Texts in Conversation
Philo interprets the bronze serpent as self-mastery, the opposite of the serpent of Eve, so that looking at it and living means seeing God. In John, Jesus similarly finds a unique interpretation of the lifted-up serpent, as crucifixion.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 2:81
Classical
How, then, is their suffering healed? By making another serpent, opposite in kind to the serpent of Eve, namely the principle of self-mastery. For self-mastery runs counter to pleasure, a variable virtue to a variable affection, and a virtue that defends itself against its enemy, pleasure. So then God tells Moses to make the serpent that expresses self-mastery, and says: “Make for yourself a serpent and set it upon a standard” (ibid. 8). Notice that Moses makes this serpent for no one else but himself, for God’s bidding is “Make it for yourself.” This is so that you may know that self-mastery is not the possession of every man, but only of the man beloved by God. We must consider why Moses makes a serpent of brass, when he was given no direction about the material. These may be the reasons. In the first place, matter is not an element in God’s gifts that makes them this or that sort; but the gifts of us mortals are always seen as embodied in matter. A second reason: Moses loves excellences without bodily form, whereas our souls, being unable to get out of our bodies, crave excellence in bodily shape. But the principle of self-mastery, being forcible and unyielding, is likened to the strong and firm substance of brass, perhaps also because, whereas the self-mastery found in the man beloved by God is most precious and like gold, the self-mastery found in the man who has absorbed wisdom by gradual progress holds second place. Everyone, then, “whom a serpent has bitten, when he looks at it, shall live” (ibid.). This is quite true. For if the mind, when bitten by pleasure, the serpent of Eve, succeeds in seeing with the soul the beauty of self-mastery, the serpent of Moses, and through seeing this sees God Himself, he shall live; only let him look and take careful note.
Date: 20–50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
John 3:14
New Testament
12 If I have told you people about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” 16 For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Date: 90–110 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... Probably more helpfully, some interpreters saw Moses’ serpent as a positive alternative to the hostile ones that had bitten the people, which had more in common with the serpent in Eden. (Egyptians used images of snakes as prophylactic magic against snake bites.) If this tradition is not ad hoc and might be known by John’s audience, he may play on positive connotations of Moses’ serpent. [...] 297Moses’ serpent symbolizes endurance or self-mastery, the others pleasure, in Philo Alleg. Interp. 2.79–81; Agriculture 97–98. Citing Alleg. Interp. 2.79–86, Argyle, “Philo,” 386, suggests that Philo thereby implicitly identifies the serpent with one of the four virtues contained in the Logos. ...”
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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