Emperor Michael II. Balbus (820829), with a glance at the "shameful" deeds of the Emperor Ctinstantine Copronymus (751-774). The history was marked by simplicity, clearness, and beauty of exposition. Unfortunately the work is utterly lost. The title of confessor indicates that the bearer was a champion of images in the controversy over the subject (see IMAGES AND IMAGE WORSHIP, II.), and, as applied by Photius to this man, tends to identify the latter with the confessor of that name celebrated May 13 in the Greek Church, who was exiled under Leo III. (813-820) and seems to have died during the reign of Theophilus (829-842). (G. KItUGEIi.)

BiBLioaaAP87: Nikodemus Hagiorites, Synaxariatts tan d& deka meson tos aniautou, iii. 37, Zanthe, 1888; HL, ii.

193; Basil, Menolopium, MPG, cxvii. 454; Ceillier, As kwa aacrbs, ni. 428.

Bia1,i0aaAPHY: Krumbaeher. GeachieUe, pp. 871-872; DCB, iv. 817-618.

L In the Bibla: In the Old and New Testaments

ten (or eleven) words or expressions are found

which in the English versions are rendered by

" serpent " or some equivalent (note that $ipyoz,

Tsa. xxxiv. 15, is by some rendered

:. Names " serpent " rather than " owl," refer

and Con- once being made to the Arabic Offaz,

captions. kaffaza as favoring this meaning),

though in but few ewes can identifica

tion of the species be made. The number of terms

employed is not coextensive with the number of

species of serpents found in Palestine and the neigh

boring regions, of which thirty-three are known.

Of these several are poisonous, including the Egyp

tian cobra, the horned viper, and the sand viper.

In the Bible many of the notions concerning the

reptile appear which are common to most early

peoples, including some of those pertaining to

mythology. Its traits are described and its names

or epithets are applied, in prose and poetry, to tribes,

classes, individuals, and personifications. Thus

it is a aubtile beast, more cunning than any other

(Gen. iii. 1); Dan (the tribe) is a (treacherous and

dangerous) serpent in the way, a (biting) adder in

the path (Gen. xlix. 17); the wicked secrete and in

fuse a poison like that o£ the serpent and are not

subject to charms which prevent their doing harm

(Ps. lviii. 4); so scribes and Pharisees (Matt. xxiii.

33), Pharisees and Sadduceea (Matt. iii. 7), and

Pharisees alone (Matt. xii. 34) are called serpents and

offspring of vipers; wickedness, even though

crushed, engenders a serpent as does a serpent's

egg (Isa. lix. 5); and the effects of wine are like a

serpent's bite or the sting of an adder; the disciples

of Jesus Christ are to be so immune from harm that

they may take up or tread upon serpents without

injury to themselves (Mark xvi. 18; Luke x. 19;

of. Acts xxviii. 3); the serpent's habit of lurking in

walls is referred to, so that he who would trespass

(Eccles. x. 8) or carelessly leans on the wall (Amos v. 19) is bitten; the serpent's method of locomotion is one of mystery and wonder (Prov. xxx. 19) ; it is one of the creatures of Hebrew mythology, Leviathan being the swift or gliding or crooked serpent (Job agvi. 13; Tsa. xxvii. 1); and in Revelation Satan, the devil, is a serpent (iii. 9, xx. 2), and as a dragon or serpent he figures in apocalyptic events (xii. 1415). In Gen. iii. (J; embodying primitive conceptions) the serpent is a sentient creature endowed with speech, contradicting the utterance of Yahweh, and leading man to disobedience. It is conceived as once having had a different means of locomotion, its present method being a punishment for its part in the fall (verse 14; interesting in this relation are the conceptions of the winged serpent-see below IV., J 2-and the four-footed reptile, as well as of the dragon, which combines both features). The hostility that has become instinctive between the race of man and that of the serpent is also traced to this cause, and it is noteworthy that in accordance with the assumed former parity in intercourse there appears in verse 1 no shrinking of the woman from the serpent as it approaches to accomplish its purpose. Similarly in verse 14 there is expressed a quite common primitive idea that dust is the serpent's food. The exegesis which sees Satan in this living thing is read into the passage in the light of a much later and more highly developed demonology (cf. Rev. xii. 9, xx. 2), for the conception of the serpent here is that of an animal only.

What little the purified Hebrew mythology has to say of the serpent is doubtless to be explained on the basis of common Semitic notions regarding the animal. The mythological references in the Old Testament are 'few: Job iii. 8 (R. V. and A. V. margin) and xxvi. 13, by most commentators referred to the dragon which enfolds the sun in its coils (a common oriental explanation of the sun's