Compare & Correlate · Explicit
The bronze serpent
One object in three books. Moses makes it and whoever looks at it lives; Hezekiah breaks it because Israel has been burning incense to it; John names it as the pattern for the Son of Man lifted up. The two later texts name the earlier one, and those rows carry the linking verse. The rest are drawn without one.
Explicit: A later verse makes this link, and it is printed on the arrow.
The bronze serpent. Explicit — a later text makes this connection, and the verse that makes it is printed on the arrow.
- נָחָשׁ nachash, “serpent” — 2 verses in the annotated Hebrew corpus holding it together with nechoshet, bronze: 2 Kings 18:4, Numbers 21:9
- נְחֻשְׁתָּן Nechushtan, “the name given it” — 1 verse in the annotated Hebrew corpus: 2 Kings 18:4
The words, as the corpus holds them (each checked present, or absent, in the verses cited beside it):
- נָחָשׁ nachash, “serpent”
- נְחֹשֶׁת nechoshet, “bronze”
- קָטַר qatar, “burn incense”
- נָבַט navat, “look”
- חָיָה chayah, “live”
- כָּתַת katat, “crush”
- נְחֻשְׁתָּן Nechushtan, “the name given it”
Sources:
- Hebrew words and counts checked against the annotated corpus by tests/test_correlations.py; Greek references checked against SBLGNT for existence only.
Row by row
| Numbers 21 | 2 Kings 18 | John 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Made by Moses | Moses made a serpent of bronzeNumbers 21:9 | the bronze serpent that Moses had made2 Kings 18:4 | as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wildernessJohn 3:14 |
| Linking verse: 2 Kings 18:4 — “the bronze serpent that Moses had made” | |||
| Lifted up | set it on a poleNumbers 21:9 | the people burned incense to it2 Kings 18:4 | so must the Son of Man be lifted upJohn 3:14 |
| Linking verse: John 3:14 — “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” | |||
| Looking and living | whoever was bitten looked at it, and livedNumbers 21:9 | no word of healing; it had become an object of worship2 Kings 18:4 | whoever believes in him may have eternal lifeJohn 3:15 |
| John 3:15 continues the comparison of 3:14, but no verse sets looking beside believing; that step is a tradition's, not a text's. | |||
| Its end | nothing said | Hezekiah broke it in pieces, and it was called Nehushtan2 Kings 18:4 | no New Testament verse mentions it |
Where it appears in the text
- Numbers 21 — Moses makes the bronze serpent
- 2 Kings 18 — Hezekiah breaks the serpent Moses made
- John 3 — the serpent lifted up, named as the pattern
In the app this comparison opens beneath each of those chapters. Open it in TheophilusBible.