Chronological timeline of texts tagged with Universal Animal Speech
About This Tag
Many Second Temple Jewish texts suggest that the snake in the Garden of Eden could speak not because it was unique or supernatural, but because all animals were originally able to speak the same universal language as humans. The idea appears in works like Jubilees, Philo, and Josephus, which describe a time before the loss of animal speech.
Note: Dates shown in this timeline are approximate and based on scholarly estimates.
Back to TagGenesis 3:1 / LXX Genesis 3:1
5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition)
Genesis 3:1
Hebrew Bible
1 Now the serpent was shrewder than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard; 3 but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.’”
3rd Century B.C.E.
LXX Genesis 3:1
Septuagint
1 And the two were naked, both Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed. Now the snake was the wisest of all the wild animals that were upon the earth, which the Lord God had made. And the snake said to the woman, “Why is it that God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree that is in the orchard’?” 2 And the woman said to the snake, “We shall eat of the fruit of the tree of the orchard, 3 but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard, God said, ‘You shall not eat of it nor shall you even touch it, lest you die.’“
150-100 B.C.E.
Jubilees 3:28
Pseudepigrapha
27 On that day, as he was leaving the Garden of Eden, he burned incense as a pleasing fragrance — frankincense, galbanum, stacte, and aromatic spices — in the early morning when the sun rose at the time when he covered his shame. 28 On that day the mouths of all the animals, the cattle, the birds, everything that walks and everything that moves about were made incapable of speaking because all of them used to converse with one another in one language and one tongue. 29 He dismissed from the Garden of Eden all the animate beings that were in the Garden of Eden. All animate beings were dispersed — each by its kind and each by its nature — into the places which had been created for them. 30 But of all the animals and cattle he permitted Adam alone to cover his shame.
93-94 C.E.
Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 1.40
Classical
4 God therefore commanded that Adam and his wife could eat from all the rest of the plants, but should avoid the Tree of Knowledge; and foretold that if they touched it, it would lead to their destruction. But while all the living creatures had one language at that time, the serpent, which then lived together with Adam and his wife, showed an envious disposition at his assumption of their living happily and in obedience to God’s commands. And thinking that if they disobeyed them, they would fall into misery, he persuaded the woman, out of a malicious intention, to taste of the Tree of Knowledge, telling them that in that tree was the Knowledge of Good and Evil; and that when they obtained it, they would lead a happy life, indeed a life not inferior to that of a God.
150-100 B.C.E.
Jubilees 3:28
Pseudepigrapha
27 On that day, as he was leaving the Garden of Eden, he burned incense as a pleasing fragrance — frankincense, galbanum, stacte, and aromatic spices — in the early morning when the sun rose at the time when he covered his shame. 28 On that day the mouths of all the animals, the cattle, the birds, everything that walks and everything that moves about were made incapable of speaking because all of them used to converse with one another in one language and one tongue. 29 He dismissed from the Garden of Eden all the animate beings that were in the Garden of Eden. All animate beings were dispersed — each by its kind and each by its nature — into the places which had been created for them. 30 But of all the animals and cattle he permitted Adam alone to cover his shame.
20-50 C.E.
Philo On the Creation 156
Classical
Therefore, having laid down these to be boundaries as it were in the soul, God then, like a judge, began to consider to which side men would be most inclined by nature. And when he saw that the disposition of man had a tendency to wickedness, and was but little inclined to holiness or piety, by which qualities an immortal life is secured, he drove them forth as was very natural, and banished him from paradise; giving no hope of any subsequent restoration to his soul which had sinned in such a desperate and irremediable manner. Since even the opportunity of deceit was blameable in no slight degree, which I must not pass over in this place. It is said that the old poisonous and earthborn reptile, the serpent, uttered the voice of a man. And he on one occasion coming to the wife of the first created man, reproached her with her slowness and her excessive prudence, because she delayed and hesitated to gather the fruit which was completely beautiful to look at, and exceedingly sweet to enjoy, and was, moreover, most useful as being a means by which men might be able to distinguish between good an evil. And she, without any inquiry, prompted by an unstable and rash mind, acquiesced in his advice, and ate of the fruit, and gave a portion of it to her husband. And this conduct suddenly changed both of them from innocence and simplicity of character to all kinds of wickedness; at which the Father of all was indignant. For their actions deserved his anger, inasmuch as they, passing by the tree of eternal life, the tree which might have endowed them with perfection of virtue, and by means of which they might have enjoyed a long and happy life, preferred a brief and mortal (I will not call it life, but) time full of unhappiness; and, accordingly, he appointed them such punishment as was befitting.