The Good and Evil Serpent (98 page)

The Fourth Evangelist inherits this traditional designation, but only after it had become an established title within the Palestinian Jesus Movement. E. Ruckstuhl rightly perceives that the Son of Man title in the Fourth Gospel does not originate in Gnostic circles; for him, it appeared within early Jewish wisdom traditions.
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O. Hofius correctly stresses that the theme of John 3:14–15 is the way of the Son of Man (much more than the crucifixion, as we have seen).
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More likely these wisdom traditions were shaped within Jewish apocalypticism, since
1 Enoch
is one of the most distinctive apocalypses. The apocalyptic background of the Son of Man in the Fourth Gospel is shown by the verses immediately preceding our central passage, 3:14–15. The term “Son of Man” first appears in the Fourth Gospel in 1:51. The meaning is clearly apocalyptic; the reader is informed he will see “heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Just prior to 3:14, the reader is informed that no one has ascended into heaven; this is a rejection of the claims made in many Jewish apocalypses. The Fourth Evangelist then claims that the only one from above is the one “who descended from heaven: the Son of Man” (3:13).

The Fourth Evangelist is stressing that the Son of Man—assumed to be identical with the Word defined in 1:1–18—is the bearer of God’s wisdom. The Son of Man brings God’s wisdom to earth.
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Since the serpent, especially in Judaism and in Jesus’ teachings, is the symbol of wisdom (Pos. 18), the Evangelist may have held some ophidian image here. Most likely, many of his readers will know that the serpent symbolizes wisdom.

The cosmic dimension of the Son of Man in Daniel,
1 Enoch
, and the Fourth Gospel is clear and needs no elaboration. According to the Fourth Evangelist, the Son of Man, Jesus, is from “above” and is returning to his Father who is above. Perhaps the Fourth Evangelist did not intend in 3:14–15 to bring out the cosmic dimension of the serpent, but we should not deny that he portrayed the Son of Man, as the serpent, being “lifted up.” If he did not initially intend to bring forward the cosmic dimension of ophidian symbolism, many of his readers would most likely understand that the Son of Man, as the serpent that is “lifted up,” has cosmic power (Pos. 8).

What are the consequences of such reflection? Two are most important. First, the reflection is significant because it exposes the error of the biblical experts who refuse to see any relation between Jesus (the Son of Man) and the serpent reflected or explicit in John 3:14. Perhaps these scholars assumed that God was never symbolized as, or by, a serpent in the Hebrew Bible. The serpent was indeed a symbol of God. According to Numbers 21, the upraised copper serpent signifies not only the power of God to heal; it also symbolized the presence of God. Those who lifted up their eyes for God’s help received it, because the upraised serpent symbolized the presence of God. As L. Ginzberg stated: “It was not, however, the sight of the serpent of brass that brought with it healing and life; but whenever those who had been bitten by the serpents raised their eyes upward and subordinated their hearts to the will of the Heavenly father, they were healed.”
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Likewise, the passage in 2 Kings 18 points back to Numbers 21; both use the serpent as a symbol of God. Those who worshipped God or Yahweh through Nechushtan (or even worshipped the image directly) most likely would have taken this image of a serpent as a symbol of the Creator (Pos. 7) and Protector (Pos. 6). As Augustine said, in
The City of God
, Moses’ serpent, “a symbol of the crucifixion of death,” was preserved in memory by the Hebrews and Israelites and later was “worshipped by the mistaken people as an idol, and was destroyed by the pious and God-fearing king Hezekiah, much to his credit.”
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The TANAKH (Old Testament) records that Moses, through divine intervention, was able to turn his rod into a serpent. The serpent (
) clearly signals that “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you” (Exod 4:5).

