The Good and Evil Serpent (82 page)

Our question entailed what this metal serpent looked like. The Elohist does not provide a clue that would help us imagine the copper serpent. One might suggest that it may have been like the uraeus, and it is conceivable that it had wings.
²⁷⁴
On Tutankhamen’s throne were placed prominently winged serpents. The seraphim of Isaiah 6 most likely had not only wings but feet (see
Appendix I
). According to Isaiah 14:29 and 30:6, the
seraph
was a flying serpent
;
²⁷⁵
throughout the Middle East we find images of flying and winged serpents. Often these are made of stone and are amulets worn around the neck to protect against snakebite (cf. the Ugaritic snake texts mentioned previously).

5. Our fifth question was “What symbolic meaning would be conveyed by a metal serpent on a standard?” For Philo, while the serpent who tempted Eve represented pleasure,
²⁷⁶
the copper serpent Moses raised in the wilderness symbolized endurance (Kaptepia) since metal indicated firm stability (see
Leg
. 2.20 and
Agr
. 22; also see
m. Rosh Hash
. 3.8). Because metal signifies endurance, the symbolism of a copper serpent would make many think of the creature’s power (Pos. 3) and divinity (Pos. 11). Most significant, it would be the symbolic power of the serpent to represent youthfulness and rejuvenation (Pos. 26) and not to disintegrate through sickness, old age, and death.

Since weapons were made of metal, the copper serpent might elicit the serpent’s ability to symbolize protection (Pos. 6). Clearly, the narrator specifies that the copper serpent primarily symbolized the healing of those who had been bitten, so the upraised copper serpent was fundamentally a symbol of healing (Pos. 23), health, and life (Pos. 20).

6. Our sixth question was “Does the Lord’s command not break the commandment that the human must not make any image?” The Ten Commandments were for the human, not for God. The Creator is above any commandment, so God may instruct Moses to make an image and, in so doing, Moses would be obeying God, which supersedes all commandments. Neither God nor Moses should be imagined breaking the second commandment, which forbade the making of any image and worshipping it (Ex 20:1–17 and Deut 5:6–21): “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness [of anything] that [is] in the heaven above, or that [is] on the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, and you must not serve them” (Ex 20:4).
²⁷⁷
The Elohist never intimated that the Israelites were to worship the copper serpent lifted up on the pole.

One should not imagine that Moses disobeyed the Lord because the Lord told him to make a “burning serpent” and he constructed “a copper serpent.” The different Hebrew nouns were most likely employed for literary variety, not conceptual distinction. When read aloud with dramatic intensity, this passage in Numbers is onomatopoeic; one can hear the hissing of serpents when the Hebrew is read with precision and elocution.

The ambivalence of religious symbols can be disconcerting. The context or the narrative is essential for careful and informed exegesis. For example, the golden calf and the copper serpent are both images of animals manufactured from metal, and both were revered in Israelite shrines, Bethel and Jerusalem, respectively, according to the ancient texts.
²⁷⁸
One brings condemnation and death; the other, acceptance and life.
²⁷⁹
Here texts and narrative force help to explain the meaning of the symbols as used by the respective authors. The difference in the two accounts is the one important aspect of any biblical narrative: the will of God. The golden calf was fashioned against God’s will, the copper serpent by the command of God. Yet, later, Hosea polemicized against the golden calf and Heze-kiah smashed the copper serpent.

7. Our seventh question was “Why are those who look up to the copper serpent healed?” Due to God’s instructions to Moses, which were fully completed, those bitten could, through faith, look up to the copper serpent made by Moses, and continue to “live” (
; Num 21:8, 9).
²⁸⁰

We must avoid merely transferring what we know about serpent symbolism to Numbers 21. For example, in this passage we have people dying and a serpent used with great symbolic power. It would be methodologically imprecise, however, to suggest that because Cadmus and Harmo-nia were transformed into snakes and the departed kings and queens of Thebes were probably perceived to have transmigrated into serpents,
²⁸¹
that the deceased were in any way identified with the copper serpent.

In the ancient Near East, as in many parts of the world today, the cause of the problem is at the same time its solution. Thus, homoeopathic, or sympathetic, magic is being employed. The
seraph
is confronted by the
seraph
. Thus, we have a type of the caduceus, which we have traced back into the centuries before the second millennium
BCE
. The caduceus is pervasive today on the walls of medical colleges (even in Amman and in Jerusalem), on the signia of the medical corps of some countries, and most conspicuously on prescriptions. In antiquity, as today, some medicines come directly from the venom of serpents.

