Serpent seed

==History==
===Early teachings===
[[Valentinus (Gnostic)|Valentinus]] (100–160) promoted a doctrine which is similar to the serpent seed doctrine because it states that Eve mated with the serpent and produced Cain. In his teaching, the serpent was the manifestation of an [[aeon]] named Sophia who seduced Eve. The teachings of Valentinus were compiled in the Gnostic [[Gospel of Philip]] ({{circa|350}}) where the idea that Eve mated with the serpent, or [[Satan]], and produced Cain, finds its earliest expression. A similar account is recorded in the Gnostic [[Apocryphon of John]] which was authored by the [[Sethians]] ({{circa|180}}).<ref>Byron, p. 18</ref>

{{blockquote
|text=First [[adultery]] came into being, afterward [[murder]]. And he (Cain) was begotten in adultery, for he was the child of the serpent. So he became a murderer, just like his father, and he killed his brother. Indeed, every act of sexual intercourse which has occurred between those who are unlike one another is an act of adultery.
|source=Gospel of Philip 61:5-10
}}

[[Irenaeus]] recorded a portion of the teaching and denounced it as heresy in his book ''Against Heresies''.<ref name="autogeneratedix"/> Explaining and commenting on the teachings of Valentinus, Irenaeus states:

{{blockquote|text= [They] cunningly devised a scheme to seduce Eve and Adam, by means of the serpent ... this one (Eve) sinned by committing adultery ... Such are the opinions which prevail among these persons, by whom, like the Lernæan hydra, a many-headed beast has been generated from the school of Valentinus.
|title=''Against Heresies'' Chapter XXX.—Doctrines of the Ophites and Sethians.
|author=Irenaeus
}}

===Medieval Judaism===
The teaching also appeared in [[medieval]] Judaica. In his 1957 book ''Cain: Son of the Serpent'', [[David Max Eichhorn]] traces the belief that Cain was the son of the union between the serpent and Eve back to early Jewish [[Midrash]]ic texts which were composed between 800 CE and 1200 CE. Eichhorn identified rabbis who wrote about the topic,<ref name="Eichhorn, D. 1985"/> including a 9th-century book titled ''[[Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer]]'' and the [[Zohar]].<ref name="Eichhorn, D. 1985">{{cite book|isbn=0-940646-19-6|title= Cain: Son of the Serpent|year=1985|publisher=Rossel Books}}</ref> In their version, Adam's first wife was [[Lilith]] and his second wife was Eve. Lilith became possessed by the spirit of God's wife and rebelled against Adam and became the mother of all demons. Eve was subsequently seduced by the serpent and became the mother of a race of evil men.<ref name="Eichhorn, D. 1985"/>

A later folk-version of the serpent seed doctrine was somewhat widespread in European Christianity during the [[Middle Ages]] and it ascribed the ancestry of legendary monsters such as [[Grendel]] to Cain.<ref>{{cite book
|last=Routh 
|first=James Edward 
|title=Two Studies on the Ballad Theory of the Beowulf
|date=1905
|publisher=J. H. Furst Company
|location=Baltimore
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1gPXAAAAMAAJ
|access-date=April 24, 2021
|via=Google Books
}}</ref>

