According to the Book of Kings, King Hezekiah institutes an iconoclastic reform that included the destruction of "the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan".[1]
"Nehushtan" is a pun off either the Hebrew word for "snake" (נָחָשׁ, nāḥāš) or "brass" (נְחשֶׁת, nəḥōšeṯ), and thus may mean "The (Great) Serpent" or "The (Great) Brass".[2]
Snake cults had been well established in Canaan in the Bronze Age: archaeologists have uncovered serpent cult objects in Bronze Age strata at several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two at Megiddo,[5] one at Gezer,[6] one in the Kodesh HaKodashim (Holy of Holies) of the Area H temple at Hazor,[7] and two at Shechem.[8] Cultic serpent imagery was not isolated to Canaan and appeared in surrounding areas, including the Babylonian temple of Esagila where pairs of bronze serpents were erected beside each entrance to the temple. [9]
According to Lowell K. Handy, the Nehushtan may have been the symbol of a minor god of snakebite-cure within the Temple.[10]
Moses lifts up the brass snake in a photograph of the stained glass window at St Marks Church, GillinghamThe Brazen Serpent (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot)The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan has a Roman column and, on top of it, a bronze serpent donated by emperor Basil II in 1007. It may be the origin of the biscione/bissa symbol of Milan.[11]
In the biblical story, following their Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites set out from Mount Hor to go to the Red Sea. However they had to detour around the land of Edom (Numbers 20:21, 25). Impatient, they complained against Yahweh and Moses (Numbers 21:4–5), and in response God sent "fiery serpents" among them and many died. The people came to Moses to repent and asked him to ask God to take away the serpents. Moses prayed to God, who told Moses, "Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he seeth it, shall live." (Numbers 21:4–9)
The term appears in 2 Kings 18:4 in a passage describing reforms made by King Hezekiah, in which he tore down altars, cut down symbols of Asherah, destroyed the Nehushtan,[12][13][14] and according to many Bible translations, gave it that name.[15]
Regarding the passage in 2 Kings 18:4,[15]M. G. Easton noted that "the lapse of nearly one thousand years had invested the 'brazen serpent' with a mysterious sanctity; and in order to deliver the people from their infatuation, and impress them with the idea of its worthlessness, Hezekiah called it, in contempt, 'Nehushtan', a brazen thing, a mere piece of brass".[2]
The tradition of naming it Nehushtan is not considered to be any older than the time of Hezekiah.[16]
In the Gospel of John, Jesus makes a comparison between the raising up of the Son of Man and the act of the serpent being raised by Moses for the healing of the people.[17] Jesus says "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up". (John 3:14)
Charles Spurgeon preached a famous sermon on "the Mysteries of the Brazen Serpent" and this passage from John's Gospel in 1857.[18]
In the Book of Mormon, two prophets make reference to this event. The first is the prophet Nephi, son of Lehi in a general discourse,[19][20] the second is many years later by the prophet Alma.[21] Nephi tells the people that many of the Israelites perished because of the simplicity and faith required i.e., "and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished." In the latter narrative, Alma tells the people of Antionum that many of the Israelites died because they lacked the faith to look at the brazen serpent. He then compared the brazen serpent to a type of Christ and exhorted the people to look to Christ and spiritually live.[22]
A modern monument of the bronze serpent (which Moses erected in the Negev desert) on Mount Nebo, in front of the church of Saint Moses (2018).
Inasmuch as the serpent in the Talmud stands for such evils as talebearing and defamation of character (Genesis 3:4-5), the Midrash finds in the plague of the fiery serpents a punishment for sins of the evil tongue (Numbers 21:5). God said: "Let the serpent who was the first to offend by 'evil tongue' inflict punishment on those who were guilty of the same sin and did not profit by the serpent's example".
One of the complaints in this case was dissatisfaction with the manna. Whereas the manna is said to have had any taste desired by the person eating it (Shemot Rabbah 25:3), to the serpent all things had the taste of dust, in accordance with the words: "And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life" (Genesis 3:14). It was very appropriate, therefore, that they who loathed the food which had given any taste desired, should be punished by means of that creature to which everything has the same taste (Tan., ed. Buber, Ḥuḳḳat, xlv. [337]; Midrash R. Num. xix. 22). The Mishnah does not take literally the words "Every one who was bitten by a serpent would look at the serpent and live", but interprets them symbolically. The people should look up to the God of heaven, for it is not the serpent that either brings to life or puts to death, but it is God (Mishnah R. H. 3:8, B. Talmud R.H. 29a). In the course of time, however, the people lost sight of the symbolical meaning and regarded the serpent itself as the seat of the healing power, and they made it an object of worship, so that Hezekiah found it necessary to destroy it (2 Kings 18:4; see also Ber. 10a).[23]
The question that puzzled Heinrich Ewald ("Gesch. des Volkes Israel," iii. 669, note 5) and others, "Where was the brazen serpent till the time of Hezekiah?" occupied the Talmudists also. They answered it in a very simple way: Asa and Joshaphat, when clearing away the idols, purposely left the brazen serpent behind, in order that Hezekiah might also be able to do a praiseworthy deed in breaking it (Ḥul. 6b).[24]
Old Testament scholar H.H. Rowley proposed that Nehushtan as it was known during Hezekiah’s reign had no origins in Yahweh tradition despite being regarded as a Yahweh symbol at the time of its destruction. [25] Instead, Rowley theorized that the bronze serpent destroyed by King Hezekiah was a sacred pre-Israelite symbol of serpent worship associated with a Canaanite god and was adapted by the Israelites following the occupation of Jerusalem.[26] W.W.G. Baudissin was also of the belief that the Canaanite bronze serpent was adapted by the Israelites between 850-750 B.C.E following their settlement in Jerusalem.[27]
Egyptologist H.R. Hall supports the theory that the Nehushtan destroyed by Hezekiah was not associated with Yahweh, but Hall alternately suggests that it was an ancient serpent image carried from Egypt by the ancestors of the Israelites.[28] This theory is supported by acknowledging the common Egyptian practice of using the image of a serpent as to defend themselves against snake bites,[29] in a form of sympathetic magic.
