Numbers 21:8 (WEB)
The LORD said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
Catechism · 1
“Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim.” — Catechism footnote: Cf. Num 21:4-9; Wis 16:5-14; Jn 3:14-15; Ex 25:10-22; 1 Kings 6:23-28; 7:23-26.
Fathers and councils · 6
Irenaeus of Lyons
“For the law never hindered them from believing in the Son of God; nay, but it even exhorted them so to do, saying that men can be saved in no other way from the old wound of the serpent than by believing in Him who, in the likeness of sinful flesh, is…” — editor's note: Num. xxi. 8.
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Tertullian
“…anything,” set forth a brazen serpent, placed on a “tree,” in a hanging posture, for a spectacle of healing to Israel, at the time when, after their idolatry, they were suffering extermination by serpents, except that in this case he was exhibiting the Lord’s cross on which the “serpent” the devil was “made a show…” — editor's note: Their sin was “speaking against God and against Moses” (Num. xxi. 4–9).
Read the whole comment“The form, however, of the brazen serpent which the Lord afterwards commanded Moses to make, afforded no pretext for idolatry, but was meant for the cure of those who were plagued with the fiery serpents.” — editor's note: Num. xxi. 8, 9.
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Augustine of Hippo
“Therefore also when by serpents in the desert they were being bitten and being slain, the Lord commanded Moses to exalt a brazen serpent in the desert, and admonish the people that whosoever by a serpent had been bitten, should look thereupon and be made whole.” — editor's note: Numb. xxi. 8.
Read the whole comment“This was done: men were bitten; they looked and were healed.” — editor's note: Num. xxi. 6–9.
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Basil the Great
“Moses, it is said, set the serpent “upon a pole.”” — editor's note: Num. xxi. 8.
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Cross-references · 6
Cited together in The Five Books Against Marcion II.22.
Cited together in The Five Books Against Marcion II.22.
Cited together in The Five Books Against Marcion II.22.
Cited together in The Five Books Against Marcion II.22.
Cited together in The Five Books Against Marcion II.22.
Cited together in The Five Books Against Marcion II.22.