The Good and Evil Serpent (83 page)

The raised serpent was a sign of God’s benevolence. In anger, God could have killed all the Israelites; they blamed him for the food and water that kept them alive in the desert. What did God do? God asked Moses to make a sign of his healing powers.

What sign was chosen? Was it a dove or a lion, both well-known iconographies in the ancient Near East? Was it a scorpion that often appears on seals and images and signifies life? The image was none other than a serpent—the quintessential symbol of healing, health, and rejuvenation in the ancient Near East, including Palestine from circa 1850
BCE
to at least 135
CE
.

This interpretation is undergirded elsewhere in biblical Hebrew; for example, a
seraph
provides healing for Isaiah (Isa 6:5–7). Milgrom sees here in Isaiah “a link” between Isaiah’s vision and Moses’ serpent.
²⁸⁶
There should be no doubt that the author of Numbers 21 and his readers (hearers) would have known that the upraised serpent symbolized divine power (Pos. 3), healing (Pos. 23), purifying (Pos. 24), health (Pos. 23), rejuvenation (Pos. 26), and especially life (Pos. 20;
; Num 21:8, 9).

Joines offers an assessment of the symbolic meaning of Moses’ serpent in term of ancient Near East mythology:

The most prominent element in the tradition of Moses and the bronze serpent seems to be that of sympathetic magic—the belief that the fate of an object or person can be governed by the manipulation of its exact image. Thereby a representation of a noxious creature could best drive off that creature, and an adversary could most effectively be controlled by the manipulation of his exact image.
²⁸⁷

This paragraph is well stated and provides a good perception of ancient symbolism. There should be no doubt that some form of sympathetic magic is entailed in the act, or account, of Moses’ making a likeness of the snakes that were killing the people. For the Yahwist, however, the emphasis is to be placed elsewhere. This emphasis is on God’s graciousness and willingness to remain with those who turn against him. As T. Fretheim so cogently explains, when interpreting Numbers 21:4–9:

Yet even in the wilderness God is responsive to the needs of these his complaining people…. There is a gift of healing where the pain experienced is the sharpest. Deliverance comes, not in being removed from the wilderness, but in the very presence of the enemy. The movement from death to life occurs within the very experience of godfor-sakenness. The death-dealing forces of chaos are nailed to the pole. God transforms death into a source of life.
²⁸⁸

The author of Numbers 21:4–9 seems to have acknowledged that serpents are important for healing, but he wanted to attribute this power to God, who told Moses to make a metal serpent as a means of healing those stricken. Even if we agree with Dillmann that there is no trace of the symbolic significance of healing in the narrative of Numbers 21:4–9, we should also agree with him that the evidence of the serpent as a symbol of healing was widespread in the ancient Near East.
²⁸⁹
Many centuries later, perhaps in the second century
BCE
, the author of the Wisdom of Solomon also stressed that the raised serpent was a “symbol of salvation” (
[15:6]). As a sign of salvation, it was understood that God, not the serpent, was the source of healing (Pos. 23): “For he that turned himself toward it [the serpent] was not saved by the thing that he saw, but by you who are the Savior of all” (Wis 16:7). As D. Flusser clarified, the bronze serpent did not save; it was not efficacious in itself. The real purpose of the bronze serpent made by Moses “was to cause the people to turn their hearts towards their Father in heaven and to awake their faith in Him who commanded Moses to perform” this act.
²⁹⁰

The serpent is a symbol to which those who are stricken can look up, so that God may heal them. Yahweh—and Yahweh alone, without any mediator or mediation—is the source of forgiveness, requested by “the people,” and of healing, for those bitten by the poisonous snakes. At the center of the story is not the serpent,
²⁹¹
and not even Moses; in central focus is Yah-weh: he sends the vipers. God commands and Moses obeys. God tells those who are dying from snakebite to look up to the copper serpent on the pole. When they do so, God is the source of acceptance, healing, and life.

God’s healing occurs within the context of the sickness, since the biting vipers are not removed by God and the Hebrews are not taken out of the wilderness. As T. Fretheim states: “Deliverance comes, not in being removed from the wilderness, but in the very presence of the enemy. The movement from death to life occurs within the very experience of godfor-sakenness.”
²⁹²
In this context, in the wilderness with vipers, God offers to help all who have been bitten. God will not do everything for the Hebrews now, as he has in the past. Moses must make a copper serpent and place it on a staff. Those who are bitten must look up to it, believing God will heal them. God will do the rest. The serpent symbolizes the presence of God who wills to heal his chosen people.

