The Brazen Serpent
The bronze serpent made by Moses at God's command to heal the Israelites bitten by serpents in the wilderness, raised on a pole so that the stricken who looked upon it lived, as told in the Book of Numbers. Kept for centuries in the Jerusalem Temple, it was later destroyed by King Hezekiah as an idol under the name Nehushtan, when the people had come to burn incense to it. Its story is told in Numbers and in 2 Kings, and the object itself is known only from scripture, with no archaeological trace. In later tradition the brazen serpent became a type of healing lifted up for all to see, and Chri