How do we know that serpents had wings (were dragons)?
I don’t necessarily agree with the premise, however, the image of serpents with wings is very common in ancient Sumerian and Egyptian iconography so there does seem to be some sort of archetype of that image, and these are the closest cultures to the time of the writing so it stands to say that it meant something.
Now, this could be a common fiction archetype of the time like superheroes of our day. Without that cultural context, we really don’t know.
One of the punishments for the snake is that he would crawl. I believe it was the Talmud (oral tradition of the Jews) where I found the part about the flying. I cannot remember the exact source.
Donald Barnhouse has a fabulous book entitled, “The Invisible War” which walks through the account of the Fall in the Garden with outstanding detail.
Volumes have been written on this account.
I’d recommend first, ensuring you are in fellowship with God by personal confession of all known and unknown sins to Gdo the Father, through faith in what He provided by the Son on the Cross, whose sacrifice on the Cross paid for all sins to God the Father, and He is then sure and just to forgive us those sins, and we are in fellowship with Him.
Next, read the account in Scripture, through faith in Christ, allowing God to guide our understanding of Him.
In academic study of the passage, it is fruitful to structure the account, then study what God tells us about it in the passage.
For example, list all of the persons involved, the objects, the prepositions used to describe the relationships, orient the passage in proper context with other Scripture.
The serpent is also identifiable with Satan, the devil, the Adversary.
The time was after a time when Lucifer who became Satan had been identified and fell from Heaven. It happened after the great calamity in heaven and Chaos was ushered in.
It was the first thing around from our perspective, after the fall from Heaven, and it attracted the attention of the Adversary, because God created man in His image.
Note what occurs here.
THe Adversary attempts to attract attention from the Creature towards himself, instead of God. He seeks to draw admiration and confidence in himself, as opposed to any faith in what God provides.
After Adam’s sin, note that the punishment for the serpant is twofold. Enmity of man against the devil is one of the consequences. Even with us now having an old sin nature, born without a human spirit in fellowship with God, our perception of the devil isn’t neutral or acceptable. Our natural perception of him is first influenced by enmity. This is true for all humanity.
Also consider the penalty for sin (missing the mark of God’s Plan for us). It is death.
The first death experienced in the Garden of Eden is a spiritual death. Adam and Eve still had their souls. They could reason and perceived physically they were naked, and they covered themselves. They were not immediately dead soulishly.
They also didn’t die physically immediately. They were driven out of the Garden and man had to work by the sweat of his brow and woman suffered in childbirth.
The first death was their spiritual death, a separation from His Spirit, which occurred immediately upon disobedience to His command.
In the Garden, Adam would name animals. Naming has significance in Hebrew as it is an identification of the true nature of a thing being named.
Some have posited that man being made in God’s image, having a human spirit, was also perceiving other animal life as to their body, soul, and spirit, if they did indeed have spirit.
In the case of the serpent, it did have a spirit, namely that of the Adversary.
Remember, this account is given to men who also may not have a reborn human spirit and may also be dead spiritually to God. Yet, God still has a way to communicate to man, so we can understand even those things which we had been separated from since the Garden, i.e. the spiritual life.
Place faith in Him (God, through faith in Christ) and let God sanctify our thinking by His Will at His pace for us.
One important consequence of the fall in the Garden is that the old sin nature and spiritual death is now passed genetically throughout all humanity. It isn’t until the second Adam (Jesus Christ), that another human is born perfectly, who can provide the Perfect Sacrifice, so that God the Father may then through grace accept our faith as justification for righteousness, thereby allowing God the Holy Spirit to regenerate a human spirit in us, whereby we are reborn in Him.
I believe they were legged, hence God cursing the serpent to go upon his belly.