The [[Aramaic]] [[Targum Pseudo-Jonathan]] contains passages referencing the serpent seed concept. The targum was referenced by Rabbi [[Menahem Recanati]] (1250–1310) in his Perush 'Al ha-Torah.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=21617&hilite=bb8c4550-29f4-4410-b27d-87ffb8c46133&st=%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%91&pgnum=84|title=פירוש על התורה לר' מנחם מרקנאטי - רקנטי, מנחם בן בנימין (page 84 of 309)|website=www.hebrewbooks.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=21617&hilite=0dbc5c32-bcb5-4682-a437-13d38908f426&st=%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%91&pgnum=85|title=פירוש על התורה לר' מנחם מרקנאטי - רקנטי, מנחם בן בנימין (page 85 of 309)|website=www.hebrewbooks.org}}</ref> The age of the writing is disputed. A 2006 analysis by [[Beverly Mortensen]] dates Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to the 4th century and regards it as a manual for [[kohanim]].<ref>The Priesthood in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Renewing the Profession (Studies in Aramaic Interpretation of Scripture 4), Brill Academic Publishers, 2006</ref> Gavin McDowell's analyses suggested the document was created in the early 1200s because it includes excerpts from writings from the 1100s.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/arst/19/1/article-p121_8.xml#:~:text=Targum%20Pseudo%2DJonathan%20is%20known,to%20Samuel%20Cases%20of%20Mantua.|author=McDowell, Gavin|title=The Date and Provenance of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: The Evidence of Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer and the Chronicles of Moses|journal=Aramaic Studies |date=2021 |volume=19 |pages=121–154 |doi=10.1163/17455227-bja10018 |s2cid=236622964 |accessdate=2022-09-07}}</ref>

In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the serpent is an angelic being named [[Samael]].
{{blockquote|text= And the Woman beheld Sammael, the angel of death, and was afraid; yet she knew that the tree was good to eat, and that it was medicine for the enlightenment of the eyes, and desirable tree by means of which to understand. And she took of its fruit, and did eat; and she gave to her husband with her, and he did eat. 
|title=''Pseudo-Jonathan'' Genesis 3:6
|author=Targum
}}
And again, in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan..
{{blockquote|text= And Adam knew Hava his wife, who had desired the Angel; and she conceived, and bare Kain; and she said, I have acquired a man, the Angel of the Lord. 
|title=''Pseudo-Jonathan'' Genesis 4:1
|author=Targum
}}
So Adam knew his wife Eve/Hava, who desired the Angel ([[Samael]]), aka "The Serpent, Satan & The Destroyer" in Judaism & Talmudic Lore. And then she bore Kain. In one account [[Samael]] is also believed to be the father of [[Cain]],<ref name=Patai>{{Cite book |first=Raphael |last=Patai |title=Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London|date=2015 |isbn=978-1317471714 |page=463}}</ref><ref>[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13055-samael Jewish Encyclopedia – Samael]</ref> as well as the partner of [[Lilith]]. The relationship between Samael and Lilith is depicted in the [[Sigil of Baphomet]], the official insignia of the [[Church of Satan]].

===Modern origins in British Israelism===
{{see also|British Israelism}}
[[File:Israelinbritainb00garn 0005.jpg|thumb|An 1890 book advocating British Israelism. According to the serpent seed doctrine, the [[Ten Lost Tribes]] of [[Israelites|Israel]] found their way to [[Western Europe]] and [[United Kingdom|Britain]], where they became the ancestors of the [[British people|British]] and [[Anglo-Saxons|related peoples]].]]

British Israelism reintroduced a version of serpent seed beginning in the mid-1800s.<ref name="adl">{{cite web|url=https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/christian-identity|publisher=[[Anti-Defamation League]]|title=Christian Identity|access-date=2021-07-19}}</ref> A small circle of ministers in the United Kingdom first began to develop what they called "seedline" doctrine in the 1790s. The seedline teaching stated that two races of people lived upon the earth: a righteous pure seedline of people and an unrighteous impure seedline of people. The early teachings of the seedline doctrine did not offer an origin story for the two groups. The original form of British Israelism taught the belief that the Anglo-Saxons were descended from the lost tribes of Israel and were therefore part of the pure seedline.

