Small rant on our modern-day symbol for medicine and healthcare
(media.scored.co)
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I had once seen a different explanation. God was mad at the jews for not leaving the desert to fight a bunch of giants for their land, like He told them to do. God decided it was the elder generation holding the able bodied in check; they had been wandering the desert too long. God sent a plague of poisonous snakes to bite the old folks and wipe them out. But the snakes weren’t picky about who they bit, and young people were dying.
Moses lodged a complaint to God. God told them to enter the land of giants and get wood from a certain kind of tree, then carve it into a staff with 2 snakes facing each other. The staff would drive the snakes back into the desert and cure any bitten youngster that the staff touched.
The staff cured illness and drove away death. Now, why all the task lists? God did that a lot. Couldn’t He have just driven the snakes away and cured the poisoned via His will? And why didn’t the snakes obey His orders and only bite the elders?
... reread Numbers 21:1-9. That's not the story at all ... in fact, the snake of bronze is also featured later on in 2 Kings when it's cut into pieces for being worshiped as an idol. (Douay-Rheims has it as 4 Kings)
Whew.. that was a tough read. Yes, that is different than the story I heard. I heard it on a podcast called Mysterious Universe. They were discussing Dead Sea Scroll translations.
Always ... ALWAYS do your own research. And ... do yourself a favour. Read the Bible.
Aren’t the stories in the Dead Sea scrolls the ‘original’ tales; the oldest recorded telling of what ‘happened’. The versions taught today have been through 2000 years of factions publicizing their iterations.
This strife between God and Moses began when the desert jews needed water. God told Moses to strike a rock with a staff and water would come from the rock. So he did that and it worked, water came out. Later Moses needed guidance for dealing with the giants. God told Moses to speak words to a different rock. But Moses, maybe he had a brain fart, instead of speaking the words, he struck the rock because it had worked before, which was not what he was supposed to do. God got mad and banished Moses from entering the promised land. After all Moses had risked, he was written off. When the jews/God defeated the giants, after the snake drama; the jews flooded into the promised land. Poor Moses had to remain alone in the desert. Not much of a friend that old world god. From the Dead Sea scrolls.