The image and symbolism that shape the narrative in Numbers 21 are powerful and are reflected in Jewish thought long before the composition of the Fourth Gospel. The salubriousness alleged to come from placing a serpent on a stake was also a part of the Fourth Evangelist’s culture. For example, Pliny informs us: “The head of a viper
(Viperae)
, placed on the bite, even though the same viper did not inflict it, is infinitely beneficial, as is the snake itself, held up on a stick in steam
(in vapore baculo sustineat)
—it is said to undo the harm done—or if the viper is burnt and the ash applied.”
²⁹³

The Brazen Serpent became a part of Western memory, and served not only theologians but also artists. For example, one of the worst plagues struck Venice in 1576. Not coincidentally, the Brazen Serpent was graphically depicted by Jacopo Tintoretto between 1575 and 1576. The painting may be overly dramatic, but serpents, in demonic forms, appear among the Hebrews in the lower part of the painting and the Brazen Serpent is prominent above and to the left of a burst of light shed on Moses. The Brazen Serpent twists around the stake that is in the form of a cross. The head of the serpent is a fish. Clearly, not only healing but also salvation are depicted on the ceiling of the upper hall in the Scuola Grande of San Rocco in Venice.
²⁹⁴

Summary

The author of Numbers 21:4–9 was not creating a story out of nothing. His account may seem strange to modern readers, but to his intended audience such a tale was normal and expected. He did not have to describe the serpents in his narrative. Unlike us, his intended readers knew well what snakes were like. They were abundant in and around Jerusalem, and images of serpents were pervasive both in his culture and especially in all contiguous cultures. He lived in a world filled with serpent iconography and symbology. Images of serpents were pervasive in ancient Palestine. The images of serpents on jars, or serpents fashioned out of silver, gold, bronze, or copper, placed in cultic settings, or hung around the neck as amulets were well known to the author of Numbers 21:4–9, and we have abundant evidence today of these serpent images.

There were serpent cults in ancient Palestine, especially at Hazor, Beth Shan, and Jerusalem. Most of the evidence of a serpent cult in and around Jerusalem was destroyed by the reforms of Kings Hezekiah and Josiah. Hezekiah, it is clear according to the Hebrew text, smashed the copper serpent, so there is no possibility of discovering the Nechushtan. The Hebrew verb for “he smashed” (
) means to “crush to fine little pieces.” Also, Hezekiah “cut down the pole of Asherah;” that is, he also broke all the figurines of Asherah he could find. The evidence of this action is abundant in and around Jerusalem, as hundreds of images of Asherah have been found. Almost always their heads have been broken off or cut off with a sword. The date of these idols corresponds with the date assigned to the action by Hezekiah. These reflections, as intimated at the beginning of a study of Numbers 21, have led us into an exegesis of 2 Kings 18:4.

THE UPRAISED SERPENT IN THE TEMPLE (NECHUSHTAN): 2 KINGS 18:4

Initial Observations

One verse in 2 Kings is closely aligned with Numbers 21:4–9, as we have already observed and discussed. If the author of Numbers 21:4–9 attempted to add legitimacy to the serpent cult in the Temple, the author of 2 Kings 18:4 had the opposite motive. The Elohist in Numbers 21 sought to salute God’s graciousness in giving his people, the Israelites, a chance to regain life when they were bitten by poisonous snakes in the wilderness. The author of 2 Kings 18:4 was vehemently opposed to any semblance of idolatry and included “Moses’ copper serpent” in his equation.

Hezekiah was the thirteenth king of Judah. He reigned from 727 to 698
BCE
. He witnessed the defeat and demise of Israel, to the north in circa 722, and fervently sought to deepen the allegiance to and worship of Yahweh in Judah, especially in the Temple. He thus initiated a massive program against any form of idolatry. Any explanation of Hezekiah must acknowledge that his motives were not purely religious; he wanted from his God political stability and protection. His actions are the result of religious conviction and political savvy.
²⁹⁵

Text and Translation

Here is the context of the verse:

It was in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, King of Israel, that He-zekiah son of Ahaz, King of Judah, became king. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi, [she was] Zechariah’s daughter. He did what was pleasing to YHWH, just as David, his ancestor, had done. It was he who abolished the high places, and broke the sacred pillars, and cut down the pole of Asherah and smashed the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until those very days the Israelites were offering sacrifices to it. It was called Nechushtan. [2 Kgs 18:1–4]
²⁹⁶

After the usual formal introduction—the synchronistic accession formula and regal resume
²⁹⁷
—comes the brief, but riveting, comment: He-zekiah “smashed
the bronze serpent
that Moses had made; for until those very days the Israelites were offering sacrifices to it
.”