British Israelism traces its roots to [[Richard Brothers]] (1759–1824) who was one of the earliest promoters of the theology and published a tract on the topic in 1794. [[John Wilson (historian)|John Wilson]] (1788–1870), and [[Edward Hine]] (1825–1891) followed Brothers in promoting the doctrine in the mid-1800s and each of them also published books on the topic and acquired a large following within various Christian denominations. Elements of their teachings gradually became popular among members of the [[Church of England]].<ref name="Schamber, p. 2">Schamber, p. 2</ref><ref name="Gardell, Mattias 2003 p. 372">Gardell, Mattias (2003). ''Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism''. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 372.</ref> Each of them published books on the topic and they also acquired a growing number of followers within various Christian denominations.<ref name="Schamber, p. 2"/><ref name="Gardell, Mattias 2003 p. 372"/> According to the [[Anti-Defamation League]], the earliest versions of the teaching did not seem to be racially motivated, but that began to change as the theology was introduced in the United States.<ref name="adl"/> The theology arrived in the United States through British Israelite evangelists in the mid-19th century. Rev. Joseph Williams (1826–1882), who immigrated from the UK to the USA, was probably the first such evangelist. He lectured on the subject in [[Boston]] from 1874 until his death in 1882. His teachings on the subject were published in two periodicals, ''The Trio'' and ''The Trumpet of Israel''. Rev. Joseph Wild (1834–1908) immigrated from England to Brooklyn during the 1880s. He became the preeminent American promoter of British Israelism. He published multiple books on the subject and influence many white Americans with his teachings.<ref>Schamber, p. 3</ref>

[[File:DanielParker.jpg|right|thumb|Elder Daniel Parker]]

[[Daniel Parker (Baptist)|Daniel Parker]] (1781–1844) was an early American leader of the [[Primitive Baptist Church]] in the Southern United States and founder of numerous churches in [[Virginia]], [[Kentucky]], [[Tennessee]], [[Illinois]], and [[Texas]]. As an [[Elder (Christianity)#Baptists|elder]], Parker led a group which separated from that [[Religious denomination|church]] and formed the [[Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://primitivebaptist.info/mambo//content/view/843/36/ |title=Interpreting the Scriptures-The "Two Seed" Heresy |access-date=12 February 2008 |archive-date=1 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120701213535/http://primitivebaptist.info/mambo/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Parker integrated the serpent seed doctrine into [[Predestination in Calvinism|Calvinist Predestination]]. He connected the elect with the pure seedline, and he connected the non-elect with the serpent seedline.<ref name="s12">Schamber, p. 12</ref> Parker published his beliefs in a tract which he entitled ''Views on the Two Seeds'' while he was living in [[Vincennes, Indiana]] in 1826.  Parker's seedline doctrine identified the serpent as the father of Cain and the originator of the wicked impure seedline. Parkers initially developed and promoted the serpent seedline doctrine as a key argument in his opposition to foreign [[Christian missionary|Christian missionaries]]. Parker believed that the non-white races who were the targets of foreign missions were people who were descended from the wicked seed of the serpent. He stated that since "God would save His own children, and since the children of Satan were predestined to eternal punishment, any kind of mission plan would seem ridiculous."<ref name = "parker">{{cite book|url=https://repository.sbts.edu/bitstream/handle/10392/5954/Lee-ThM-Daniel%20Parkers%20Doctrine%20of%20the%20Two%20Seeds-ocr.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|title=Daniel Parker's Doctrine of the Two Seeds|author=Lee, O. Max|publisher=Southern Baptist Theological Seminary|location=Louisville, Kentucky|date=1962}}</ref> Parker was labeled a heretic for teaching the doctrine by mainstream Baptists.<ref>Lee, p. 25</ref> The influences on Parker's beliefs are unknown, so he may have arrived at his version of the serpent seedline doctrine independently, or he may have been influenced by early British Israel teachings. Parker's teachings coincided with the promotion of the earliest form of [[Polygenism]] in the United States by the Kentuckian [[Charles Caldwell (physician)|Charles Caldwell]], who believed non-white races could not have descended from Adam. Although it was not widely accepted, Parker's teaching became well known among Calvinistic Baptists in Kentucky.{{sfn|Weaver|2000|p=125}} "Two-Seed Predestinarian Baptists always remained a small group. The U.S. religious census of 1906 recorded 781 members. In 1938 there were 98 members."<ref>{{cite book|author=Albert W. Wardin Jr.|title=Tennessee Baptists: A Comprehensive History, 1779–1999|location=Brentwood, TN|publisher=Executive Board of the Tennessee Baptist Convention|pages= 110–11, 145–46. 458}}</ref>

