Introduction

A few weeks ago, I was listening to a Bible ‘space’ discussion on Twitter. The discussions were really interesting and mostly on point with what the Scriptures teach.

However, near the end of the discussion, the host made an incredible declaration. He said he believed that ‘Satan actually had a sexual relationship with Eve before Eve had sexual relations with Adam’.

I must admit, I had never heard of this theory before and after some research, I found that it is very popular in some religious circles, although there are varying views.

The idea as suggested above implies that Satan had sexual relations with Eve and then Eve went on to have sexual relations with Adam. They suggest that Satan, who was masquerading as an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11:14, actually had sexual relations with Eve and as a result, Satan was the actual father of Cain, while Adam was the father of Abel.

In fact, this theory suggests that the ‘forbidden fruit’ is actually referring to sexual intercourse. In other words, when Eve ate from the tree, her ‘eyes were opened’, Genesis 3:7, and she shared her new knowledge of sex with Adam. After receiving this knowledge, they both became sexually active and began to produce children.

The Proof Text

‘And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.’ Genesis 3:13 KJV

When I was listening to the host on Twitter’s ‘spaces’, someone asked him where his proof was for making such a claim, and his response was one word.

The word ‘beguiled,’ is found in the above text from the KJV. The Hebrew word used here is the word, ‘nasha’ and its definition is as follows, 1. to lead astray. 2. (mentally) to delude. 3. (morally) to seduce.

The serpent seed theory claims that the third definition, ‘seduce’, implies that Satan had sexual relations with Eve. In other words, now that Eve has knowledge about sex, she was easily ‘seduced’ by Satan to have sexual relations with him.

However, most other translations translate the word ‘nasha’ as ‘deceived’. None of them use the word ‘seduced’ or even imply anything to do with sexual relations.

The word ‘beguiled’ only appears five times throughout Scripture, Genesis 29:25 / Numbers 25:18 / Joshua 9:22 / 2 Corinthians 11:3. If you take a moment to read the text of each of these passages, you will notice that every time it is used, it is defined as charm, enchant, deceive, or trick.

In the context of Genesis 3, Eve is simply saying that Satan charmed her, enchanted her, deceived her, or tricked her into eating the fruit from the tree. There is nothing in the text to even suggest that Satan seduced her sexually.

The Serpent Seed

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15

This theory is often called the ‘serpent seed theory’, and they claim that Cain was the fulfilment of Genesis 3:15 where God prophesies that there will be enmity between the ‘seed’ ‘offspring’ of the woman and the ‘seed’ ‘offspring’ of Satan.

They believe that Satan was Cain’s father and since Cain was a murderer, Genesis 4:8, and since all of Cain’s descendants are called Kenites, Genesis 15:18-21, then even to this day, his descendants still wander around the world as unbelievers. All the evil in the world today is because of the descendants of Cain, that is, the ‘seed’ ‘offspring’ of Cain.

Genesis 3:15 is not referring to Cain, it is speaking about Christ. This is the first reference to Christ and Paul’s reference to the crushing of Satan surely refers to this first prophecy of the future work of Jesus to rectify what was lost in the garden in Eden, Romans 16:20.

The curse was that there would be hostility between the offspring of Satan, Matthew 13:38-39 / John 8:44, and the eventual offspring of woman, the Redeemer.

Nevertheless, the Seed of woman, Jesus, would eventually crush the head of Satan through His death on the cross, and so, freeing man from the control that Satan has over man through sin.

In the Scriptures, when the writers explain how sin began in the world, they always blame it on Adam, not Cain, Genesis 3:17-19 / Romans 5:12-14 / 1 Corinthians 15:22 / 1 Timothy 2:14.

Stating The Obvious

Sometimes when it comes to theologies like this, we need to state the obvious. Everyone knows that Satan is an fallen angel, Isaiah 14:12-17 / Ezekiel 28:11-19 / 2 Corinthians 11:14-15.

Angels are without sexual orientation which implies that they aren’t male and female. Angels do not have physical bodies, which are needed for the procreation of human children, Matthew 22:30.

Even when the New Testament speaks of angels leaving their proper place, 2 Peter 2:4 / Jude 6, it refers to their fall with Satan, not to cohabitation with women.

Conclusion

When John called people children of the devil, 1 John 3:10-13, he wasn’t talking about his biological parentage, but children in some other spiritual way.

When Jesus called people children of the devil, John 8:43-47, he didn’t mean children of the devil biologically, but children in some other spiritual way.

To believe that Satan had sexual relations with Eve, and to believe that Cain was Satan’s son, goes against what the Scriptures actually teach concerning Adam being Cain’s father.

Some might say, ‘the Bible doesn’t specifically says that Adam was Cain’s father’, however the Bible nowhere specifically says that the devil was Cain’s father either. In fact, nowhere does the Bible even mention that Satan and sexual relations with Eve.

The Scriptures clearly teach that Adam lay with his wife, and she became pregnant, and she gave birth to Cain, Genesis 4:1. What else can lay with his wife and she became pregnant mean? It clearly implies that Adam was Cain’s father and Eve was the mother of Cain and Abel, Genesis 4:2.

To believe that evil came into the world because Eve had sexual relations with Satan goes against what the Scriptures actually teach. The Scriptures clearly teach that evil entered into the world because Eve ate from the tree, Genesis 3:6.

When it comes to any theory, there is always the danger of reading something into the text which simply is not there. There is always a danger of going beyond what is written, 1 Corinthians 4:6, to make Scripture mean something that it does not actually mean.

As always, we must be incredibly careful to listen to what people actually teach so that we can study the topic for ourselves, and put their theories to the test, Acts 17:11 / 2 Timothy 2:15.