The bronze serpent
object · 3 works · 3 mentions · 3 anchored passages
a likeness of a serpent out of bronze · bronze serpent · the effigy of the bronze serpent · the image of the bronze serpent
in the texts
Adversus Judaeos
Bronze serpent raised by Moses, read as a type of the crucified Christ.
The same Moses again — after every likeness of any thing was forbidden — why did he set up a bronze serpent placed on a tree in the posture of one hanging, as a salutary spectacle for Israel, at the time when they were being destroyed by serpents after their idolatry, except that here he was pointing to the Lord's cross, by which the serpent the devil was designated, and that for each one wounded …
Adversus Marcionem
The serpent of bronze commanded by God to Moses as a remedy for those infested by serpents, argued not to violate the ban on graven images.
" But the image of the bronze serpent, afterward commanded to Moses by the Lord, pertained not to the title of idolatry, but to the remedying of those who were infested by serpents.
De idolatria
The bronze serpent raised by Moses in the wilderness, interpreted typologically as prefiguring Christ's cross.
But if anyone disguises the fact that that effigy of the bronze serpent, hung up after the manner, designated the figure of the Lord's cross, which was to free us from serpents, that is, from the angels of the devil, while it hung up the devil, that is, the serpent, slain through itself—or whatever other exposition of that figure has been revealed to the more worthy—provided the apostle affirms th …