Reply #35: On the symbolism of the serpent,

[okasha]

it's worth noting that one of the objects King Josiah tossed out of the Jerusalem Temple in the course of his establisment of Yahwist monotheism was the image of a serpent, called Nehushtan. This image was evidently an object of veneration, as were the tree-shrines and representations of Asherah "on every high hill and under every green tree." At the time the Genesis creation myth attained its present form, archaeology shows both that there was in fact widespread veneration of the Goddess in Israel and Judah and that there was an effort to obliterate it.

Given an extensive Egyptian presence in Palestine in the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron I and Nehushtan's original association with Moses, it's tempting to see her as a form of the goddess Wadjet surviving and adopted into the local culture.