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Bible Encyclopedias
Basilisk
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
or The translation in the Revised Version of the Hebrew "ẓefa'" and "ẓif'oni" (Isaiah 11:8, 14:29, 59:5; Jeremiah 8:17; Proverbs 23:32), for which the Authorized Version has "cockatrice." The Septuagint uses the word βασιλίσκον in Isaiah 59:5 for "ef'eh," and in Psalms 91:13 for "peten." In all these places some variety of serpent is evidently meant, but the ancient versions do not indicate which. The rendering "basilisk"—so also Jerome and the Syriac Version—is correct in so far as that the Hebrew word likewise appears to designate some fabulous creature, though it is not known which was the particular kind of serpent that suggested the fanciful notions of the ancients. According to some, the Hebrew "ẓefa'" is the same species as "shefifon" (Genesis 49:17), the horned adder or cerastes, a very poisonous viper found in Arabia, in the Sinaitic peninsula.
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Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Basilisk'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/b/basilisk.html. 1901.