The farsighted vision of the Creator degenerated into the nearsighted worship of Nechushtan. Hezekiah wisely had the image of the serpent taken from the Temple. The Seventh Ecumenical Council seems rightly to have understood that those in Jerusalem (anachronistically called “Jews”), or at least some of them, began to worship the symbol of God’s healing. They became idolaters. Note the wording of Quaestio LVI:

Why was he praised in the Old Testament who broke down the brazen SERPENT(II. Kgs. xviii. 4) which long before Moses had set up on high? Answer: Because the Jews were beginning an apostasy from the veneration of the true God, venerating that SERPENT as the true God; and offering to it incense as the Scripture saith. Therefore wishing to cut off this evil, lest it might spread further, he broke up that SERPENT in order that the Israelites might have no longer that incentive to idolatry. But before they honoured the SERPENT with the veneration of adoration, no one was condemned in that respect nor was the SERPENT broken.
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Second, the reflection is significant because it reveals the error of scholars who assume or conclude that John 3:14–15 refers only to Jesus’ crucifixion. For example, in
Herrenworte im Johannesevangelium
, M. Theobald contends that the focus of the Son of Man sayings in the Fourth Gospel, “without doubt”
(ohne Zweifel)
, is on the death of Jesus.
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We have pointed out that crucifixion and exaltation (resurrection) are also intended in 3:14–15. These crucial verses are framed by the cosmic dimensions of Jesus, the Son of Man and God’s unique son. In 3:13 the Fourth Evangelist stresses that only the Son of Man has been in heaven and descended to earth. In 3:16 he again emphasizes the cosmic dimension of 3:14–15: “For God so loved the cosmos that he gave his unique Son, that all who are believing in him may not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus is intending to teach Nicodemus “heavenly” insights (3:12). The Fourth Evangelist seeks to inculcate the poetic vision of the crucifixion, an earthly event, as a heavenly event. Some readers of the Fourth Gospel, and perhaps the author, might have imagined the cross of Jesus, symbolized by Moses’ upraised serpent, as the pillar that once again united heaven and earth
(axis mundi)
and the way for Jesus to return to his Father. Perhaps, the Fourth Evangelist imagined that some believers would comprehend that the cross was Jacob’s cosmic ladder on which angels ascended and descended upon the triumphant Son of Man (1:51).

Key Symbols in Johannine Theology
. John 3:14–15 contains some of the Fourth Evangelist’s technical terms
(termini technici)
. Highly charged with Johannine symbolism are the following: “Moses,” “lifted up,” “wilderness,” “it is necessary,” “Son of Man,” “all who are believing,” and “eternal life.” These have already been discussed; perhaps it is necessary now only to point out the well-known fact that the Fourth Evangelist puts more stress on the verb “to believe” than any other New Testament author; it appears eleven times in Matthew, fourteen in Mark, nine in Luke, but ninety-eight times in the Fourth Gospel.
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The author of the
Epistle of Barnabas
, perhaps reading Numbers 21 through the lens of Johannine Christology, emphasizes that if one were to be healed by the serpent, he must have faith: “Moses said to them, ‘Whenever one of you … is bitten, let him come to the serpent that is placed upon the tree, and let him hope, in faith that it though dead is able to give life, and he shall straightaway be saved.’ “
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It is likely that the author of the
Epistle of Barnabas
knew the Fourth Evangelist’s interpretation of Numbers 21. He adds: “Moses makes a representation of Jesus” to show that Jesus must suffer, and thereby reveals how Jesus “shall himself give life.”
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The Semitisms in 3:14–15 indicate that this saying of Jesus antedates the Greek of the Fourth Gospel. It may have originated in the preaching of Jesus’ earliest Jewish followers. It is unlikely that it can be taken back to Jesus himself since all the evidence suggests that he imagined he might be stoned. Recall Jesus’ words: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you!” (Mt 23:37; Lk 13:34). Jesus thought he was a prophet. He also felt sent to Jerusalem, and that he would be stoned there. I agree with the numerous scholars who (perhaps disappointingly) have been forced to conclude that no authentic saying of Jesus indicates he contemplated that he would be crucified.

