Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

here," he countered, suddenly feeling bolder, "because if I'm right, you'll have more toworry about than apologizing for Darwin.""I for one have always wondered about that," said Neil. Deidre acknowledged thesame. The Colonel was silent."The answer is that she wasn't surprised because she didn't speak to a serpent—she was speaking to a nachash.""What do you mean?" asked Neil, confused by the statement. "Are you denyingthe story?""Far from it. The word translated `serpent' in Genesis 3 is nachash. It's a fairlycommon word, and can, of course, be translated `snake.' It also has three other meaningsin the Hebrew Bible. A nachash can be someone who practices divination, or can refer toshining brass. As a verb, however, the word often means `to shine, gleam,' as you'd guessfrom the reference to brass. Daniel 10:13 describes the prophet being visited by aheavenly being whose body shone like brass.""I think I know where this is going," Melissa murmured, al-though this time therewas no hint of sarcasm in her voice. Brian could tell by her expression that she wasinterested in what he had to say. She quickly looked away."Anyway, nachash in Genesis 3 can just as well be under-stood as a substantiveparticiple.""A what?" Mark asked."Sony for the grammar—let's just say the form there can be a verbal used as anoun.""Oh. That's helpful.""Sony again," Brian picked up his thought. "What I mean to say is that the wordnachash can be translated as"—"The Shining One," Melissa finished his sentence, a disturbed look creasing herface.185