HEBREW WORD STUDY – SERPENT NACHASH – נחש Nun Cheth Shin

Numbers 21:9: “And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”

I suspect many of those who died from serpent bites were of the mixed multitudes that followed the Israelites out of Egypt who worshipped the Egyptian god Apophasis.  Apophasis was the god of death, darkness and an opponent of light. One had to show this god proper respect. They had to bow face down and most importantly they were not to look upon its countenance lest they would, allegedly, not experience its other role which was to be the patron of medicine. To gaze directly upon Apophasis would not only mean you would not get the benefit of a healing from Apophasis but you would also receive a fate worse than death, which was eternal darkness.  Apophasis was often pictured as a serpent with a human head who had fire coming out of its mouth. Such images are found throughout the ancient world in many cultures.  We even have the Medusa from Greek Mythology which is said to have evolved from the cult of Apophasis.  According to the myth of Medusa, who had a human head with hair made of serpents, that if you were to gaze directly upon her you would turn to stone.  The hero of The Iliad tells how Perseus chopped her head off and used it as a weapon. Then he gave it to the goddess Athena to put on her shield. Interesting stuff, but back to our story.

With all this belly aching going on by the children of Israel, God figured it was time for them to decide who they were going to serve. Looking at the syntax of Numbers 21:6, we see that God sent poisonous snakes to bite the people and many Israelites died.  The syntax would suggest that God sent the snakes to bite the people of the mixed multitude but there were also many Israelites who fell victim as well.  However, when the people repented or “turned” back to God, God gave a provision for recovery.  It is interesting that the word for the snake that Moses put on the staff is nachash which has a numerical value of 358.  The word for turn as in repentance shavanu also has numerical value of 358.  It is also the same numerical value of Mashiach which is the word for Messiah. That may be why Jesus said: “As the serpent was lifted in the wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”  

God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole and then to instruct the people to, gaze upon it.  Gasp! To the mixed multitudes and some Israelites to gaze upon a representation of the god Apophasis would not only mean no healing but a fate worse than dying from the snake bite and that would be to be sent to eternal darkness.  But there were those who were not overly influenced by the mixed multitude, he would openly declare that the god Apophasis was a fraud and that to prove it they would gaze upon this representation of the god Apophasis and just the opposite would happen, the true God would heal them and lead them into light, not darkness.  In verse 7 the Israelites had repented and the serpent they saw was a nachash, a symbol of their repentance.   When they looked at that serpent they defied the Egyptian god Apophasis and looked to the God Jehovah who once again embraced them and healed them.  As for the mix multitude and those who were overly influenced by them and feared to look upon the image of Apophasis and desecrate its image with their gaze for fear of the consequences of looking upon this god who would condemn them to eternal darkness, well they suffered the consequences for their continued belief in a false god.

There one other thing.  God told Moses to mount a seraph on the pole.  The next verse says he mounted a nachash on the pole. Why two different words for the same thing?  Both words can be rendered as a fiery serpent, so Moses did obey God, but note that the numerical value of nachash is the same as that for turn or repentance, the numerical value for seraph (fiery serpent) is 580 which is the same numerical value for tanasali, which means deliverer.