MATTHEW 10:16

Q:  Is Jesus really telling them to act like serpents? I thought that serpents in the Bible were always a symbol of evil.

We have to be careful in interpreting the images given in the Bible since sometimes the same image (such as “white”) can be used to represent things both good and bad. The one popular attribute of serpents in biblical thought is their cleverness (see Genesis 3:1), and at one point in the wilderness God actually told Moses to make an image of a snake that would heal the people. The two key words in this passage have been translated in various ways:

Wise = prudent = clever = shrewd = cautious = wary of danger

Innocent = candid = pure in intention

There is a similar rabbinical saying about the Israelites: “Toward God they are as sincere as doves, but towards the Gentiles they are prudent as serpents.” There is a basic recognition that we live in a fallen world among fallen people.

One commentator has noted, “Shrewdness alone produces evil and simplicity results in gullibility. But together they produce the spirit which enabled the early Christians successfully to storm citadels of sin...This crucial combination is not often found in the Christian church. In fact, we more often invert the two, proving to be as guilty as serpents and as stupid as doves.” At one church I attended, many of the elders were very successful in an earthly sense and rather shrewd in earning money, but at the same time, they often fell for all sorts of dubious spiritual teachings by not taking the time to investigate them thoroughly.