The Mystery Nechushtan

058

After all, it had been fashioned by Moses himself a half millennium earlier—and for good purpose.

In the Biblical passage that tells us what Hezekiah did, we learn of several other things the late-eighth century B.C.E. king destroyed: “He abolished the high places (or shrines; Hebrew bamot) and smashed the pillars (or sacred pillars; Hebrew matzevot) and cut down the sacred pole (or post; Hebrew asherah). He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent (Nechushtan)” (2 Kings 18:4).

060

All but the Nechushtan (which is simply Hebrew for “serpent” or “snake”) are quite understandable, especially in terms of Hezekiah’s well-known religious reform aimed at centralizing worship in the Jerusalem Temple. But the Nechushtan? What is it doing here?

The Nechushtan is first described in Numbers 21:4–9. There we are told that after Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt, they became dissatisfied with their living conditions in the wilderness and complained bitterly to Moses: “Why did you make us leave Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and no water, and we have come to loathe this miserable food.” Because of their complaints, Yahweh, the Israelite God, sent snakes that bit people, causing the deaths of many. The people then pleaded with Moses to intercede on their behalf. Yahweh instructed Moses to make a serpent and set it on a pole; when any Israelite looked upon it, he or she would recover from the snake bite. The God-dictated remedy proved effective.

Scholars have often speculated that Hezekiah destroyed the Nechushtan because it had come to be worshiped in the Temple and hence was as objectionable as the other cultic objects condemned in 2 Kings 18:4. In a study that proposes another explanation for Hezekiah’s destruction of Moses’ Nechushtan, Kristin A. Swanson of Luther College is skeptical of the idea that the Nechushtan was worshiped.¹ Both 1 and 2 Kings are part of the great Deuteronomic History extending from Deuteronomy itself through Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. The high places (bamot), the pillars (matzevot) and the sacred pole (asherah) are all described in this Deuteronomic History as belonging to the Canaanites or other nations. For example, in Deuteronomy 7:5 and 12:3, the Israelites entering the Promised Land are commanded to tear down the heathen altars (mizbechot) and their pillars (matzevot) and their sacred posts (asherot). In 2 Kings 21:2–3 we learn that Manassah “rebuilt the shrines (bamot) that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he [Manassah] erected altars (mizbechot) for Baal and made a sacred post (asherah), as King Ahab of Israel had done.” Pillars (matzevot) and sacred poles (asherot) are frequently recognized as part of the worship of Baal (e.g., Judges 3:7; 6:25; 2 Kings 3:2; 10:26–27; 23:4). The Deuteronomist describes the presence of high places (bamot), pillars (matzevot) and the sacred poles (asherah) in the cult as the “sin” of the people or the king: in 1 Kings 14:15–16 as the sin of Jeroboam; in 1 Kings 14:23 as the sin of Rehoboam and the people; in 1 Kings 16:33 as the sin of Ahab; in 2 Kings 13:6 as the sin of Jehoahaz and the people; and in 2 Kings 17:9–10 as the sin of Hoshea 061and the people. And the destruction of these cultic items is praised in the reforms of Hezekiah and later by King Josiah.

In contrast, in the entire Deuteronomic History, the Nechushtan is mentioned nowhere else except in the passage from 2 Kings quoted at the opening of this article. If this snake were really an image that had been worshiped in the Temple, we would expect it to be criticized by the Deuteronomist.

Professor Swanson proposes a different explanation. She believes the destruction of the Nechushtan can best be understood in the context of the politics of the time.

In the late eighth century B.C.E., Hezekiah was a vassal of Assyria, the superpower of the day. When Hezekiah joined a rebellion against Assyria (2 Kings 18:7), the Assyrian ruler Sennacherib invaded Judah. According to the famous cuneiform prism of Sennacherib, he conquered 46 fortified Judahite cities. The Bible admits as much: In 2 Kings 18:13 we are told that Sennacherib captured all the fortified Judahite cities and deported a part of the population. The Sennacherib prism states that he took prisoner 200,150 Israelites, as well as horses, mules, camels and cattle.

