The Good and Evil Serpent (85 page)

When did the author of 2 Kings 18:4 live? It is far from certain. A case may be made for him writing these verses during the time of Josiah,
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but many commentators now think this introductory formula was composed during the exile and by the Deuteronomistic Historian.
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Thus, under or after the influence of the reforms of the Judean Kings Hezekiah (727–698) and Josiah (640–609), the author of 2 Kings 18:4 reported why the serpent and those who were members of its cult had to be eliminated from the Temple and probably also banished from the Land.
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The reason is that the symbol of the serpent was seen as an idol. It mattered little that the one intended might have been Yahweh. This option would be inappropriate to Dtr who believed in the commandment that forbids the making of any image. It also did not matter if the one intended was another god. This option was impossible within this author’s monotheism (belief in the existence of only one God). Such an idea was inappropriate in the Temple, even for a henotheist (one who worshipped only one God, but acknowledged the existence of other gods). Thus, the Nechushtan had to be removed from the Temple. It had to be pulverized.

Most likely under the influence of Isaiah’s attack on idolatry,
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King Hezekiah banished from the Temple and Judah the worshippers of a copper (or bronze) serpent, called Nechushtan. Presumably, they had been offering sacrifices to it, and not only ostensibly through it to Yahweh. Now, we can examine the questions raised by 2 Kings 18:4.

First: What is meant by “the high places” Hezekiah abolished? In antiquity, the high places
(habbamot
in 2 Kgs 18:4) were sacred sites on which shrines were built. Thus, the Deuteronomistic Historian stresses that all the structures for the worship of any deity, including Yahweh, at the high places were demolished. Henceforth, worship was only to be to the one God, Yahweh, and this worship was to be celebrated only in Jerusalem. Worship was no longer permitted in such old traditional sites as Dan, Bethel, and Shiloh. Thus, “the high places” denoted elevated spots, on mountains or hills, in which worship of any deity had been organized. These high places ceased to be places for worship with Hezekiah’s reform. It is conceivable, indeed likely, that serpent cults had continued not only in Jerusalem, with the Nechushtan, but also in these high places.

Second: What is the meaning of “the sacred pillars” Hezekiah broke? In Canaanite religion, notably in northern Galilee at Hazor and near Jerusalem especially at Gezer, there are massive stone monuments
(massevót
in 2 Kgs 18:4) erected for worship. These massevot were seen by Hezekiah and the Deuteronomistic Historian to rival the supremacy and exclusivity of Yahwism. Since stone pillars and a metal serpent would both symbolize permanency—and perhaps longevity or long life (if not immortality [perhaps too early in the evolution of human thinking]), there could be a relation between the worship through or to large raised stone pillars and the Nechushtan. Both pulled the eyes of the worshipper upward to what extended beyond the short life of humans.

Third: What is meant by “the pole of Asherah” Hezekiah cut down? We cannot be certain how to answer this question since a wooden pole would not survive 2,700 years, from Hezekiah’s time to the present. Most likely the fertility goddess Asherah was worshipped in groves and was associated with a sacred tree. The tree and the serpent are related icongraphi-cally and symbolically; both are chthonic symbols (Pos. 15) since the tree and serpent descend deep into the earth, the nether region and the source of life (Pos. 21). Hence, there could be a relation between the worship of the Canaanite Asherah and the Nechushtan, a serpent; both symbolized power (Pos. 3), divinity (Pos. 11), fertility (Pos. 1), and life (Pos. 20). Joines restricts the options for serpent symbology and opts only for the symbol of fertility: “Nehustan was borrowed from the Canaanites to affirm the agricultural powers of Yahweh.”
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While I am now persuaded that Ne-chushtan was inherited from Canaanite culture, I am even more convinced that it symbolized not only fertility but healing, divinity, and power.

