Dostoevsky: Demons discussion

The chapter title translated by Constance Garnett as "The Subtle Serpent". The phase suggests Matthew 10:16, which advises Christians to carefully protect themselves in a vicious secular society. Dostevsky uses the word Премудрый in his own text compared with мудры in the Russian Synodal bible. His prefix Пре- seems to mean "very" but maybe some Russian speaker can comment.

Perhaps coincidentally the satirical fairy tale Премудрый пискарь ("The Wise Minnow") was published 11 years later by another "Russian Messenger" writer Saltykov-Shchedrin, in the newspaper (Otechestvennye Zapiski, "Notes of the Fatherland" wikipedia) where Doestoevsky also published. It depicts a fish who "cleverly" survives in the dangerous world by hiding in a hole - a criticism of contemporary Russian liberals later echoed by Lenin. See Russian wikipedia and the 1979 animated short (English subtitles). Doestoevsky called out Saltykov's petty spatt with with Pisarev, and evidently Demons is partly intended to mock this type of liberal in-fighting.

Does the chapter title refer to a character who hides himself within society for protection? Perhaps this is a reference to Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky - abandoned by his father, and desirous of patronage from upper class families like the Stavrogins. He seems to be scheming to glorify Nikolai Vsevolodovich and discredit Stepan. Pyotor's story that Nikolai "only spoke two words" to the lame woman perhaps can't be taken at face value.

I found an odd essay by an F. Derek Chisholm called "Dostoevsky as Political Prophet" that contains some far-reaching religious views, but something of interest to this section is that:
a.) the section has also been interpreted as "The Cunning Serpent"
b.) The description of Peter Verkhovensky could be suggesting his serpentine qualities: "No one would call him bad-looking, but no one likes his face. His head is elongated towards the back and is flattened on the sides, giving his face a sharp look. His forehead is high and narrow, but his features are small-eyes sharp, lips long and thin..." (It seems this is from the P&V translation).