Hezekiah, however, was permitted to remain on the throne—somewhat unusual in the case of an Assyrian vassal king who rebelled. To be permitted to remain on the throne, Hezekiah no doubt had to make it abundantly clear to Sennacherib that he would henceforth be a loyal vassal to Assyria. According to 2 Kings 18:14–16, Hezekiah sent word to Sennacherib that he would bear whatever burden the king of Assyria imposed. Sennacherib demanded 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of 062gold. Hezekiah had to strip the precious metals from the doors and doorposts of the Temple. The Sennacherib prism confirms this general impression, stating that Sennacherib increased Hezekiah’s annual tribute obligation and that Sennacherib received from Hezekiah 30 talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, different types of stones, furniture inlaid with ivory, different types of wood, elephant hides, as well as his daughters, concubines and musicians.

Another way that Hezekiah showed his loyalty to Sennacherib, according to Professor Swanson, was by removing the royal symbolism by which Hezekiah asserted his authority as king. Did the Nechushtan fall into this category?

One Egyptian symbol previously used by Hezekiah that seems to have been discontinued at the end of his reign is found on the famous l’melekh handles. L’melekh means simply “[belonging] to the king.” L’melekh handles, as the name implies, are seal impressions stamped on the handles of l’melekh jars. More than 2,000 of these handles have been found in excavations in Israel. In addition to the word l’melekh, the seal impression includes one of four cities in Israel: Hebron, Socoh, Ziph and Mmšt (which has not been identified with certainty).^a The l’melekh handles also contain an icon: either a two-winged sun disk or a four-winged scarab beetle. Both are clear Egyptian symbols.

A seal impression from Hezekiah’s reign bears the same Egyptian symbol: a two-winged scarab beetle. The inscription on the seal reads: “Belonging to Hezekiah, (son of) Ahaz, King of Judah.” Above the scarab beetle is the inscription yhdh (“Judah”).^b

What function the l’melekh handles served is unclear. Some say the seal impression on the handle was a government stamp certifying the contents. Other explanations have been suggested, but the important point here is that they appear only during King Hezekiah’s reign. Then they simply disappear, having been replaced by rosettes. Jar handles from the seventh century B.C.E. with the same provenance as the l’melekh jars and from the same type of jar have been found in Judah. Instead of the winged sun disk and scarab, however, they 063carry the symbol of the rosette,² an Assyrian symbol of royal power.

As archaeologist Jane Cahill has commented,

The l’melekh-impressed storage jars were produced in anticipation of Sennacherib’s campaign to Judah in the late eighth century B.C.E. … When Israelite kings adopted the rosette design, they were probably following the Assyrian model … For Judahite kings, the rosette was the ideal symbol to represent [Assyrian] authority.^c

With Assyrian domination of Judah secure, it would no longer do to have Judahite royalty represented by Egyptian iconography.

A winged Uraeus cobra is another symbol found on seals from Judah in the eighth century B.C.E. In Egypt, the Uraeus was a royal symbol worn on the diadem of the pharaoh and some Egyptian deities. The Uraeus protected the pharaoh from his enemies by spitting fire at them. The Uraeus on amulets protected mummies from snakes in the underworld.

The Israelite Nechushtan functioned much like the Egyptian Uraeus. The Nechushtan fashioned by Moses in the wilderness in Numbers 21:4–9 served an apotropaic (protective) purpose, just as the Egyptian amulets did. Like these Egyptian amulets, the Nechushtan, in Professor Swanson’s words, “was a manufactured object to avert the ill effect of its real-life counterpart.” An especially common Egyptian amulet depicted the god Horus as a naked child gripping snakes and scorpions in his hands and standing on the backs of crocodiles. Anti-venom spells on the amulets indicate the function of the depiction.

When Sennacherib invaded Judah in 701 B.C.E to suppress the rebellion of Hezekiah, the results were dreadful. Hezekiah became a mere puppet ruler who had to demonstrate his loyalty to the world superpower, Assyria, by whose leave he remained on the Judahite throne. The destruction of the Nechushtan, a removal of Egyptian symbolism, was part of the overall elimination of Egyptian symbolism, demonstrating Judah’s loyalty to the new, all-powerful Assyrian hegemon.

After all, it had been fashioned by Moses himself a half millennium earlier—and for good purpose. In the Biblical passage that tells us what Hezekiah did, we learn of several other things the late-eighth century B.C.E. king destroyed: “He abolished the high places (or shrines; Hebrew bamot) and smashed the pillars (or sacred pillars; Hebrew matzevot) and cut down the sacred pole (or post; Hebrew asherah). He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent (Nechushtan)” (2 Kings 18:4). 060 All but the Nechushtan (which is simply Hebrew for “serpent” or “snake”) are quite understandable, especially in terms of Hezekiah’s […]