The Good and Evil Serpent (19 page)

Dan

Dan (Laish, Tell el-Qadi) sits beneath Mount Hermon in northern Galilee. The huge spring nearby provides the major source of the River Jordan, and the water that pours out of the earth here, from the Anti-Lebanon range, is often breathtaking and always refreshing in this semi-arid land.
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Excavations at Dan most likely reveal evidence of the revolution led by Jeroboam I, the son of Nebat, who, after the death of Solomon in 928
BCE
, set up shrines at Dan and Bethel to rival the cult in Jerusalem (Judg 18:30, 1 Kgs 12:29–30).
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Both these “new” shrines were built at old traditional cult centers linked respectively with Jacob and the first settlements of the tribe of Dan that conquered this area (assuming there is historical meaning in the Bible regarding this site).

At Dan “two complete pithoi with a snake decoration” were uncovered;
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in fact, three pithoi with ophidian iconography were recovered, although one was found in fragments.
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They were discovered “under a thick layer of crushed travertine,” along with an incense stand; hence, A. Biran can conclude that “we were digging within the sacred precinct of the city of Dan of the 10th and beginning of the 9th centuries B.C.E.”
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That is precisely the time of Jeroboam I.

The two well-preserved pithoi (large vessels) could contain over 300 liters each. They were found with a Phoenician juglet, and Phoenician influence appears also on some shallow bowls or plates.
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On one pithos is an impression of a man, perhaps a god, who holds two ibexes. The serpents on each pithos are in relief and appear just above the middle horizontal triple line. The head of each serpent is raised, and the bodies are displayed so that the serpents appear to be writhing.
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One rises at about a 45-degree angle, the other at almost a 90-degree angle. No dots indicate skin, and no eyes or tongues are depicted. These are certainly serpents since the bodies appear in a serpentine fashion and the heads are larger, especially on one of the pithos, but the tails are much thinner. It is not clear what the symbolic meaning could be; perhaps the raised head symbolized power and thus the serpents protected the contents. A positive meaning is assured since the ophidian imagery was found in a cultic setting.

Also, at Dan a “serpent house” was found in Stratum V of the twelfth century
BCE
(in room 7082), which is immediately after the conquest of Laish (the Canaanite name of Dan; Judg 18:29). I agree with Biran who thinks that the “snake house may well have been modeled after a temple.”
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The intended use of this vessel becomes clear when one studies it in light of what has been learned after examining the similar objects found at Ugarit (Ras Shamra), Hazor, and especially at Enkomi and Athienou on Cyprus.
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Since no holes are provided for the sacred serpent to breathe, it is unlikely that the serpent lived in the house. If it did, the opening could not have been closed, or it would have been closed with cloth that would allow air to enter the house. Perhaps the serpent house at Dan had a door and the object was used for temporarily transporting the serpent from its home to the ceremonial room of a temple.

What would the serpent have symbolized? In light of the veneration of serpents in antiquity and in ancient Palestine, most likely the images represented a divinity and perhaps a god. The god would be the protector of the city and the provider of human wants, including fertility, beauty, and regeneration.

Jerusalem

An examination of all the archaeological reports of Jerusalem would tend to reveal that no ophidian iconography has been found in the numerous and varied excavations there.
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This fact needs to be reassessed in light of two major observations. First, the continuous building programs in Jerusalem have required taking the restorations down to bedrock, thus destroying the evidence of former levels and their contents. Second, the “Holy City” was purified of ophidian imagery by the successive reforms to stress the worship of Yahweh according to the Deuteronomist, so that the worship in the Temple and Holy City would meet such standards. One is reminded especially of the reforms by Hezekiah. He removed the images of the serpent and their worshippers from the Temple (Nechushtan; we shall discuss this in a subsequent chapter).

Yet one would think that, as at other ancient archaeological sites, some ophidian imagery would be discovered, perhaps in a cistern (that has proved to be the case, as we shall explain). No ophidian iconography has been found in what seems to be left of the Jebusite city. Today, it seems appropriate to repeat the comment P. H. Vincent of the Ecole Biblique made in 1912: to make any sweeping conclusions regarding the Jebusite city “would be for the moment premature.”
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How extensive was the image of the serpent in Jerusalem, especially in the period from 1000
BCE
until 135
BCE
Four observations help answer this question. First, prior to the United Kingdom or at least dating from its earliest days is a place known as the “Zohelet Stone” (
) or “Serpent Stone.” It is beside Ain Rogel, and it was to this spring and the Serpent Stone that Prince Adonijah went to be crowned king while his father lay dying on his bed (1 Kgs 1:9). B. Mazar wisely suggested that this “site and the Serpent’s Stone seem to echo past traditions of a ‘holy place’ hallowed by traditions held dear by the natives and their ancestors.”
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What was the Serpent’s Stone? It was by a spring; was the spring home to serpents? Did it have snake houses with serpents that protected the spring?

Second, at night Nehemiah exits Jerusalem by the Valley Gate, which he identifies as near the “Dragon Well,” or Fountain, or Spring (Neh 2:13). The Hebrew word used is
tnyn
(pin), which has a variety of meanings, most of them negative. It basically means a dragon. Was Nehemiah referring to the same area as designated by the Serpent Stone?

