ASP

[Gr., a·spisʹ].

A name popularly used today for several unrelated poisonous snakes such as the European asp or asp viper, the horned viper of the desert and the Egyptian cobra. The latter is a snake of about four to six feet (1.2 to 1.8 meters) in length, of medium-brown color and with or without faint markings.

The word “asps” appears once in the Holy Bible, at Romans 3:13, where the apostle Paul, speaking of sinners, says: “Poison of asps is behind their lips.” Here the apostle is quoting from Psalm 140:3: “The venom of the horned viper is under their lips.” Concerning the “asp” of ancient times, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1961 ed.) says, “Variously identified as the horned viper or a small African cobra.”—See COBRA; VIPER.