title: The Serpent's Skin: Creation, Knowledge, and Intimacy in the Book of Genesis
author:  Marc Klein 
description: ''A clear and engaging study of literary patterns in the Torah, accessible to a wide variety of readers--both those who know Hebrew, and those who do not, but are interested in how the original text works.'' --Marc Zvi Brettler, Dora Golding Professor of Biblical Studies, Brandeis University; author of How to Read the Jewish Bible, and co-editor of The Jewish Study Bible
zlib_text:  
  When the serpent sloughs off his skin v. 16.11, www.philaletheians.co.uk, 7 July 2018 
  Page 1 of 4 
  When the serpent 
  sloughs off his skin 
  
  CONSTITUTION OF MAN SERIES 
  WHEN THE SERPENT SLOUGHS OFF HIS SKIN 
  When the serpent sloughs off his skin v. 16.11, www.philaletheians.co.uk, 7 July 2018 
  Page 2 of 4 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  As the reptile upon casting his coat becomes freed from a casing 
  of gross matter and resumes its existence with renewed activity, 
  so man, by casting off the gross material body, enters upon the 
  next stage of his existence with enlarged powers and quickened 
  vitality. 
  From Isis Unveiled, I pp. 149-50. Frontispiece by Laura Inksetter. 
  What modern cosmogonist could compress within so simple a symbol as the Egyp-
  tian serpent in a circle such a world of meaning? Here we have, in this creature, the 
  whole philosophy of the universe: matter vivified by spirit, and the two conjointly 
  evolving out of chaos (Force) everything that was to be. To signify that the elements 