The Good and Evil Serpent (173 page)

132
. See, respectively, C. Hammond, D. J. Johnson, and R. N. Jones,
BASOR
263 (1986) 77–80 and Y. Yadin, J. C. Greenfield, A. Yardeni, and B. Levine,
The Documents from the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters
, vol. 2, ad loc. See now A. Yardeni,
Textbook of Aramaic, Hebrew, and Nabataean Documentary Texts from the Judaean Desert and Related Material
, 2 vols. (Jerusalem, 2000) vol. 1, pp. 312 (partly but wisely restored), and 271 as well as vol. 2, pp. [103] and [87].

133
. See Bahat and Mishor,
Dictionary of Contemporary Hebrew
, p. 464 (Hebrew-to-Hebrew lexicon).

134
. For the text and translation, see N. Slifkin,
Nature’s Song
, p. 35.

135
. See Fabry in
TDOT
9.358.

136
. The verb
nhs
cannot be a denominative form of
nabas
because of its commonness in Syriac and Arabic. Boch claimed that the verb derives from the noun because the serpent in antiquity was thought to have powers of divination. R. Smith, however, pointed out the verb is well known in cognate Semitics, but the noun is peculiar to Hebrew. See the references and judicious comments by Cheyne in
Encyclopedia Biblica
(1902) 4.4392. There is another apparently unrelated noun that looks the same as
nhs;
it means “divination.” Other words not to be confused with
nabas
, but spelled the same, denote a city or personal names. See Le Grande Davies, “Serpent Imagery in Ancient Israel,” pp. 62–82.

137
. For the text and translation, see M. P. Horgan in Charlesworth, ed.,
Pe-sharim, Other Commentaries, and Related Documents
(Tübingen, Louisville, 2002) pp. 58–59.

138
. The pestilent snakes are called
in Num 21:7.

139
. Alonso Schókel et al., in
Diccionario biblica hebreo-español
, prefers
“Vibora, serpiente,”
p. 560.

140
. I am not aware of any instance of the noun
in the Qumran Scrolls.

141
. Bodenheimer, in
, p. 347, suggests that the noun denote the
naja haje
.

142
. Alonso Schókel et al., in
Diccionario biblica hebreo-español
, provides only a generic meaning, making it very difficult to detect the Hebrew behind a translation:
“Serpiente, ofidio, áspid
(no especificado)” p. 629.

143
. Cheyne rightly saw that this “word evidently denote a highly poisonous snake, perhaps the cobra.” Cheyne,
Encyclopedia Biblica
4.4393.

144
. This information helps clarify that different Greek scribes, probably independently, worked on translations of the Hebrew Bible.

145
. Among those who hold the view that the word “python” derives from the Hebrew
ptn
are Fabry,
TDOT
9.360, and Joines,
Serpent Sympolism in the Old Testament
. Joines suggests that the “Greek python may have come from this word;” p. 12 n.12. On python, see J. Fontenrose,
Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins
(Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1959). The work, aimed at a wide audience of specialists, includes a study of the dragon in the ancient Near East.

146
. See R. E. Whitaker,
CUL
(Cambridge, Mass., 1972) p. 159.

147
. See S. Golowin, “Basilisk, König über sämtliche Gifte,”
Drache, Einhorn, Oster-Hase
, pp. 50–52.

148
. See the study by S. B. Johnson, “Meaning and Importance of the Uraeus,”
The Cobra Goddess of Ancient Egypt: Predynastic, Early Dynastic, and Old Kingdom Periods
(London, New York, 1990) pp. 5–11.

149
. See O. Keel,
Corpus der Stempelsiegel-Amulette aus Palästina/Israel: Von den Anfängen bis zur Perserzeit
(Freiburg, Göttingen, 1995) p. 76. See the drawings in Keel et al.,
Corpus der Stempelsiegel-Amulette aus Pälistina/Israel
(Freiburg, Göttingen, 1997): Tel Abu Hawam nos. 21, 23, 24; Achsib nos. 59, 155; Afek no. 52; Tell el-Agul (7 km south-southwest of Gaza) nos. 16, 19, 28, 30, 44, 47, 48, 53, 54, 65, 66, 78, 128, 132, 140, 144, 146, 158, 159, 161, 162, 196, 209, 256, 263, 277, 278, 288, 299, 305, 309, 312, 322, 327, 389, 395, 396, 398, 401, 413, 420, etc.; Akko nos. 35, 36, 45, 50, 62, 68, 72, 190, 209, 212, 217, 230, 248 (as the left foot of an anthropoid), 260, 267, 275, 285, 290; Ashdod nos. 8, 32, 55, 64 (perhaps a cobra instead), 36, 48, 64 (three uraei together), 65, 68, 71, 84, 95, 108 (five uraei), 120; Askea no. 18; Asor (5 km southeast of Jaffa) nos. 5, 8, 14, 15; Atlit (14 km south of Haifa) no. 20, 33. Also, see p. 780 (Abb. 3–5 with the symbol of the sun god in a boat over a large undulating serpent, and p. 789 [Abb. 21], and p. 790 [Abb. 24–26]). On the relation of sun and serpent, especially in India, see C. F. Oldham,
The Sun and the Serpent: A Contribution to the History of Serpent-Worship
(London, 1905).

150
. For text and translation, see J. M. Baumgarten and D. Schwartz in Charles-worth, ed.,
Damascus Document, War Scroll, and Related Documents
(Tübingen, Louisville, 1995) p. 29.

151
. D. J. Wiseman reads
of Isa 14:29 in light of the Akkadian
appu
, which means “tip” or “spur.” He thus prefers “deadly poisonous snakes” in place of the usual “fiery flying serpents.” See Wiseman, “Flying Serpent,”
TynBul
23 (1972) 108–10. The connection between the Hebrew and Akkadian is tenuous and one does not have to presuppose Isaiah was thinking literally about a serpent that flies; as in Herodotus (iii, 107).

152
. P. Lum contends that the cockatrice and basilisk “are almost indistinguishable; if there is a difference, the basilisk is more completely reptile while the cockatrice retains more features of the cock.” P. Lum,
Fabulous Beasts
(New York, 1951) p. 38.

153
.
, p. 348, suggest the noun specifies a
Vipera
and
is the
Vipera palaestinae
.

154
. Alonso Schökel et al., in
Diccionario biblica hebreo-español
, list the same meaning,
“Vibora,”
for both the
and the
and thus fail to specify the distinctive nouns in the Hebrew (p. 643).