In his notion that the brazen serpent existed within Jerusalem prior to the arrival of the Israelites, Rowley argues that there is no record of Nehushtan prior to the reign of Hezekiah, aside from the Numbers 21 story of the bronze serpent. Rowley states that had Nehushtan been brought into Jerusalem at any time as a genuine relic, there would be documented record of its arrival or transfer. In his argument, Rowley also inserts that the arrival of Moses’ sacred rod would be a public spectacle with honorary procession which would be well documented.[30] Instead, he proposes that the bronze serpent became associated with Nehushtan through process of religious syncretism, citing that the gradual fusion of Canaanite and Israelite beliefs and customs. He hypothesized that symbols representing both religions may have been erected side by side within a sanctuary or public space as a political maneuver following the Israelite settlement.[31]
Hebraist and Old Testament scholar R. H. Kennett hypothesized that the Brazen Serpent was made by Moses, and that the Ark was created specifically to contain the bronze serpent, despite no known written reference made to the contents of the Ark. Kennett also theorized that should Nehushtan truly date back to the time of Moses, that it was either maintained by priests after fleeing to Nob from Shiloh, or accompanied the Ark as it was carried off by the Philistines.[32] This is not widely accepted, due to no known tradition or association between the Serpent and the Ark.[33]
In 1508 Michelangelo's image of the Israelites deliverance from the plague of serpents by the creation of the bronze serpent, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
There is a Brazen Serpent Monument on Mount NeboinJordan created by Italian artist Giovanni Fantoni.[34]
Similarly, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo painted a mural of the Israelites' deliverance from the plague of serpents by the creation of the bronze serpent.
^Gordon Loud, Megiddo II: Plates plate 240: 1, 4, from Stratum X (dated by Loud 1650–1550 BC) and Statum VIIB (dated 1250–1150 BC), noted by Joines 1968:245f.
^R.A.S. Macalister, Gezer II, p. 399, fig. 488, noted by Joines 1968:245 note 3, from the high place area, dated Late Bronze Age.
^Yigael Yadin et al. Hazor III-IV: Plates, pl. 339, 5, 6, dated Late Bronze Age II (Yadiin to Joines, in Joines 1968:245 note 4).
^Callaway and Toombs to Joines (Joines 1968:246 note 5).
^"Modern exegesis holds two different opinions in regard to the meaning of the word "Nehushtan," which is explained either as denoting an image of bronze, and as entirely unconnected with the word『naḥash』(serpent), or as a lengthened form of『naḥash』(comp. νεεσθάν in the Septuagint), and thus as implying that the worship of serpents was of ancient date in Israel. The assumption that the tradition about "Nehushtan" is not older than the time of Hezekiah is, however, not contested." Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. "Nehushtan"; H. H. Rowley, "Zadok and Nehushtan" Journal of Biblical Literature58.2 (June 1939:113–141) p. 132 observes, "We have no record of this Brazen Serpent before this time, save for the obvious aetiological story in Num. 8 f, which states that this sacred symbol had its origin in the Mosaic age".
^Hall, H. R. (1927). The Ancient History of the Near East: From the Earliest Times to the Battle of Salamis (7th, Revised ed.). 36 Essex Street W.C. London: Methuen & Co. LTD. p. 485.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
^Hastings, James (1908). Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics (1 ed.). 153-157 Fifth Avenue New York, NY: C. Scribner's Sons. pp. 791–793.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
Rowley, H. H. “Zadok and Nehushtan.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 58, no. 2, 1939, pp. 113–41. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3259856.
Hastings, James (1908). Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics (1 ed.). 153-157 Fifth Avenue New York, NY: C. Scribner's Sons. pp. 791–793.
Hall, H. R. (1927). The Ancient History of the Near East: From the Earliest Times to the Battle of Salamis (7th, Revised ed.). 36 Essex Street W.C. London: Methuen & Co. LTD. p. 485.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Kaufmann Kohler, Isaac Husik, Morris Jastrow Jr., J. Frederic McCurdy (1901–1906). "Brazen serpent". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
