical changes?
People may attempt to answer, but the reality is that they don’t know. Their objection collapses at that point. The claim assumes knowledge that can’t be possessed, and therefore commits a contrary-to-fact conditional error fallacy. They assume something as factual that is unknowable and then build conclusions on that false assumption. The argument refutes itself.
Many secular critics become fixated on the idea of a serpent
speaking to the woman in the Garden of Eden. They speak against the
account saying, animals don’t speak while assuming that humans are
animals that speak. The irony is difficult to miss.
If humans, as animals according to their worldview, can
speak, why is it automatically impossible for another creature to have had
phonetic ability prior to the curse? I’m not a secularist. Thus, I have no
problem trusting what God reveals in Scripture. If God tells us that a serpent
spoke, I receive that testimony as the absolute truth.
I have often wondered whether critics would find the account
more acceptable if Genesis [had theoretically] described a parrot
speaking in the Garden. After all, parrots clearly demonstrate the ability to
reproduce human speech sounds.
Many would likely concede that this would be “more
plausible”. Yet that concession reveals the real issue. If some animals can
produce speech-like sounds today, then it’s not inherently impossible that the
serpent originally possessed such an ability.
The Curse: Physical And Spiritual
Scripture tells us that the serpent was cursed and
physically altered (Genesis 3:14). It was brought low, condemned to crawl on
its belly, and its feeding behavior was changed. This implies a redesign of its
body structure, including its throat and mouth system, such that it now eats
dust. This description fits well with what we observe today in snakes,
including structures such as the Jacobson’s organ.
The Bible itself points to a change
in design in Genesis 3, meaning the serpent’s original condition was not
the same as what we observe now. Other animals were also affected by the curse,
though Scripture does not provide all the details.
Plants, too, underwent cursed
changes. Thorns and thistles appeared, and some fruits became inedible or
even deadly. The whole creation was fundamentally altered as a result of man’s
sin (Romans 8:22).
Of course, a mere animal (i.e., in the proper sense “dumb”)
does not possess the intellect to carry out a cunning moral deception. That is
where a fallen Satan’s involvement comes in. The serpent was the
instrument, but the intelligence behind the deception was Satan himself.
Genesis 3:14 records the curse on the physical serpent,
while Genesis 3:15 foretells the ultimate defeat of a spiritual Satan (crushing
the head of the serpent). God was not unaware of Satan’s role in the event. In
the same way Jesus was no unaware of Satan’s influence on Peter at one point (Mark
8:33).
The conflict described in Genesis 3:15 is between the seed
of the woman, ultimately fulfilled in Christ, and the seed of the serpent.
Because John the Baptist and Jesus both called out the Pharisees as a “brood of
vipers” or “serpents” meaning offspring of the serpent or seed of the
serpent (e.g., Matthew 3:7, 23:33). Christ’s resurrection was the victory,
crushing the head of the serpent, Satan, the great dragon (Revelation 12:9),
and sealing his final defeat reserved for Hell eternally.
Is the viper a remnant of the cursed serpent? That is
a reasonable possibility. Out of all snakes—this one not a good idea for a pet!
It is vicious.
It may be that a snake-like body plan existed in the
original creation, but that this specific serpent, or perhaps its broader
kind, underwent changes that resulted in a similar form. Did the serpent originally have legs? These are fair and thoughtful questions.
Conclusion
While the Bible does not spell out every anatomical feature,
it provides enough information to conclude that the serpent was not always what
it is today. The original objection fails not because every detail is revealed,
but because the critics assume facts they cannot know and reject the testimony
of Scripture without justification.
Yet the Bible gives enough information about the curse to
the serpent to know that any original phonetic ability has been lost and
changed.
Bodie Hodge, Ken
Ham's son in law, has been an apologist since 1998 helping out in various
churches and running an apologetics website. He spent 21 years working at Answers
in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding
news anchor for Answers News. He was also head of the Oversight
Council.
Bodie
launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal
website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken
on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
Mr. Hodge earned a
Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale (SIUC). Then he taught at SIUC for a couple of years as a
Visiting Instructor teaching all levels of undergraduate engineering and
running a materials lab and a CAD lab. He did research on advanced ceramic
materials to develop a new method of production of titanium diboride with a
grant from Lockheed Martin. He worked as a Test Engineer for Caterpillar,
Inc., prior to entering full-time ministry.
His love of science
was coupled with a love of history, philosophy, and theology. For about one
year of his life, Bodie was editing and updating a theological, historical, and
scientific dictionary/encyclopedia for AI use and training. Mr. Hodge has over
25 years of experience in writing, speaking and researching in these fields.