Jerusalem had commercial and diplomatic links with the coastal cities, like Sidon to the north. Perhaps the worship of Nechushtan was influenced by worship in Sidon. Among the gods revered in Sidon was Eshmun, who was in Hellenistic times equated with Asclepius.
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Both were “serpent gods.” In Sidon, Eshmun was closely related to Astarte (who is identified with Aphrodite in the Greeek tradition) perhaps the most important deity in Sidon, and perhaps also in Ashlekon and Gaza.
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The veneration of Nechushtan, the copper serpent in the Temple, may be analogous to the worship of Asherah mentioned in 2 Kings 18:4. She is the goddess associated with the serpent cult in the ancient Near East. She often appears nude holding serpents in one hand or both hands. In the Ugaritic texts from Ras Shamra,
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Asherah, in Ugaritic Athirat, is the consort of El, the supreme deity, and “the procreatrix” of all the lesser gods. In 2 Kings 23:7, Asherah is most likely linked with sacred prostitution. There can be no doubt that the snakes shown with her help indicate her symbolization of fertility (Pos. 1).

Fourth: What is meant by the statement that Hezekiah “smashed the copper (or bronze) serpent”? Note that Hezekiah did not merely destroy the copper serpent; he pulverized it. That means he forced out all its alleged power and positive symbolism. The object could no longer convey power, divinity, and life; it was obliterated by Yahweh’s chosen ruler.

There is no reason to question the existence of a copper (or bronze) serpent in the Temple during the time of King Hezekiah. Copper and metal serpents or serpent images have been discovered throughout ancient Palestine, especially at Nahariyah, Hazor, Gezer, Megiddo, Tel Mevorakh, Timna’, Tel El-Ajjul, Beth Shan, Kinneret, Ekron, and Shechem. Clearly, worshippers of God and God Yahweh knew about the serpent cults and, before Hezekiah’s reform, allowed them to flourish within ancient Palestine, and also within the Yahweh cult.
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Perhaps pre-Hezekiah devotees of Yahwism either saw no threat from such worshippers, or sought to bring them into line with the monotheism (or henotheism) of Yahwism. Hezeki-ah’s reform is documented by controlled archaeological research; no metal serpents or serpent images that postdate the seventh century and antedate the Roman Period have been found in ancient Palestine. The many metal serpent images found in ancient Palestine all date from the Early Bronze Age (c. 2250
BCE)
at Ein Samiya near Ramallah to Iron Age II (c. 586
BCE)
at Ekron.
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The metal serpents, serpent art, and other forms of serpent iconography peak in the Late Bronze Age in ancient Palestine, but they do not disappear until the end of the Iron Age.
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Fifth: What is the relation between the high places, the sacred pillars, the pole of Asherah, and the copper (or bronze) serpent? In his religious (and political) reform, Hezekiah had the Nechushtan smashed so that no one could continue to worship either the serpent or God through it. There is every reason to assume that this metal serpent had been revered in the Temple for centuries before the time of Hezekiah. There is no evidence that it had appeared recently; in fact, the text assumes that it antedates the dedication of the Temple by Solomon—that is, it dates back to the time of Moses.

We have seen that it would be absurd to assume that the copper serpent was the only serpent cult object in and around Jerusalem known to Hezekiah and the Deuteronomistic Historian. As should now be evident, serpent cult objects have been discovered in controlled archaeological excavations in sites near Jerusalem, and these serpent images or serpents always antedate Hezekiah’s time or are roughly contemporaneous with it. The Nechushtan could have served as the main representative of a serpent cult in and around Jerusalem. With the action of Hezekiah, serpent cults ceased to exist in the Holy Land, and not only in and near the Holy City. Thus, as suggested earlier, there is most likely a connection between the abolishing of the holy places, the breaking of the sacred pillars, the cutting down of Asherah’s tree, and the shattering of the Nechushtan. All may have been related—or some worshippers of the Nechushtan may have seen a connection among them. Hence, Hezekiah’s actions are centered; he seems to be destroying the last vestiges of a serpent cult, and related cults, in and around Jerusalem. Hezekiah is not only centralizing the worship of Yahweh, he is making it possible to worship Yahweh, and Yahweh alone, in Jerusalem. The political implications can be discerned. Jerusalem becomes the undisputed capital as David had envisioned. Hezekiah proved to be a true son of David, his ancestor (2 Kgs 18:3).

