Q: But would a talking serpent have surprised Eve?
A: Some believe Eve’s lack of surprise is an indication that the
serpent itself had the ability to speak. However, Genesis 3 gives no specific explanation for the serpent’s ability to speak, other than it was “crafty.” There is no clear indication in the early chapters of Genesis that animals had the ability to speak. While some animals today can mimic human speech (African grey parrots; beluga and orca whales), there is no animal that can speak in the sense of creating complex abstract language.
Q: Why is it that man can speak but animals cannot?
A: In creation week, God not only spoke creation into existence but He spoke to Adam and Eve who were made in his image (Genesis 1:26–27, 2:16–17).
As an image bearer of God, Adam had the ability to speak; he named the animals and thereby exercised his dominion over them (Genesis 2:20). In naming the animals, Adam showed how different he was from them as the animals could not name themselves. This is because animals were not made in the image of God, and unlike Adam, they did not have the ability to speak.
This is why Old Testament scholar E. J. Young states,
"The actions of the serpent, however, constitute a denial that God has made him. The serpent speaks; it does what animals cannot do. Only man, of earthly creatures, possesses the ability to speak. Yet the serpent acts as a man; it raises itself above the beasts of the field which the Lord God had made and it elevates itself to an equality with man. There is something wrong and Eve should have recognized this as soon as the serpent began to speak."
The very clear distinction between man and the animals shows that a speaking serpent is strange in the context of the creation account. The Bible doesn’t say how Eve reacted when she heard the serpent, but to us, it’s a signal that something strange is going on. And the fact that the serpent immediately attacks God’s Word tells us that Satan is behind the serpent’s speech."
AIG
