Asp

The holy Scriptures, when speaking of the venom of asps, mean to convey by figure the awful nature of sin, which, like that deadly poison, hath infused itself into our whole nature. Hence Moses describes it, (Deut. xxx2: 33.) and Job, (xx. 14.) and Paul. (Rom 3: 13.) But how sweetly doth the prophet Isaiah describe, under the same figure, the application of Christ as a balsam, to cure the envenomed poison, and to render the serpent’s bite as harmless. "The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned childshall put his hand on the cockatrice den, They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." (Isa. xi. 8.)

פתן . Deu 32:33; Job 20:14; Job 20:16; Psa 58:4; Psa 91:13; Isa 11:8. A very venomous serpent, whose poison is so subtle as to kill within a few hours with a universal gangrene. This may well refer to the baeten of the Arabians, which M. Forskal describes as spotted with black and white, about one foot in length, and nearly half an inch in thickness, oviparous, and whose bite is death. It is the aspic of the ancients, and is so called now by the literati of Cyprus, though the common people call it kufi, (κουφη,) deaf. With the PETHEN we may connect the python of the Greeks, which was, according to fable, a huge serpent that had an oracle at mount Parnassus, famous for predicting future events. Apollo is said to have slain this serpent, and hence he was called “Pythius.” Those possessed with a spirit of divination were also styled Πυθωνες. The word occurs in Act 16:16, as the characteristic of a young woman who had a pythonic spirit. It is well known that the serpent was particularly employed by the Heathens in their enchantments and divinations. See SERPENT.

Pethen, פתן , is variously translated in our version; but interpreters generally consider it as referring to the asp. Zophar alludes to it more than once in his description of a wicked man: “Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.” The venom of asps is the most subtle of all; it is incurable; and, if the wounded part be not instantly amputated, it speedily terminates the existence of the sufferer. To these circumstances, Moses evidently alludes in his character of the Heathen: “Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.” To tread upon the asp is attended with extreme danger; therefore, to express in the strongest manner the safety which the godly man enjoys under the protection of his heavenly Father, it is promised, that he shall tread with impunity upon these venomous creatures. No person of his own accord approaches the hole of these deadly reptiles; for he who gives them the smallest disturbance is in extreme danger of paying the forfeit of his rashness with his life. Hence, the Prophet Isaiah, predicting the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ, and the glorious reign of peace and truth in those regions which, prior to that period, were full of horrid cruelty, marvellously heightens the force of the whole description by declaring, “The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

Hebrew Pethen, a kind of serpent, whose poison is of such rapid operation, that it kills almost the instant it penetrates, without a possibility of remedy. It is said to be very small, not more than a foot in length. Forskal supposes it to be the Baetan, or Coluber Lebetina of Linaeus; but the true asp of the ancients seems to be unknown. It is frequently mentioned by ancient writers; but in such an indefinite manner, that it is impossible to ascertain the species with precision. It is mentioned in Deu 32:33 Job 20:14,16 Psa 58:4 91:13 Isa 11:8 Jer 8:17 1Ch 8:13 . A traveler in the desert south of Judah describes it as still infested with serpents; and adds as an instance, "One day we saw in our path an asp. A foot long. Coiled up in the attitude of springing. Our Arabs killed it, saying it was exceedingly venomous."\par

Asp. (Hebrew, pethen), translated (adder) in Psa 58:4; Psa 91:13. Probably the Egyptian cobra, a small and very poisonous serpent, a dweller in the holes of walls, Isa 11:8, and a snake upon which the serpent-charmers practiced their art.

See ADDER.

(פֶּתֶן, pe’then, so called probably from extending itself, Deu 32:33; Job 20:14; Job 20:16; Isa 11:8; "adder”; Psa 57:4; Psa 91:13; ἄσπις, Rom 3:3), a venomous kind of serpent, perhaps correctly designated by this rendering, since the Chald., Syr., and Arabic equivalents appear to denote some member of the Coluber family (see Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 1140). Bochart (Hieroz. iii, 156, ed. Lips.) incorrectly refers to the Syr. name for dragon (comp. his treatise De aspide surda ad Psa 58:5, ibid. p. 161 sq.). Kitto (Pict. Bible, at Job 20:14) compares the bceten of the Arabs, called by the Cyprians kufi (κωφή, deaj; comp. Psalm lviii, 4). This reptile, which more exactly corresponds in name to the Heb., is thus described by Forskal (Descr. Anin. p. 15): " Spotted all over with black and white; a foot long, and about twice as thick as one’s thumb; oviparous; the bite instantly fatal, causing the body to swell." SEE ADDER.

The "asp" is often mentioned by ancient authors (see Smith’s Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v. Aspis), but in such vague terms (except that they agree in its extreme venom, whence it was selected by Cleopatra as the surest and speediest means of her suicide) that little can be positively determined respecting it, if indeed several species of serpent are not thus designated. From the description of Pliny, however (Hist. Nat. 8:35), naturalists have generally fixed upon the el-Haje (or Nasher, described by Forskal, Anim. p. 14) of the Arabs (Vipera Haje of Daudin) as representing the ancient asp. It is from three to five feet in length, of a dark green color, marked obliquely with bands of brown, and closely allied to the celebrated cobra-de-cal pello of India in its power of swelling the neck when irritated, and of rising on its tail in striking its prey (see Penny Cyclopcedia, s.v.). It is often figured as a sacred symbol on the Egyptian monuments under the name Kneph (Rawlinson’s Herodotus, ii, 105). SEE SERPENT.

Asp. Deu 32:33. See Serpent.

