Adam Eve - the tempting Serpent

You all know the story well, so I guess nothing to say on the scene.

...except that in my art I wanted to point out the beauty of Adam, who was the first man created by God and the most handsome and most beautiful of all. According to Hebrew tradition Adam was even better looking than Eve, thus Babylonian Talmud says: "Compared with Adam, Eve was like a monkey to a human being." I mean she could be a cute monkey hehe, okay, I paid attention to Adam, making him look rather feminine, and of course, prettier than Eve.

In explaining the various views concerning Eve's creation, it's said that Adam was created as a man-woman (androgynous), that is to say that the original man was neither man nor woman. 

And couple of words about  the serpent who is a deceptive creature or trickster, who is - Satan or Lucifer. Here's the tie-up between the serpent of Genesis and Satan given in Revelation 12:9 and 20:2: 

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world’

Also, Lucifer is the eldest and first angel who was most beautiful of all, and his beauty was the reason of his fall. He was distracted from the beauty of the Lord when he considered his own beauty (both inner and outward). 

That's why Satan is also most likely to be looking very handsome and beautiful, as he is the master deceiver and liar, coming as an angel of light, he appears as a beautiful, tempting, creature – not ugly or repulsive. 

Here's an interesting excerpt from the book "Discovery: God's Answers to Our Deepest Questions : a Bible Study" by Will Wyatt:

Satan: The First Rebel

Adam and Eve were not the first to reject God's provision. They followed the advice of the first rebel, Satan. In Ezekiel 28, which speaks of Satan, we see the motive for rebellion. 

"You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created . . . "(12-13).

We all wish we could be perfect. As beautiful as some people are, almost everyone. at times, wishes God had done a little better job creating them. We wish for a little more here, a little less there. Sometimes we have a hard time accepting God's choice for our personality, talents, or appearance. In contrast, Satan was perfect in his beauty. This is what happened to this beautiful creation of God:

"You were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; . . . Your heart was lift-ed up because of your beauty [pride); you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor" (Ezekiel 28:16-17).

Satan's perfection went to his head. He took credit for the beauty God had given him. Notice that outside influences were not the cause of Satan's pride; he was internally prideful and violent. We see Satan's proud boasting in Isaiah 14:13-14 (Ts):

"I will ascend to heaven and rule the angels. I will take the highest throne. I will preside on the Mount of Assembly far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High". 

Satan was created to reflect the glory and beauty of God. Among the precious stones that covered Satan were diamonds. When held in the light, a diamond will reflect every color of the rainbow. But if we hold a diamond in our cupped hand to shut off the light, it loses its beauty. The beauty of all the stones that covered Satan depended on light flowing through them. In darkness, they were dull and drab. Satan had the wonderful opportunity to reflect God's glory and beauty. Instead, he deceived himself into believing he was beautiful within himself and would not give God the honor for his creation. He wanted to be just like God, even to ascend to a greater height and sit above Him. Satan was not willing to be a reflector of God; he wanted to be above god.

That's the reason why I depicted the Serpent not stereotypically as everyone depicts the Devil being ugly, but  being the most beautiful being created by God.