In the 1890s, [[C. A. L. Totten]] (1851–1908), a former professor of [[military science]] at [[Yale University]], began to promote British Israelism. Totten began to promote the belief that Anglo-Saxons were destined by God to rule the world.<ref name = "s5">Schamber, p. 5</ref> Also during the 1890s, British Israelism began to develop into a formal organization which took on racial overtones. In 1886, the growing group formed the [[Anglo-Israel Association]] and in 1919, this group renamed itself the [[British-Israel-World Federation]]. The primary aim of this group was the promotion of archeological expeditions which it wished to undertake in order to discover pieces of evidence which would validate its beliefs. The group remained small, but it gained a broader base of international appeal when it began to accept all [[Germanic peoples|people of Germanic descent]] as part of the righteous seed-line of the lost tribes of Israel. By the 1930s, the movement had grown to include over 50 branches in the United States which were all under the leadership of [[William J. Cameron]], but the British Israel movement largely faded from view both during and after [[World War II]].<ref name = "s5"/>

Most modern versions of the serpent seed teaching can be traced to Totten and the seedline teachings which he promoted during the early 20th century. Totten published several books and integrated British Israel theology into [[Adventism|Adventist theology]]. According to Professor Jon F. Schamber, Totten's works "inspired dozens of evangelists and religious writers, including Rev. [[John H. Allen]], a founding minister in the [[Church of God (Holiness)]]; [[Charles Fox Parham]] (1873–1929), the founder of the [[Apostolic Pentecostal|Pentecostal Apostolic Faith Movement]]; [[Victor Morris Tyler]], a wealthy industrialist and an editor of the ''Our Race Quarterly''; Rev. [[Reuben H. Sawyer]], a clergyman in the Christian Church and a recruiter for the [[Ku Klux Klan]]; and [[Alan A. Beauchamp]], a publisher and an editor of the ''Watchman of Israel''."<ref>Schamber, p. 4</ref>

===Christian Identity theology===
{{Christian Identity sidebar|Concepts}}
{{main|Christian Identity}}

Rev. Russel Kelso Carter (1849–1928) was a prominent Church of God (Holiness) minister and a follower of Totten. He became the first preacher of British Israelism to offer a theory on the origin of the serpent's seedline. Carter theorized that Cain was the literal Son of the serpent in his book ''The Tree of Knowledge'' which he published in 1894. Carter believed that "the tremendous pull of the sexual appetite, aroused by the excited state of the woman" caused humanity's fall in the Garden of Eden. He believed that Satan used the seduction of Eve to destroy God's pure race "at its fountainhead".{{sfn|Schamber|2000|p=12}} Carter stopped short of speculating on who the descendants of Cain might be, but he connected the righteous seedline with the Anglo-Saxons. Carter's teachings on the subject were subsequently integrated into the overall teachings of British Israelism and they proved to be particularly appealing to members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists who spread the teaching during the 20th century.{{sfn|Schamber|2000|p=12}}

