Bible

 Were there really fiery serpents sent by God to plague the offenders of Israel? Did a man named Moses receive a remedy from God which entailed a staff and a brazen serpent? Is this Biblical account reliable history?

The following paragraphs are from the book The Bible as History:

Surprisingly enough, quite recently we have had archaeological confirmation of two occurrences in the Biblical account of the journey through the desert, which nobody would have expected in this connection. In spite of all the planning and systematic work, chance nevertheless has its part to play in archaeology, and chance does not always pay any attention to what the scholars expect! In this case, it enabled the Israeli archaeologist Benno Rothenberg to discover a “serpent of brass” and a tabernacle in the copper mine area of Timna (Wadi Arabah).

It is reported that there was a similar idol in the temple at Jerusalem which was not removed until it was broken in pieces by King Hiskia (Hezekiah) of Judah, who reigned around 700 B.C. (2 Kings 18:4).[End of quote]

Many years later, the children of Israel transgressed against God in the matter of the brazen serpent. II Kings 18:4 speaks of King Hezekiah and Nehushtan:

He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

The Bible as History continues:

The serpent idol naturally reminds us of the Sumerian serpent staff on a vase dedicated to the god of life, Ningizidda. It reminds us, too, of the Aesculapius’s staff of a later phase of Classical Antiquity, as well as of the numerous serpents of Ancient Egypt. Already at the beginning of this century, a German scholar, H. Gressmann, had asserted that the “brazen serpent” in the Bible must have been taken over from the Midianites with whom the Israelis were in contact during the journey through the desert.

According to the Bible, the Midianites were descended from Abraham’s wife, Keturah (Gen. 25:2-6) and Reuel (or Jethro), a priest of the Midianites, who was the father-in-law, adviser, and co-celebrant “before the Lord” (Ex. 2:16, 3:1, 18:1) of Moses. The Israelites are supposed to owe the strange cult of the brazen serpent to Reuel. It is not without a touch of dramatic effect that we note that it was at an archaeological site showing signs of Midianite occupation that Benno Rothenberg’s found an idol in the form of a brazen serpent five inches in length and partly decorated with gold. As though this sensational confirmation of an important part of the Biblical accounts of the journey through the desert, which have been the object of so much discussion, were not enough, this small bronze serpent was found in the Holy of Holies of a tabernacle! [End of quote]