Bronze Serpent
Typological treatment in the corpus
The bronze serpent which Moses fashioned at God’s command and lifted up on a pole (Num. 21:8-9) is identified by Jones as a type of Christ, who as the Son of Man had to be lifted up. Jesus’ own typological interpretation in John 3:14-15 — “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” — makes this an NT-authorized typology. Jones connects the serpent on the pole with the number nineteen (Yod-Teth combination: hand of the serpent) and with the exaltation of Christ on the cross as healing for the humanity bitten by the sin-serpent.
Biblical anchoring
| Reference | Context |
|---|---|
| Num. 21:4-9 | Israel bitten by fiery serpents; God commands Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it on a pole; whoever looks at it shall live |
| 2Kgs. 18:4 | Hezekiah destroyed the bronze serpent (Nehushtan) which had become an object of worship |
| John 3:14-15 | ”As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” |
| John 12:32-33 | ”And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself” — lifting up as crucifixion |
Typological interpretation per author
Jones
Jones develops the bronze serpent within the framework of his numerological hermeneutic. The number nineteen (Yod-Teth) consists of Yod (10 = hand, deed) and Teth (9 = serpent, surround). The letter-image definition Jones gives is:
“The hand (outworking) of the serpent (wisdom).”1
Jones reads this not negatively but positively: Christ is the true serpent on the pole, the lifted-up one who brings wisdom and healing. He explicitly connects this letter-image significance with the bronze serpent in Num. 21:9 and with the lifting up of the Son of Man in John 12:32-33. The nineteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet — the kof — deepens the connection with faith and hearing:
“The 19th letter of the Hebrew alphabet is the kof, which literally means ‘the back of the head.’ The word picture has to do with hearing God’s voice in ‘the back of your head (mind).‘”2
The typological connection is already explicitly made in the New Testament by Jesus himself (John 3:14-15): looking up at the bronze serpent — the sole condition for healing — corresponds to faith in the lifted-up Christ as the sole condition for eternal life. The structure is identical: a people bitten by serpent-venom can only live by looking up at the sign God himself appointed.
Jones’ linking of the number nineteen to the typology of the bronze serpent fits within his broader system of the twenty-two Hebrew letters as hermeneutical instrument: each letter carries a biblical-typological principle, and number nineteen — faith and hearing — is anchored in the image of Christ on the cross drawing “all men” to himself (John 12:32-33): the surrounding of humanity by the lifted-up Son of Man.
Disputed aspects
The bronze serpent later became an object of idolatry (Nehushtan, 2Kgs. 18:4), which prompted Hezekiah to destroy it. This does not contradict its typological function: the type fulfills its purpose once the antitype has come — the destruction of the type after fulfillment is within typological hermeneutics not a negation but a confirmation.
Related types
- Connected: passover (Passover lamb and bronze serpent: both types of Christ’s death as deliverer)
- Via number symbolism: 19 (number of faith and hearing; teth-letter: serpent as encircling)