Q: Does the fact that God says to the serpent “on your belly you
shall go” indicate that the serpent originally walked on legs?
A: Many believe the curse on the serpent “on your belly you shall go” is symbolic, as the rest of the verse states “and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.” Since serpents do not literally eat dust, the curse is not speaking about a physical change in the serpent but is a way of stressing the humiliation of the serpent (Isaiah 65:25; Micah 7:17).
Later in Biblical history, a creature that goes on its belly was seen as unclean (Leviticus 11:42). As part of the same curse against the serpent, Genesis 3:15 also uses symbolic language (“he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel”), which the Lord Jesus fulfills when he defeated Satan through his death on the cross (1 John 3:8).
Nevertheless, the words of Genesis 3:14 containing a symbolic meaning does not necessarily mean that the punishment did not alter the serpent physically. As part of God’s judgment, a physical change took place to the ground so that it becomes more difficult to plant (Genesis 3:17), a physical change took place in plants so that they produced thorns (Genesis 3:18), and a physical change took place with Adam as he would return to the dust of the ground and physical death would come into the world (Genesis 3:19; Romans 5:12). Since these physical changes were part of God’s judgment, it is possible that the serpent also went through a physical change: being reduced to crawling on its belly."
AIG
