The Staff of Moses

Nehushtan

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Staff of Moses

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staff_of_Moses 

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The Staff of Moses, also known as the Staff of God is a staff mentioned in the Bible and Quran as a walking stick used by Moses. According to the Book of Exodus, the staff (Hebrew: מַטֶּה matteh, translated "rod" in the King James Bible) was used to produce water from a rock, was transformed into a snake and back, and was used at the parting of the Red Sea. Whether the staff of Moses was the same as the staff used by his brother Aaron has been debated by rabbinical scholars.

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References to the Staff

The staff is first mentioned in the Book of Exodus (Ex 4:2), when God appears to Moses in the burning bush. God asks what Moses has in his hand, and Moses answers "a staff" ("a rod" in the KJV version). The staff is miraculously transformed into a snake and then back into a staff. The staff is thereafter referred to as the "rod of God" or "staff of God" (depending on the translation).

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"And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs". And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, "Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive".

And Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace". And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, "Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life". And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. (KJV. Exodus chapter 4)

Moses and Aaron appear before the pharaoh, and Aaron's rod is transformed into a serpent. Pharaoh's sorcerers are also able to transform their own rods into serpents, but Aaron's rod swallows their rods (Exodus 7:10–12). Aaron's rod is again used to turn the Nile blood-red. It is used several times on God's command to initiate the plagues of Egypt.

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Relation to Aaron's rod

Because Aaron's rod and Moses' rod are both given similar, seemingly interchangeable, powers, Rabbinical scholars debated whether or not the two rods were one and the same. According to the Midrash Yelammedenu (Yalḳ. on Ps. ex. § 869):

the staff with which Jacob crossed the Jordan is identical with that which Judah gave to his daughter-in-law, Tamar (Gen. xxxii. 10, xxxviii. 18). It is likewise the holy rod with which Moses worked (Ex. iv. 20, 21), with which Aaron performed wonders before Pharaoh (Ex. vii. 10), and with which, finally, David slew the giant Goliath (I Sam. xvii. 40).

David left it to his descendants, and the Davidic kings used it as a scepter until the destruction of the Temple, when it miraculously disappeared. When the Messiah comes it will be given to him for a scepter in token of his authority over the heathen.

In later Jewish legend the rod was said to have been created at the beginning of the world on the sixth day of creation and to have been passed down through the hands of the major patriarchs before being inherited by Moses.

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Alleged present location

There are many speculations about what has happened to Moses's staff. The Midrash (a homiletic method of biblical exegesis) states that the staff was passed down from generation to generation and was in the possession of the Judean kings until the First Temple was destroyed. It is unknown what became of the staff after the Temple was destroyed and the Jews were exiled from the land.

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There is a mention of the rod of Moses in a deposition of Nicolas, abbot of the Icelandic Benedictine monastery of Thingeyrar, who had seen it guarded in a chapel of a palace in Constantinople in c. 1150. According to this source, the archbishop of Novgorod, Anthony, stated that it was in the church of St Michael in the Boukoleon Palace, among other precious relics. After the sack of Constantinople in 1204 it was transported to France, where Bishop Nevelon placed it in Soissons cathedral and it then passed to the treasury of the Sainte-Chapelle.

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According to an identifying document at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Moses's staff is on display today within the Sacred Relics collection at the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, Turkey. The Topkapı Palace holds other reputedly holy relics, most notably those attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad (such as his bow, his sword, his footprint, and a tooth). Topkapı Palace was officially designated a museum in 1924, and the holy relics were placed on public view on 31 August 1962. It is said that Sultan Selim I (1512–1520) brought the holy relics to Topkapı Palace after conquering Egypt in 1517.

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Shia Islam

It is narrated in Kitab al-Kafi that Ja'far al-Sadiq claims that the "Tablets of Moses and the Staff of Moses are with us. We are the heirs of the Prophets"

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THE BIBLICAL CADUCEUS—SYMBOL OF MEDICINE

Source: https://earlychurchhistory.org/medicine/the-biblical-caduceus-symbol-of-medicine/ 

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The definition of a caduceus is a staff from ancient times which shows one or two serpents coiled around a staff. Its symbol is a medical one. The word itself means “herald.”

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The original caduceus is of Biblical origin—a rod with a brass snake on it. The Greeks over a thousand years later gave their god Hermes a rod with wings on the top and two snakes entwined around it. But their god of healing, Ascelpius, had the same rod and snake that Moses had made.

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The first appearance of the symbol, especially in relation to healing, is found in the Jewish Tanakh during the Jews’ Wandering in the Wilderness in c. 1400’s BC. The Old Testament states:

“The people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this desert, for there is no bread and no water, and we are disgusted with this rotten bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us.

And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” Numbers 21:5-9

About a thousand years later in c. 550 BC, the Jews had preserved not only Moses’ five books of the Torah and other of their prophets’ writings, but had preserved the serpent of brass on a pole which Moses long ago had made as a mark of healing for the Jews:

“In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. (Hezekiah) did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan.” 2 Kings 18: 1-4

The Jews had forgotten the history of the brazen snake on a pole and since it was such a long time since the meaning was taught, they had been worshipping it as a pagan symbol. They even burned incense to it as they were doing for all their pagan gods. “It” had a name “Nehushtan” which is a derogatory name in Hebrew meaning “a mere piece of brass/ a brazen thing.” The “right in the eyes of the Lord” King Hezekiah tore it down and rid Israel of all the rest of its pagan idols.

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The caduceus has always been a medical/saving lives symbol. The adoption, in 1902, of the caduceus for US Army medical officer uniforms popularized the use of the symbol throughout the medical field in the United States. There are today many countries and organizations which have the caduceus as their logos.

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During the pandemic of deadly snakes when the Jews were in the wilderness, many people were dying from their venomous bites. They came to Moses and said,.. “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord.” They repented their sins. God, Who is ALL-FORGIVING, told Moses:

“Make a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”

It is interesting that Jesus took those very verses from those Scriptures, written 1,400 years before He was born, and identified Himself with the caduceus, with the snake on a pole. He said:

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” John 3:14, 15

We are all dying by the snake bites of our sins. The world is an evil place and there are many temptations, delights and false “prophets” that lure us into their deadly dens. Jesus took all my/your/our sins when He was willingly lifted up on the Cross. He was born to die for me/you on that old Rugged Cross.

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“When we confess our sins, He is Faithful and Just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

After the Jews confessed their sins, “it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32

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