Carter's theory was very similar to the theory which was first proposed by Daniel Parker, who may have been an influence on him.{{sfn|Schamber|2000|p=12}} Carter may have also been influenced by the [[pre-Adamite]] and [[Polygenism|Polygenist]] theories which were being promoted in the United States during the 19th century. In 1875, A. Lester Hoyle wrote a book titled ''The Pre-Adamite, or who tempted Eve?'' In his book, he claimed that multiple creations of races had occurred, but he claimed that only the [[White people|white race]], of which [[Adam]] was the father, had been made in God's image and likeness.<ref name="Kidd">{{cite book
|last=Kidd
|first=Colin
|author-link=Colin Kidd
|title=The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600-2000
|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]
|location=Cambridge
|date=2006
|isbn=978-0-521-79729-0
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aNT3q1HjY_MC
|access-date=February 18, 2021
}}</ref> Hoyle also suggested that Cain was the "mongrel offspring" of Eve's seduction by "an enticing [[Mongolia]]n" with whom she had repeated trysts, thus laying the foundation for the white supremacist bio-theology which states that [[miscegenation]] is "an abomination". Blending contemporary [[Evolution|evolutionary thinking]] with pre-Adamism, the [[Vanderbilt University]] [[Evolutionary creationism|theistic evolutionist]] and [[geologist]] [[Alexander Winchell (geologist)|Alexander Winchell]] argued in his 1878 tract, ''Adamites and Preadamites'', for the pre-Adamic origins of the human race, that [[Black people|Negroes]] were too racially inferior to be the descendants of the Biblical Adam.<ref name="Smith">{{cite book
|last=Smith
|first=Christian
|author-link=Christian_Smith_(sociologist)
|title=The Secular Revolution
|publisher=[[University of California Press]]
|date=2003
|isbn=0-520-23000-0
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jHHnv5FbzWgC
|access-date=April 23, 2021
}}</ref>

According to Professor Jon Schamber, Rev. [[Philip E. J. Monson]] began to separate from traditional British Israelism and develop Christian Identity theology.{{sfn|Schamber|2000|p=11}} During the 1920s, Monson published ''Satan's Seat: The Enemy of Our Race'' in which he adopted Carter's theory on the origin of the impure seedline and combined it with [[anti-Catholicism]].  Monson connected the work of the impure seedline to the activities of the [[Catholic Church]] and the [[Pope]]. Monson's ideas were popular among white supremacist organizations in the United States.{{sfn|Schamber|2000|p=11}} Rev. [[Wesley A. Swift]] (1913–1970), a minister and a former recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan, and a follower of Monson, accepted the serpent seed doctrine and Christian Identity Theology and was instrumental in promoting the teachings among white supremacists in the United States.{{sfn|Schamber|2000|p=12}}

Swift was a minister at the [[Angelus Temple]], a church frequently visited by [[William Branham]]. Swift later separated and started a new church, [[Church of Jesus Christ–Christian]], which was later renamed [[Aryan Nations]] by Swift's successor, [[Richard Butler (white supremacist)|Richard Girnt Butler]]. Swift ordained several ministers who helped him to spread the theology. His lieutenants who helped him to spread the serpent seed teaching included two [[Nazism|Nazis]], Oren Potito and Neuman Britton, and the prominent KKK leader [[Connie Lynch]].{{sfn|Schamber|2000|p=6}} Swift and his fellow white supremacists began to promote the doctrine even more heavily during the [[Desegregation in the United States|desegregation]] period of the 1950s and 1960s. According to Swift, the descendants of the serpent were "in violation of Divine law when they started to mutate species and mix races."{{sfn|Schamber|2000|p=12}} The serpent seed teaching was used to justify [[racial segregation]] and the prohibition of [[interracial marriage]].{{sfn|Schamber|2000|p=12}}

It was also during the desegregation period when William Branham (1909–1965) and Arnold Murray (1929–2014) first began to promote their versions of the serpent seed doctrine. Branham was the most successful promoter of the serpent seed doctrine, and his version of it was subsequently accepted by millions of his followers. During the desegregation era, a militant form of the doctrine was espoused, especially by Christian Identity groups, because its millennial teachings state that the pure race will wage a final battle with the evil descendants of the serpent in order to destroy them.<ref name="adl"/>{{sfn|Schamber|2000|p=12}}

Butler continued to promote the serpent seed doctrine throughout his life, and it continued to be prominently featured at annual Aryan Nations World Congress meetings into the 1980s and 1990s. Butler's teachings on the subject influenced the [[Christian Defense League]], the [[American Nazi Party]], the ''Christian Vanguard'', [[David Duke]] and modern KKK organizations.{{sfn|Schamber|2000|p=9}}