Third, in his
War of the Jews
, Josephus mentions a “Pool of Serpents”
(War
5.108).
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What was it? Where was it? Most nineteenth-and twentieth-century scholars assume that the Serpents’ Pool, which according to Josephus is near Herod’s Monument, is to be identified with the Sultan’s Pool. They are thus indebted to C. Schick who first made this identification and announced it in a letter dated November 1891.
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In his informed study of Jerusalem, D. Bahat places the Serpents’ Pool where Schick had thought it to be.
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More recently, M. Broshi, building on the discoveries of E. Netzer and S. Ben Arieh,
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reached a different conclusion. He argued, quite persuasively, that the Pool of Serpents and Herod’s Monument must be located north and slightly west of the Damascus Gate.
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This hypothesis has archaeological, literary, and topographical support. There is an aqueduct dating from the Hasmonean Period about 4 meters southwest of the southern tower of the Damascus Gate, as D. Bahat has shown.
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It must lead to some pool to the north of the city, and the most likely place is northwest where there used to be a natural depression for runoff water. During the period of the Crusades a pool was located there called
lacus legerii.
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The area was once called “Ard el-Birkeh” (Neighborhood of the Pool). Situated nearby and northwest of the pool are the remains of a monumental building with impressive
opus reticulatum
(a refined form of construction). The building is Herodian and constructed similarly to monuments in Rome and Herodian Jericho.
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This monument, probably a tomb for Herod’s family, was on a major thoroughfare to Jerusalem.
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It is not imperative to discern where the Serpents’ Pool and Dragon Well were located in or near Jerusalem. In our search for the meaning of serpent iconography in ancient Palestine, it suffices to know that serpents provided names to the areas in and near Jerusalem.

Fourth, there can be no doubt that serpent imagery and symbolism were prevalent in Jerusalem before 70
CE
, and especially before Hezekiah’s reform, since ancient serpent iconography is abundant in the antiquities market in or near the Old City. Surely some of it comes from the environs of Jerusalem, usually from caves or tombs.

These assumptions and suggestions are proved by archaeological research. First, an impressive vessel with a serpent was found long ago in or near what is called the
via dolorosa
. The object will be discussed in the second portion of this chapter, when we examine a possible Asklepieion in Jerusalem.

Ekron (Tel Miqne, Khirbet el-Muqanna’)

Ekron is 35 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem, on the edge of the coastal plain by the northeast corridor that ran from Ashdod to Gezer in antiquity.
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It was one of the capitals of the Philistine Pentapolis and considered part of “the land that remains” (Jos 15:11). According to 2 Kings 1:2, King Ahaziah in the ninth century sent messengers to consult “Baal Zebub” (which means “Lord of the Fly or Swarm,” a deliberate corruption of the better-known epithet “Baal Zebul,” which denoted the Royal Baal),
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who was probably the major god at Ekron. Excavations at Ekron reveal cities in the Middle Bronze, Late Bronze, and Iron Ages.

In the wealthy and elite Lower City of the Iron Age, which indicates the new culture of the Philistines, archaeologists discovered a golden cobra. The ophidian object was found in the palace at Ekron and dates from the time when Egypt controlled the area. The palace was destroyed in 603
BCE
during Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign, so the cobra most likely dates from the seventh century
BCE
. The cobra is elegantly crafted and rises up realistically. It is hammered out of fine gold and fashioned in the Egyptian style.
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The hood is expanded, like the uraeus, and horizontal strokes mark its center.

Tell Beer-sheba

Tell Beer-sheba is located at the northern end of the southern desert, the Negev, and was the southernmost part of “the Land” in the famous formula “from Dan to Beer-sheba.”

A large horned altar intended for animal sacrifices was found at Tell Beer-sheba in the summer of 1973. It is the first such object ever uncovered. All four horns of the altar were found and the stones are beautiful ashlars.
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Blackened portions of the altar attest to the fact that it was used in antiquity. The altar is a cube: 1.6 × 1.6 × 1.6 meters.
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The altar was discovered in a wall of a storehouse that was destroyed near the end of the eighth century
BCE
, about the time that some artist depicted a large serpent in the middle of an alabaster relief from Khorsabad, dated to the time of Sargon II (721–705
BCE
).
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The altar thus antedates Sargon’s reign. Because of similarities with other horned altars found in the land, one may suggest that it was constructed sometime between the eleventh and ninth centuries
BCE
.

On the ashlar beneath one of the horned altars is an engraved image of a serpent.
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The serpent’s head is clear and the body is twisting back upon itself so that its head is parallel with its tail. The serpent’s head points downward to the earth, perhaps to signify its chthonic character. Y. Aharoni, who directed the expedition that found the altar, prefers to emphasize the fertility of serpent iconography: “One stone has a deeply engraved decoration of a twisting snake …, an ancient symbol of fertility widely dispersed throughout the Near East.” He continues, “The symbol of a snake was venerated in Israel from Moses’ times (Num. 2:8–9) and the bronze serpent was worshipped in the Jerusalem temple until the days of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4).”
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Keel rightly stresses the numinous character of this ophidian symbol.
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Aharoni correctly conjectures that since the horned altar was dismantled prior to the end of the eighth century, it may have been destroyed because of the edict of King Hezekiah (2 Kgs 18:22).
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