Brazen serpent

Meaning

The brazen serpent appears among Old Testament figures by which the highest heavenly good, Christ, has already been represented. Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 3 places it with Isaac's sacrifice, Jacob's ladder, Joseph, Samson, David and Jonah before introducing the earthly stone as another visible likeness. The English 'brazen' means the serpent is represented as metallic, not shameless. The local passage does not develop a detailed serpent narrative or identify its metal as an alchemical ingredient. Its force is typological: a bodily, perceivable figure assists human weakness in grasping a heavenly mystery, while the mystery remains greater than the figure.