Serpents of the Beatitudes: The Book of Kells Text, Part 2

The Blessings or "Beati" of the Beatitudes from the Gospel of Matthew have an interesting totem pole of figures making up the initial capital B's:

Folio 40v: Beatitudes from the Gospel of Matthew

We can translate the blessings and see if there is any relation between the figures of the totem pole and the text of the Book of Kells:




The first four B figures have the heads and feet of men but are entangled with a bird, possibly a peacock.  There is a progression in footware, with the first figure barefoot, the next with one sock, the next again with two socks, and the fourth figure with what look like boots or shoes:

It's hard to see what this entangled figure and his footware have to do with the blessings, but by the fifth beatitude the man and bird tussle has been replaced with the head of a beast and a figure that comes more and more to resemble a serpent:

The Serpents of the Book of Kells are by no means all symbols of evil.  A serpent can renew itself by shedding its skin and this made it a symbol of resurrection and rebirth.  In fact, if we look carefully at the serpent above, we see that the skin seems to be getting old and segmented until in the final frame it has been shed and renewed. 

FutureLearn in partnership with Trinity College, Dublin provides a page about the Book of Kells and its...

Intertwined men and animals

 

The Physiologus (~200 AD) mentioned on this page was a famous Christian bestiary that exerted a huge influence during medieval times.  It offered a detailed examination of the serpent and its largely positive Christian import.  A public domain translation is included in the Epic of the Beast by William Rose, which is available for reading and downloading at the Internet Archives:

Physiologus:  the Serpent