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The Serpent Was Not Alone

The Midrash teaches that the serpent in Eden was not acting alone. Samael, a powerful angel, rode upon the serpent like one rides a camel:

"The serpent had a rider, the rider was as big as a camel, and it was the rider that enticed Eve: this rider was Samael."

Samael's name means "blind to G-d" (sama-el) — he blinds people from recognizing the Divine. In rabbinic and kabbalistic literature, Samael becomes identified with Satan: not as a separate evil deity, but as the prosecuting angel, the force that tests and accuses. Maimonides writes explicitly: “Samael and Satan are identical.”

The Chain of Identifications

Samael is also identified as the guardian angel of Esau and his descendants — Edom and Rome. He is the angel who wrestled with Yaakov at the ford of the Jabbok. He is the spiritual force behind Rome’s power and, by extension, behind Christianity, which emerged from within the Roman empire.

This creates a striking chain that runs across all of history:

• The Serpent in Eden — the vehicle, the physical form
• Samael — the rider, the angel of death, the prosecuting force
• The Angel of Esau — guardian of Edom, of Rome
• Rome — the empire that destroyed the Temple, absorbed the nations
• Christianity — the spiritual heir of Rome, born within it, shaped by it

The snake is not merely a reptile in a garden. It is a spiritual force that has manifested throughout history in different forms — always in tension with Israel, always as the “other brother,” the rival, the prosecutor. Always containing both poison and medicine.

Abraham Abulafia’s Complex Assessment

The 13th-century kabbalist Abraham Abulafia offers a fascinating view that pulls this chain together. He suggested that the central figure of Christianity had the potential to be Moshiach ben Yosef but failed due to errors. Yet Abulafia also referred to him as “the Satan” — and here we must pause.

By calling him “the Satan,” Abulafia was not simply hurling an insult. He was making a precise mystical identification. Satan is Samael. Samael is the guardian of Esau. Esau is Rome. And Rome is the civilization through which Christianity took shape.

By placing this teacher within the chain of Serpent → Samael → Esau → Rome → Christianity, Abulafia was suggesting that this figure — whatever his original intentions — became the vehicle through which the ancient serpent’s energy manifested in a new form. Just as Samael rode the serpent in Eden, some spiritual force “rode” this teacher’s legacy, distorting it and channeling it outward into the nations of Esau.

This is not to say the teacher himself was evil. It suggests that his mission became entangled with the very forces it may have been meant to oppose. Moshiach ben Yosef is a figure who suffers, is misunderstood, and often falls before his mission is complete. The involvement of “Satanic” forces — the testing, prosecuting, challenging forces — is part of that pattern.

Maimonides’ Nuanced View

Maimonides, writing centuries later, sees this more providentially. In his Laws of Kings, he writes that both Christianity and Islam have served a divine purpose in preparing the world for the ultimate redemption. They spread knowledge of Torah, Moshiach, and G-d’s commandments to the far corners of the earth. When the true Moshiach comes, the entire world will already have the basic vocabulary to understand what is happening.

But Maimonides also makes clear: both religions contain errors that will need to be corrected. Christianity’s deification of a human being is an error. In the days of Moshiach, these errors will be clarified, and all peoples will turn to serve G-d in pure monotheism.