When you think of snakes do you think of help and healing?
If you’re anything like me you think of destruction, pain, and being really uncomfortable whenever you think of a snake. I don’t like snakes. Yet if you’ve noticed the symbol on an ambulance, or your nurse’s pin, it is two snakes intertwined on a pole? How in the world are snakes supposed to symbolize help and healing?
Originally a single snake wrapped around a pole was the symbol, but in the early 1900s the AMA embraced a symbol from Greco-Roman mythology; namely, the Caduceus. The legend goes that Mercury (the patron saint of thieves and outlaws) tried to stop a fight between two snakes by throwing a rod at them, but rather than stopping the fight they wrapped themselves around the pole. What does that have to do with healing? It was the rod of Aesculapius that was thrown and Aesculapius is the god of healing.
But that single snake on a pole goes further back than Greco-Roman mythology. We see a similar symbol make an appearance in 2 Kings 18:1-4 where we read that the good king Hezekiah “broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it…” To understand more about Moses and the snake, we must turn to Numbers 21:4-9.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/JMrocek
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