Editing Nehushtan (section)

== Debated origins ==
Old Testament scholar [[H. H. Rowley]] proposed that Nehushtan, as it was known during Hezekiah’s reign, had no origins in [[Yahwism]] despite being regarded as a symbol of Yahweh at the time of its destruction. <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rowley |first=H. H. |date=June 1939 |title=Zadok and Nehushtan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3259856 |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=58 |issue=2 |page=137 |doi=10.2307/3259856 |jstor=3259856}}</ref> Instead, Rowley theorized that the bronze serpent destroyed by King Hezekiah was a sacred pre-Israelite symbol of serpent worship associated with a [[Canaanite religion|Canaanite god]] and was adapted by the Israelites following the occupation of Jerusalem.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rowley |first=H. H. |date=1939 |title=Zadok and Nehushtan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3259856 |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=58 |issue=2 |page=137 |doi=10.2307/3259856 |jstor=3259856 |issn=0021-9231}}</ref> W.W.G. Baudissin was also of the belief that the Canaanite bronze serpent was adapted by the Israelites between 850–750 B.C.E following their settlement in Jerusalem.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Joines |first=Karen Randolp |date=1968 |title=The Bronze Serpent in the Israelite Cult |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3263536 |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=87 |issue=3 |page=253 |doi=10.2307/3263536 |jstor=3263536 |issn=0021-9231}}</ref>

Egyptologist [[Henry Hall (Egyptologist)|Henry Hall]] supports the theory that the Nehushtan destroyed by Hezekiah was not associated with Yahweh, but Hall alternately suggests that it was an ancient serpent image carried from Egypt by the ancestors of the Israelites.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=H. R. |title=The Ancient History of the Near East: From the Earliest Times to the Battle of Salamis |publisher=Methuen & Co. Ltd. |year=1927 |edition=7th, Revised |location=London |page=485}}</ref> This theory is supported by acknowledging the standard [[Ancient Egyptian religion|Egyptian practice]] of using the image of a serpent as to defend themselves against snake bites,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Joines |first=Karen Randolp |date=September 1968 |title=The Bronze Serpent in the Israelite Cult |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3263536 |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=87 |issue=3 |page=251 |doi=10.2307/3263536 |jstor=3263536 }}</ref> in a form of [[sympathetic magic]].

In his notion that the brazen serpent existed within Jerusalem before the arrival of the Israelites, Rowley argues that there is no record of Nehushtan before the reign of Hezekiah, aside from the Numbers 21 story of the bronze serpent. Rowley states that had Nehushtan been brought into Jerusalem at any time as a genuine [[relic]], there would be a documented record of its arrival or transfer. In his argument, Rowley also inserts that the arrival of Moses's sacred rod would be a public spectacle with an honorary procession, which would be well documented.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rowley |first=H. H. |date=1939 |title=Zadok and Nehushtan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3259856 |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=58 |issue=2 |page=133 |doi=10.2307/3259856 |jstor=3259856 |issn=0021-9231}}</ref> Instead, he proposes that the bronze serpent became associated with Nehushtan through process of [[religious syncretism]], citing that the gradual fusion of Canaanite and Israelite beliefs and customs. He hypothesized that symbols representing both religions may have been erected side by side within a sanctuary or public space as a political maneuver following the Israelite settlement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rowley |first=H. H. |date=1939 |title=Zadok and Nehushtan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3259856 |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=58 |issue=2 |page=139 |doi=10.2307/3259856 |jstor=3259856 |issn=0021-9231}}</ref>

[[Hebraist]] and Old Testament scholar [[R. H. Kennett]] hypothesized that Moses made the Brazen Serpent and that the [[Ark of the Covenant]] was created specifically to contain it despite no known written reference made to the Ark's contents. Kennett also theorized that should Nehushtan truly date back to the time of Moses, it was either maintained by priests after fleeing to [[Nob, Israel|Nob]] from [[Shiloh (biblical city)|Shiloh]] or accompanied the Ark as it was carried off by the [[Philistines]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hastings |first=James |title=Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics |publisher=C. Scribner's Sons |year=1908 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=791–793}}</ref> This is not widely accepted due to no known tradition or association between the Serpent and Ark.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rowley |first=H. H. |date=1939 |title=Zadok and Nehushtan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3259856 |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=58 |issue=2 |page=135 |doi=10.2307/3259856 |jstor=3259856 |issn=0021-9231}}</ref>