Sixth: Why is the copper (or bronze) serpent placed last? The question is not easily answered by a scrutiny of the text. The Nechushtan is placed last probably because it was the most important and threatening place or object. The Nechushtan was not out of Jerusalem on some high place. It was in Jerusalem, and it was in the Temple. Most important, some Israelites felt they were good and faithful worshippers in the religion of Israel by worshipping at, or through it. What had been originally intended, according to the Elohist in Numbers 21, as a point of focusing the worshipper on being obedient to Yahweh had been reinvented. Now, the means became an end. Now, the benevolent Yahweh had been replaced by Nechushtan, a sacred serpent.

If we are correct in surmising that there is a relation among the high places, the sacred pillars, the tree of Asherah, and the Nechushtan, then the latter was mentioned last because it was not only in the Temple, but it was central to a serpent cult that surrounded Jerusalem.

Seventh: Was it really the copper (or bronze) serpent “Moses had made,” and why would this connection be indicated at this point? As mentioned while studying Numbers 21:4–9, some scholars think the Nechushtan is indeed the serpent made by Moses. Others think that Moses never made such a serpent, and that the account in Numbers 21 is an etiological cult legend; that is, the passage in Numbers was composed to give legitimacy to the worship of a metal serpent in the Temple. In either case, the historicity of a metal serpent in the Temple and the adoration of it by Israelites are accepted as an historical fact. Certainly, both the Elohist and Deuteronomic Historian report that there was a metal serpent in the Temple.

The connection with Moses may represent what Moses made—that is, a copper serpent—but the connection can also denote only chronology and the esteem and reverence provided by a long-cherished item. In religion, asserting longevity provides, or enhances, sacredness. The reference to Moses may simply indicate a connection with the time of Moses. In that ancient time, before David and Solomon, the serpent had certainly been worshipped, or revered, in the place now called Jerusalem. If the text is primarily a connection with Moses’ time and not with Moses, then the possibility of some connection with a Canaanite or Jebusite serpent deity or cult is at least conceivable.

Eighth: If there were Israelites devoted to the copper (or bronze) serpent, and if they “knew” that it had been made by Moses, would they not they have been outraged at the smashing of a sacred and long-cherished artifact from Moses’ own hand? How could Hezekiah and those around him—especially the Yahwists of his time—remove from the Temple and its surroundings a cult object that was associated with Moses? Hezekiah and the Yahwists were attempting to revive the religion of Moses. The Elohist who composed Numbers 21:4–9 did not deny the connection with Moses; he clarified its emphasis. Denying what some in Israel must have thought—that is, Moses had established the serpent cult and the worship of Nechushtan—the Elohist sought to show that Moses had emphasized a means, a cult object, through which Yahweh could heal “the people.”

It is dubious that Hezekiah and the Yahwists around him believed that Moses had made the copper serpent, the Nechushtan. Perhaps they knew that it derived from a Canaanite or Jebusite cult. It is possible, though speculative,
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that, as H. H. Rowley maintained,
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the worship of Ne-chushtan, which was banned by Hezekiah, may have originated within a Jebusite cult that had been conceivably administered by Zadok, who became David and Solomon’s high priest.

The genealogies of Zadok seem manufactured to link him with Gibeon or even with Aaron, but he seems to be the Jebusite priest in Jerusalem when David conquered the city.
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He then serves alongside David’s own priest, Abiathar, until he becomes the sole “high priest” in the Temple, when Abiathar backs Adonijah against Solomon. The connection with a Canaanite or Jebusite cult seems much more likely than assuming the historicity of the connection between Nechushtan and Moses. There was clearly much borrowing in the tenth century. Joines thus, in my judgment, correctly concludes that the Nechushtan “was introduced into the Israelite cult apparently during either the time of David or Solomon.”
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It is possible that the Nechushtan was a remnant of earlier non-Israelite beliefs and religious customs in ancient Palestine; after all, Hezekiah also “abolished the high places” and he “cut down the pole of Asherah.” These latter two acts clearly denoted the removal of Canaanite, and perhaps Je-busite, religious cults or practices in and around Jerusalem. This account of Hezekiah and Nechushtan shows that serpent cults were not only present in ancient Palestine, they were connected with Moses by the Elohist, and had penetrated worship in the Jerusalem Temple.