The word is pethen : it has been identified with the naja haje, a snake that has the power of expelling its deadly poison to some distance, which has caused the Dutch colonists at the Cape to call them the spitting snake. Its ’cruel venom’ is used symbolically to describe the wine of the wicked (Deu 32:33: cf. Rom 3:13), and the inward misery of those who are secretly wicked, Job 20:14; Job 20:16. In the millennium a child will play harmlessly at its hole. Isa 11:8.

ASP.—See Serpent.

Word occurring ten times in the Douay Version of the Bible, standing for four Hebrew names:

New Catholic Dictionary v1 p517

(פתן, pethen (Deu 32:33; Job 20:14, Job 20:16; Isa 11:8); ἀσπίς, aspı́s (Rom 3:13)); Any poisonous snake, or even poisonous snakes in general, would satisfy the context in all the passages cited. Pethen is also translated ADDER (which see) in Psa 58:4; Psa 91:13. Most authors have supposed the Egyptian cobra (Naia haje, L.) to be the snake meant, but while this is widely distributed throughout Africa, its occurrence in Southern Palestine seems to rest solely on the authority of Canon Tristram, who did not collect it. There are Other poisonous snakes in Palestine, any one of which would satisfy the requirements of these passages. See SERPENT. While the aspis of classical Greek literature may well have been the Egyptian cobra, it is to be noted that Vipera aspis, L., is confined to central and western Europe.

(ἀóðßò)

The Greek word occurs in the classical writings of Herodotus (iv. 191) and Aristotle (de Anim. Hist. iv. 7. 14), and generally represents the Heb. ôָúָï (pethen) in the Septuagint (pethen is translated ‘asp’ in Deu_32:33, Job_20:14; Job_20:18, and Isa_11:8, but ‘adder’ in Psa_58:4; Psa_91:13). In the NT the ‘asp’ is mentioned only once (Rom_3:13 : ‘The poison of asps [ἰὸò ἀóðßäùí] is under their lips’). Here it is introduced in a quotation from Psa_140:3 (Psa_139:4), where the Heb. word used òַëְùׁåּá (a ἅðáî ëåã. and probably corrupt, perhaps read òַëָּáִéùׁ, ‘spider’), but the Septuagint word is ἀóðßò, as in Romans. The general meaning of the passage is obvious (cf. Jam_3:8 : ‘The tongue can no man tame-a restless evil-full of deadly poison’), and the position of the poison-bag of the serpent is correctly described.

The serpent referred to is without doubt the Naja haje, or small hooded Egyptian cobra, which, though not found in the cultivated parts of Palestine, is well known in the downs and plains S. of Beersheba (cf. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 270), and frequents old walls and holes in the rocks (cf. Isa_11:8 : ‘And the sucking-child shall play on the hole of the asp’). It does not belong to the viper tribe (Viperidae) but to the Colubridae, which includes the ordinary British grass-snake. The chief peculiarities of cobras are: (a) a clearly defined neck, which they can dilate at will, and (b) the equality in size of the scales on the back with those on the other parts of the body. There are about ten different species, of which the Naja haje, or Egyptian asp, and the Naja tripudians, or Indian cobra, are the best known. The latter is the species upon which Indian snake-charmers usually practise their skill, while the Naja haje is used for this purpose in Egypt.

See also Serpent, Viper.

Literature.-H. B. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible10, London, 1911, p. 270f.: SWP [Note: WP Memoirs of Survey of Western Palestine.] vii. 146; R. Lydekker in The Concise Knowledge Natural History, 1897, p. 424; Baedeker’s Palestine and Syria5, 1912, p. lvi; W. Aldis Wright, The Bible Word-Book2, 1884, p. 50, for the use of the word; cf. also Sanday-Headlam, Romans5, 1902, p. 79; Driver, Deuteronomy2, 1896, p. 372; Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) , vol. iv. p. 459; Encyclopaedia Biblica , vol. iv. col. 4394; Murray’s Dict. of the Bible , p. 67; Hastings’ Single-vol. Dictionary of the Bible , p. 837.

P. S. P. Handcock.

Deu 32:33 (a) The effect of liquor on the soul is compared to the poison that comes from the bite of the serpent. It contaminates the blood, it affects every part of the body, it ends in death.

Job 20:14 (a) The feeling expressed by Job caused his friends to say that he was feeding from the poison that comes from the snake. Job was considering and meditating in his heart the things that were bitter, harsh and evil in his life.

Rom 3:13 (b) This refers to the teaching and the ministry of false religious teachers whose doctrines are of the Devil. The messages which come from their mouths are as poison and they damage those who hear them. (See also Mat 3:7).

See Snake

A poisonous snake mentioned in the Bible. Most biblical references to the asp seem to be to the Egyptian cobra (Naja haje), as in Deuteronomy 32:33. It hides in holes, walls, and rocks. It can expand its neck by raising its front ribs, making its breast flat and disc-shaped. Its potent poison can cause death in 30 minutes. It grows to about two meters (80 inches) long. The fangs are always raised, unlike vipers, which are common in North America. Only the coral snake in America has fangs that are always raised. Cobra poison attacks the nervous system, causing the muscles to become paralyzed.

The Egyptians considered the asp sacred. They viewed it as a protector since it fed on the rodents that ate their crops. The “venomous snakes” in Numbers 21:6 and Deuteronomy 8:15 may have been cobras. The flying serpent in Isaiah 14:29 and 30:6 may refer to the hood of the cobra.

See also Snake.

Aquifer Open Bible Dictionary © 2026 Mission Mutual, an adaptation of the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.