The fiery flying serpent (Hebrew: שָׂרָף מְעוֹפֵףsārāf mə‘ōfēf; Greek : ὄφεις πετόμενοι; Latin : draco volans) is a creature mentioned in the Book of Isaiah in the Tanakh.
The term translated as "fiery serpent", saraph , appears elsewhere in the Book of Isaiah to signify the seraphim, the singular form of which is also saraph.
References to "fiery serpents" lacking a mention of flight can be found in several places in the Hebrew Bible.
Ancient Israelite seals often co-opted symbology from neighbouring ancient Egypt, and as such, archaeologists have discovered numerous seals which show a uraeus cobra with 4 wings. This, coupled with the fact that these cobras diverge from the typical Egyptian iconography which depicted them with only 2 wings, have been connected by some to the "fiery flying serpents" mentioned in Isaiah, or even to the more specific seraphim seen elsewhere in the text. [3] This identification, however, is not universally accepted.
Assuming the fiery flying serpent to have a biological identification, Ronald Millett and John Pratt identify it with the Israeli saw-scale viper or carpet viper ( Echis coloratus ) [4] [5] based on several clues from the written sources, such as that the serpents inhabit the Arava Valley, prefer rocky terrain, and are deadly venomous. [6] A Roman account dated 22 AD about the deserts of Arabia indicates the presence of the saw-scale viper, reporting that "there are snakes also of a dark red color, a span in length, which spring up as high as a man's waist, and whose bite is incurable." [7] Other candidates include desert horned viper (and close relatives), the desert black snake or black desert cobra, and the nematode Dracunculus medinensis . [8] [9]