The Bronze Serpent

I'm not sure this the proper forum but....

I have a concern regarding the accuracy of a Logos 6 info graphic. The bottom of this "Bronze Serpent" info graphic (Karbel Multimedia) uses 2 Kings 17:41 to assert that King Hezekiah destroyed this object, referring to it as "Nehushtan". My reading of this passage does not seem to support this assertion. Also, it does not appear that Logos makes any other mention of "Nehushtan".

Is there any other reference that supports this claim?

Thank you.

Haywood

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MJ. Smith

Welcome to the forums. An Everything Search, Topic Guide or Factbook will all provide other references.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/685100#Comment_685100

Handy, Lowell K. "Serpent, Bronze." Edited by David Noel Freedman. The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/685102#Comment_685102

A religious reform is attributed to the same King Hezekiah, during which "he also broke into pieces the copper snake that Moses had made, for until that time the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan" (2 Kings 18:4). This statement authenticates the antiquity of the story of Moses’ copper snake. Could such a story have been written after Hezekiah’s time—after the copper snake was declared an idolatrous object? It also allows us to conjecture that like other sacred relics from the Mosaic period, for example, the flask of manna (Exod. 16:34) and Aaron’s rod (Num. 17:25), the copper snake was also preserved and treasured. But whereas the above-named relics were kept in the adytum of the Temple, out of people’s sight, the copper snake, on top of its standard, was probably erected in the Temple courtyard where it could be seen and worshiped. Undoubtedly, while the minḥah, the meal offering, was sacrificed on the altar, the offerer would stare at the snake, hoping to repeat the Mosaic miracle of healing. Thus the sacrifice could in effect have been offered to the snake rather than to Israel’s God. Moreover, since the Canaanites regarded the snake as a cultic symbol of renewed life and fertility, it may have become over time a bridge to pagan worship within the Temple itself. Hence, Hezekiah destroyed it. The fear of associating autonomous power with the snake is reflected in the following mishnah: "Could the snake slay or the serpent keep alive? It is, rather, to teach you that whenever the Israelites directed their thoughts on high and kept their hearts in subjection to their Father in heaven, they were healed; otherwise they pined away"(Mish. RH 3:8).

Milgrom, Jacob. Numbers. The JPS Torah Commentary. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990.

Haywood Family

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/685103#Comment_685103

Thanks MJ. That clarified things for me. I just needed tp keep reading. I still think the graphic has the wrong 2Kings reference.

Haywood Family

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/685103#Comment_685103

Thank you for your timely response which has cleared up things for me. I guess I should have continued reading.

Haywood

Anne H

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/685103#Comment_685103

[:)]

MJ:

Thank you for teaching all of us newbies how to dig deeper with Logos.

Anne

Beloved Amodeo

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/685138#Comment_685138

To add to MJ. excellent responses The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, which is an excellent resource, has this helpful entry which I quote in part.

NEHUSHTAN נחשׁתן

I. The word nĕḥuštān occurs once in MT, in 2 Kgs 18:4, where it is the name of the bronze (or copper) serpent (nĕḥaš hannĕḥōšet) that →Moses had made in the wilderness (as related in Num 21:8–9) and that King Hezekiah destroyed. The word is a compound of *nuḥušt (Hebrew nĕḥōšet), ‘bronze, copper’, plus the *-ān affix (preserved as -ā- in Hebrew by dissimilation from the -o- type vowel in the previous syllable). The word nĕḥuštān literally means ‘the (specific) thing of bronze/copper’ (cf. the similar morphology of liwyātān, →Leviathan). Implicit in this name is a verbal play on nāḥāš, ‘snake’, of which nĕḥuštān is an image. Nehushtan appears to have been a ritual symbol which effected the cure of venomous snake bites, and which was the object of veneration (the burning of incense) by Israelites in the Jerusalem Temple courtyard.
II. The use of snake images to effect the cure of venomous snake bites is consistent with the ritual symbolism of snakes in the ancient Near East (→Serpent).

Hendel, R. S. (1999). Nehushtan. In K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, & P. W. van der Horst (Eds.), Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible (2nd extensively rev. ed., p. 615). Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans.