Healing by Serpent: Ancient Medicine or Biblical Mystery?

The Israelites, wandering through the wilderness, once again complain about their situation. In response, venomous snakes appear in the camp, biting and killing many. When the people realize what’s happening, they ask Moses to intercede. The solution is unusual—God instructs Moses to craft a bronze serpent and place it on a pole. Anyone who looks at it after being bitten will survive.

The imagery is hard to ignore. A snake as a source of both harm and healing is an interesting choice. Why a serpent? Why not simply remove the snakes altogether? Instead, the Israelites are given a way to survive, but only if they choose to look at the bronze figure.

Snakes on a Staff: Not Just a Movie Title

This isn’t the only place where a serpent appears as a symbol of healing. In ancient Greece, Asclepius, the god of medicine, was associated with a staff entwined with a snake, a symbol that still appears in modern medical contexts. His sanctuary at Epidaurus was a place where the sick sought healing, often involving snakes in the process. The idea that the same creature that can harm might also help is a concept that appears in multiple traditions.

There’s also an interesting paradox at play. Snakes are often seen as dangerous or untrustworthy—an image reinforced in other biblical stories. Yet here, the very thing causing suffering becomes the means of relief. The story suggests that healing doesn’t necessarily come from the removal of hardship but from how one chooses to engage with it.

Look Here for a Cure: The Power of Perspective

The broader idea—of looking at something as part of the process of healing—extends beyond the story itself. Whether it’s a medical emblem or an ancient artifact, the theme of confronting what harms rather than avoiding it appears again and again. The bronze serpent offers a moment to pause and consider: how often do solutions come not from escaping a problem, but from facing it directly? Perhaps there’s something to be said about the psychological aspect of this—acknowledging the source of pain rather than ignoring it. In many cases, the act of looking itself can be transformative, forcing an individual or a society to engage with the reality of their condition. If symbols like the bronze serpent and the Rod of Asclepius still endure, it suggests that this idea continues to hold meaning across different cultures and time periods?