Bronze Serpent

Biblical Text

The account appears in Numbers 21:4-9. The Israelites set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea in order to go around the land of Edom. Discouraged by the hardship of the journey, the people spoke against God and against Moses. They complained that there was no bread and no water and that they loathed "this light bread," a reference to the manna. The LORD then sent fiery serpents among the people, and many of them were bitten and died. The people confessed their sin and asked Moses to pray for them. God commanded him to make a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole, and Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole. Anyone who had been bitten by a serpent lived when he looked at the bronze serpent (Numbers 21:9).

The bronze serpent appears again in 2 Kings 18:4. Hezekiah, king of Judah, carried out a reform that removed the high places and idols. Because the children of Israel had until that time been burning incense to the bronze serpent, he broke it in pieces and called it "Nehushtan."

Background and Terminology

The incident took place near the end of the forty years in the wilderness. Because Edom had refused to let them pass, the Israelites were taking a long detour (Numbers 20:14-21). The text does not specify the exact location, and various sites have been proposed.

The Hebrew word for "fiery serpent," saraph, is related to a verb meaning "to burn." It is generally taken to describe the burning pain of the bite. In Isaiah 6 the same word refers to the seraphim beside the throne of God (seraphim and cherubim).

In Hebrew, "bronze serpent" is nehash nehoshet. The similar sounds of "serpent" (nahash) and "bronze" (nehoshet) are widely noted as a wordplay. Because nehoshet means copper or bronze, some translations render the phrase "copper serpent."

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

In his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus said, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15). In the Gospel of John, "to be lifted up" refers both to being hung on the cross and to being exalted (John 8:28; 12:32-33).

Accordingly, Christian tradition has read the bronze serpent on the pole as a type (a figure that foreshadows a later reality) of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross. Looking at the bronze serpent is interpreted as looking to Christ in faith. In 1 Corinthians 10:9, Paul cites the wilderness generation, who tempted the Lord and were destroyed by serpents, as a warning to the church.

Interpretation and Issues

• Relationship to the prohibition of images: A frequently raised question is why God had an image of a serpent made when the Ten Commandments forbid the making of images. Many interpreters hold that the bronze serpent was not an object of worship but a sign bearing God's promise. They also point to Hezekiah's destruction of the serpent, once it had become an object of incense offerings, as an example of guarding against idolatry. The Reformed tradition frequently cites this passage as grounds for criticizing the veneration of sacred objects or images.
• Who gave life?: The apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon (chapter 16) and the Jewish Mishnah are said to interpret the account as teaching that it was God, not the bronze serpent itself, who saved the people. This reading is broadly shared across denominations.
• Later associations: Some claim that the medical symbol of a serpent coiled around a staff derives from the bronze serpent. The symbol, however, is generally regarded as originating from the Rod of Asclepius in Greek mythology.

In the Korean Church

The bronze serpent is frequently cited together with John 3:14-16 in evangelistic preaching and in sermons during Lent and Holy Week. It is used mainly to illustrate the central point of the gospel: "Look and live."