Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
All Commentaries on Luke 10:19 Go To Luke 10
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions. Power ו̉מןץףב×, i.e. authority. We may take the words literally, for to Adam was given dominion over every living thing. Christ then gives His disciples power over the wild animals as well as over devils. "They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them." S. Mark 16:17. And so S. Paul shook off the viper which had fastened on his hand, and felt no harm. Acts 27:5. Jansenius, Maldonatus, and others.
And over all the power of the enemy, ה‎××‘×œ×™× rendered in the Vulgate "virtutem," whether wild animal, or poison, or Satan himself. For by all the power of the enemy we may understand every thing hostile to men.
But mystically, the passage has reference to the devils, who are described as serpents and scorpions, and called the power of the enemy, i.e. the army of Satan. S. Athanasius, Theophylact and others.
Hence Euthymius takes these serpents and scorpions as influencing the senses, or, as Bede says, "representing every kind of unclean spirit." He adds, "There is this difference between serpents which wound with their fangs, and scorpions whose sting is in their tail, that the serpents signify men or spirits raging openly, scorpions signify them plotting in secret. Thus by the serpent which deceived Eve, we must understand the devil in the serpent"s form. See Gen iii