The double entendre of “to exalt” and “to lift up” on a cross is an Aramaism,
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since the Aramaic
‘ezd
^e
qeph
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denotes not only “to be erected” but also “to be crucified.”
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The paronomasia is not possible in Hebrew or Greek. In 1936, G. Kittel, in a major article unknown to many leading Johannine experts,
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argued persuasively that the knowledge of this Aramaic verb indicates that the Fourth Gospel was composed in Palestine or Syria.
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Now we may explore the remaining three issues: (7) intertextuality, (8) the possible remnants of a synagogal sermon, and (9) the evidence of an underlying anguine Christology in the Gospel of John.

Intertextuality
. John 3:14–15 is not a clear case of intertextuality, since no text appears within another text. Yet there is an echo of Numbers 21 in these verses. What text was in the mind of the Fourth Evangelist? That is impossible to discern, for two reasons. First, no text is quoted. Second, while he usually prefers the Greek translation of Israel’s Scriptures (the Septuagint), he is intermittently dependent on the Hebrew text (as in 19:35; perhaps in 12:41 he is influenced by a lost Targum).
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As Gabler long ago urged, we must ask if the Evangelist is supporting an argument “from the sayings of the books of the Old Testament, and even accommodating them to the sense of the first readers.”
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When we hear the echoes of Scripture, we perceive that the serpent symbolized not only wisdom (Pos. 18), but also life (Pos. 20), renewed life (Pos. 26), and eternal life (Pos. 27).

The importance of the allusion to Numbers 21 in the Fourth Gospel is brought into bold relief by the recognition that the Fourth Evangelist is unusually attracted by the vivid scenes from the Exodus narrative.
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Especially influential on his thought are the theologically significant symbolism of the paschal lamb (1:29), the manna (6:16–21), and the elusive quotation from some Scripture in 7:38 that may well be, as R. E. Brown suggested, to the psalmic celebrations of the incident when, according to Numbers 21, Moses struck the rock and water flowed to quench the thirst of those dying from lack of water in the wilderness.
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The pole on which Moses hung the metal serpent (03) appears in the Septuagint as “sign” (anLieiov); reflecting the Evangelist’s tendency to stress that Jesus’ miracles are “signs” suggests he may have been drawn to Numbers 21 because it was a “sign” that pointed to Jesus.

Thinking about how and why the Fourth Evangelist has interpreted Numbers 21 suggests that he imagines that Jesus is like the serpent. Both were raised up. Both provide healing and life.

What is the most important meaning of the serpent in the Fourth Gospel? The symbol of the serpent most often represents life (Pos. 20), but it also symbolized eternal life (Pos. 27). I am convinced that the Fourth Evangelist put the accent on the symbolism of eternal life; that is, Jesus is raised up symbolically like Moses’ serpent. And while Moses’ serpent gave life, Jesus guarantees eternal life for those who believe. The grammar proves the points; the conclusion to the two final purpose clauses is “eternal life”:

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
So it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up;
In order that
all who are believing in him may have
eternal life;
So did God love the world that he gave his unique son
In order that
all who are believing in him may not perish but may have
eternal life
. [3:14–16]

According to John 3:14, Jesus compares himself, as the Son of Man, to the serpent raised up by Moses. According to Matthew 10:16, Jesus told his twelve disciples: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, therefore be wise as serpents
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and innocent as doves.” The only parallel is in the Gospel of Luke, and it has only: “Go out, behold, I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves” (Lk 9:3). It seems to me that this saying belonged to Q, the putative lost source of Jesus’ sayings, and that Luke, due to a disdain for the symbol of the serpent, removed the reference to the serpent. The two most clearly positive uses of the serpent in the New Testament are attributed to Jesus by the First and Fourth Evangelists, and—according to many New Testament experts—these are our most Jewish Gospels (and, ironically, sometimes the most anti-Jewish Gospels).
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It seems to follow that Jesus’ followers portrayed him as a prophet who used the serpent to symbolize wisdom (Mt 10:16) and eternal life (Jn 3:14).
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