In Num. 21: 4-9, after complaining against God, the Israelites were punished with a plague of venomous serpents. Following their apology, God commanded Moses to fashion a bronze serpent and mount it on a standard; the bitten were to look at it to recover. The use of the serpent form is striking, as it seems to boldly negate the fundamental Torah law, which prohibits the use of any images or statues. To gain better insight into the narrative, the first section of this work explores a possible context for it, based on archaeological findings. The second section focuses on the two prominent Egyptian elements contained in the narrative, the serpent and the standard, whose local symbolism is evaluated. The third section explores whether there are ancient Near Eastern parallels for the healing serpent. The narrative, in the fourth section, is examined according to its inner-Biblical interpretation. As the episode is the last of the ten wilderness complaint sequences, each is analyzed for a comprehensive understanding of Num. 21: 4-9; what elements, if any, are unique to it, and might have contributed the narrative's use of this peculiar remedy?
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.82684 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Birkan, Amy |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Jewish Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002227109, proquestno: AAIMR12698, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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