Nehushtan
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In the biblical Books of Kings (2 Kings 18:4; written c. 550 BC), the Nehushtan (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) is the bronze image of a serpent 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 (Template:Bibleverse).
According to 2 Kings 18:4, King Hezekiah instituted an iconoclastic 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."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
EtymologyEdit
"Nehushtan" is a pun off either the Hebrew word for "snake" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, nāḥāš) or "brass" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, nəḥošeṯ), and thus may mean "The (Great) Serpent" or "The (Great) Brass".<ref name=Easton>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Alternative translationsEdit
The English Standard Version of the Bible and the majority of contemporary English translations refer to the serpent as made of "bronze", whereas the King James Version and a number of other versions state "brass". 2 Kings 18:4 is translated as "brasen" in the King James Version.<ref>BibleGateway.com https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2%20Kings%2018:4 accessed 15 September 2015</ref> 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".<ref>All translations of Numbers 21:9 taken from BibleGateway.com https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Numbers%2021:9 accessed 15 September 2015</ref>
Serpent imageEdit
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,<ref>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.</ref> one at Gezer,<ref>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.</ref> one in the sanctuary of the Area H temple at Tel Hazor<ref>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).</ref> and two at Shechem.<ref>Callaway and Toombs to Joines (Joines 1968: 246 note 5).</ref> Cultic serpent imagery was not isolated to Canaan. It appeared in surrounding areas, including the Esagila or temple of Marduk as tutelary deity in Babylon, where pairs of bronze serpents were erected beside each entrance to the temple. <ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
According to Lowell K. Handy, the Nehushtan may have been the symbol of a deity for snakebite cure within the Temple in Jerusalem.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In scripturesEdit
Hebrew BibleEdit
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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 20Template:Bibleverse, 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. Verse 9 says, "Moses made a copper serpent and mounted it on a standard; and when bitten by a serpent, anyone who looked at the copper serpent would recover."
The term appears in 2 Kings 18:4 in a passage describing reforms made by King Hezekiah, in which he tore down the high places, cut down symbols of Asherah, destroyed the Nehushtan,<ref name="Noth, 156">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>"The Mystery of the Nechushtan", Hershel Shanks, Biblical Archaeology Review, pp. 58–63, March/April 2007.</ref><ref name ="JOBL, 87">Template:Cite book</ref> and according to many Bible translations, gave it that name.<ref name="auto">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Regarding the passage in 2 Kings 18:4,<ref name="auto"/> 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".<ref name=Easton>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The tradition of naming it Nehushtan is not considered older than Hezekiah's time.<ref>"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 aetiological story in Num. 8 f, which states that this sacred symbol had its origin in the Mosaic age".</ref>
New TestamentEdit
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.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Jesus says "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up". (Template:Bibleverse)
Charles Spurgeon preached a famous sermon on "the Mysteries of the Brazen Serpent" and this passage from John's Gospel in 1857.<ref>C. H. Spurgeon, "The Mysteries of the Brazen Serpent", 1857</ref>
Book of MormonEdit
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,<ref>2 Nephi 25:20</ref><ref>1 Nephi 17:41</ref> the second is many years later by the prophet Alma,<ref>Alma 33:19–23</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> These same themes from Alma were reiterated by Nephi in the Book of Helaman.
Rabbinic literatureEdit
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).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Debated originsEdit
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. <ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This theory is supported by acknowledging the standard Egyptian practice of using the image of a serpent as to defend themselves against snake bites,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This is not widely accepted due to no known tradition or association between the Serpent and Ark.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In artEdit
There is a Brazen Serpent Monument on Mount Nebo in Jordan created by Italian artist Giovanni Fantoni.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 alsoEdit
- Caduceus
- Naassenes
- Nāga
- Nahusha in Hindu mythology, a king who became a serpent
- Ningishzida
- Ophites
- Rod of Asclepius
- Serpent Column
- Serpent symbolism
- Snake worship
- Staff of Moses
- Teraphim
- Uraeus
- Wadjet
FootnotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
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- Rowley, H. H. “Zadok and Nehushtan.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 58, no. 2, 1939, pp. 113–141. {{#invoke:doi|main}}.
- Hastings, James (1908). Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics (1st ed.). New York: 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, Rev.ed.). London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. p. 485.