The Elohist makes it clear, however, that the serpent is not the source of healing. One bitten is healed by his action of looking to the upraised serpent on the pole, and believing that God, the source of all healing, will make good on the promise to heal those who look up to the symbol of life (Pos. 20) and healing (Pos. 23). According to the compiler of
m. Rosh Hash
. 3:8, the copper serpent did not heal; it reminded the Israelites to serve God. This passage in the Mishnah, and the section of the Wisdom of Solomon (see the following), reveal an interpretation of Numbers 21 that is important as we continue to move toward a search for the symbolic meaning of John 3:14.

8. Our eighth question was “How does the study of ophidian iconography in Near Eastern culture, and especially in ancient Palestine, help us understand this passage in Numbers?” We can answer this question after we look again at the Targumim. The later, early medieval Aramaic translations and sermonic expansions of the Hebrew texts of Numbers 21:4–9 are revealing. On the one hand, the Targumim often reflect centuries of oral evolution of thought and also a concern with the contemporary conditions of Jews. On the other hand, especially with regard to the Targumic version of Numbers 21:4–9, they preserve oral traditions that often extend into the period before the first century
CE
. It would be foolish indeed to claim that the narrative expansion of Moses’ upraised serpent in the Targumim appears for the first time in the Middle Ages. It does not reflect or serve the needs of the Jewish community, and it preserves serpent symbolism that antedates the first century
CE
by at least a millennium.

Note how the translator of
Targum Neofiti
emphasizes the difference between the two serpents of Numbers 21. One serpent “was cursed from the beginning;” the other serpent “will come and rule over the people which have murmured concerning their food.” The expansive midrash in
Targum Neofiti
after verse five is indicative of the continuing importance of serpent symbolism:

The Bath Qol came forth from the earth and its voice was heard on high: “Come, see, all you creatures; and come, give ear, all you sons of the flesh: the serpent was cursed from the beginning and I said to it: ‘Dust shall be your food.’ I brought my people up from the land of Egypt and I had manna come down from heaven, and I made a well come up for them from the abyss, and I carried quail from the sea for them; and my people has turned to murmur before me concerning the manna, that its nourishment is little. The serpent which does not murmur concerning its food will come and rule over the people which has murmured concerning their food.”
²⁸²

This is a remarkable sermonic expansion of Numbers 21.
²⁸³
The Targu-mist has taken the upraised serpent in the Hebrew text and elevated it so that it “will come and rule over the people.” This interpretation, which may antedate the first century
CE
, brings out the symbolic meaning of the serpent, as previously interpreted. The serpent represents judgment, divinity (Pos. 11), power (Pos. 3), and divine kingship (or, at least the right to rule [Pos. 10]).

We need to pause and contemplate the positive meaning given to the serpent in this exceptional passage in
Targum Neofiti
. Like the Egyptian uraeus, the serpent here is a symbol of divine kingship (Pos. 10), eternal power (Pos. 3), and healing (Pos. 23). McNamara rightly sees the handiwork of the Targumist.
²⁸⁴
In
Neofiti
, the texts of Genesis 3 and Numbers 21 are combined. The people in Numbers 21 murmur against God, although he has blessed them: bringing them out of Egypt from slavery, creating a well of water for drink, and providing manna and quail for food. The serpent who was cursed by God in Genesis 3 does not complain about his food: dust. He obediently accepts God’s condemnation; hence, God rewards and elevates the serpent so that he will rule over God’s people.

The juxtaposition of two serpents is remarkable: “The serpent who was cursed from the beginning”
and “the serpent who will come … and rule over the people”
. Of these two serpents, the more outstanding symbolically is the latter. The cursed serpent of Genesis 3 will be the ruler of God’s people because he did not question or dare to dispute God’s divine authority and curse. It is conceivable that for some Jews the serpent represented messianic power and rule (Pos. 10, 11, 19).

9. Our final and central question is “What does ‘the serpent’ symbolize in Numbers 21:4–9?” The creativity of the Elohist should not be overlooked. He does not simply portray the upraised serpent as a symbol of healing. He does not appeal to serpents as guardians of houses, temples, springs, or people. He does not present the serpent as the source of life and rejuvenation. He also does not suggest that the serpent symbolizes Yahweh. While most of these symbolic meanings of the serpent are contemporary with the author, and also with the time of Moses as depicted, and while such symbolic meaning lies in the background of the story,
²⁸⁵
the serpent is raised by Moses to fulfill the word of God.