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In the biblical Books of Kings (; written c. 550 BC), the Nehushtan (; ) is the bronze image of a snake on a pole. The image is described in the Book of Numbers, where Yahweh instructed Moses to erect it so that the Israelites who saw it would be cured and be protected from dying from the bites of the "fiery serpents", which Yahweh had sent to punish them for speaking against him and Moses ().
According to 2 Kings 18:4, King Hezekiah instituted an iconoclasm reform: "He abolished the shrines, smashed the pillars, and cut down the sacred post. He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until that time, the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan." Historical findings have also shown that the utilization of bronze serpents was not unique. In several Canaanite cities there were discoveries of the cultic use of these objects. It may have represented traces of an older practice associated with medicine and healing, that was also not restricted to the Levant.
accessed 15 September 2015 The Douay-Rheims 1899 edition has "brazen". Eugene H. Peterson, in his paraphrase of the Bible The Message (2002), opted for "a snake of fiery copper"
accessed 15 September 2015
According to Lowell K. Handy, the Nehushtan may have been the symbol of a deity for snakebite cure within the Temple in Jerusalem.
The term appears in in a passage describing reforms made by King Hezekiah, in which he tore down the , cut down symbols of Asherah, destroyed the Nehushtan,"The Mystery of the Nechushtan", Hershel Shanks, Biblical Archaeology Review, pp. 58–63, March/April 2007. and according to many Bible translations, gave it that name.
Regarding the passage in 2 Kings 18:4, 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".
The tradition of naming it Nehushtan is not considered older than Hezekiah's time."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 Literature 58.2 (June 1939: 113–141) p. 132 observes, "We have no record of this Brazen Serpent before this time, save for the obvious Etiology in Num. 8 f, which states that this sacred symbol had its origin in the Mosaic age".
Charles Spurgeon preached a famous sermon on "the Mysteries of the Brazen Serpent" and this passage from John's Gospel in 1857.C. H. Spurgeon, "The Mysteries of the Brazen Serpent", 1857
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 (; see also Ber. 10a).
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).
Egyptologist Henry 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. This theory is supported by acknowledging the standard Egyptian practice of using the image of a serpent as to defend themselves against snake bites, in a form of sympathetic magic.
In his notion that the brazen serpent existed within Jerusalem before the arrival of the Israelites, Rowley argues that there is no record of Nehushtan before 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 a documented record of its arrival or transfer. In his argument, Rowley also inserts that the arrival of Moses's sacred rod would be a public spectacle with an honorary procession, which would be well documented. 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.
Hebraist and Old Testament scholar R. H. Kennett hypothesized that Moses made the Brazen Serpent and that the Ark of the Covenant was created specifically to contain it despite no known written reference made to the Ark's contents. Kennett also theorized that should Nehushtan truly date back to the time of Moses, it was either maintained by priests after fleeing to Nob from Shiloh or accompanied the Ark as it was carried off by the Philistines. This is not widely accepted due to no known tradition or association between the Serpent and Ark.
New Testament
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. Jesus says "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up". ()
Book of Mormon
In the Book of Mormon, three prophets make reference to this event. The first is the prophet Nephi, son of Lehi in a general discourse,2 Nephi 25:201 Nephi 17:41 the second is many years later by the prophet Alma,Alma 33:19–23 and the third is years later by Alma's great-grandson also named Nephi. 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. These same themes from Alma were reiterated by Nephi in the Book of Helaman.
Rabbinic literature
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 Lashon Hara (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".
Debated origins
Old Testament scholar H. H. Rowley proposed that Nehushtan, as it was known during Hezekiah's reign, had no origins in Yahwism despite being regarded as a symbol of Yahweh at the time of its destruction. 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. W.W.G. Baudissin was also of the belief that the Canaanite bronze serpent was adapted by the Israelites between 850 and 750 B.C.E following their settlement in Jerusalem.
In art
There is a Brazen Serpent Monument on Mount Nebo in Jordan created by Italian artist Giovanni Fantoni.
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.
See also
Footnotes
External links
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