the bronze serpent as anti-universalism and religious exclusivism in the Book of Mormon

Today’s Community of Christ lectionary passage is from 1 Corinthians 10, and includes this, from verse 9 (NRSVUE):

We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents.

This is one of a few different stories that Paul evokes in 1 Corinthians 10 that all rub me the wrong way (I’m not a big fan of any punitive God), but this one stands out in particular because it reminds me of how the “serpents” story (originally in Numbers 21) gets evoked twice in the Book of Mormon. Here they are, from Community of Christ’s Revised Authorized Version:

I Nephi 5:134-135:

“He sent fiery-flying serpents among them; and after they were bitten, he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look. And because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.[”]

Alma 16:191-193:

“Behold, he was spoken of by Moses; and, behold a type was raised up in the wilderness that whoever would look upon it might live. And many did look and live.

“But few understood the meaning of those things, and this because of the hardness of their hearts.

And there were many who were so hardened that they would not look; therefore they perished.[”]

Rereading these passages today, it’s remarkable that both of them leave out the phrase that I most associate with these stories after years of lessons and sermons on them: “bronze serpent.” In short, what is being referenced in 1 Corinthians 1, I Nephi 5, and Alma 16 is that during the 40 years Exodus, the people get to complaining, and God sends poisonous serpents among the people. When the people start dying—and stop complaining—God tells Moses in Numbers 21:8 to

“Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”

John 3:14 connects this serpent symbol to Jesus (as, seemingly, does Paul, though in a way more roundabout way), and the Book of Mormon builds on this symbolism and takes it a step further. According to both Book of Mormon passages, there were people who refused to accept rescue from the serpent (or, by extension, from Jesus) and instead chose death. Here’s the thing, though: that’s not what happens in the story.

In fact, Numbers 21:9 suggest a pretty clear universalism (except for the folks who had already died pre-serpent, but that’s a different issue to work through):

So Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it upon a pole, and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

Numbers suggests that everyone looked and was saved by the serpent, which makes the Book of Mormon’s insistence that some people refused curious. Now, the Book of Mormon has a kind of ready answer for this baked into its narrative; the text suggests that important details have been removed from the biblical manuscripts, and readers of the Book of Mormon tend to resolve this kind of tension by lifting up the Book of Mormon version as the authoritative take of the story and expressing gratitude that it teaches us new things that are absent from the Bible. I always think it’s more valuable to explore the tensions in scripture rather than trying to flatten them, and I think that’s especially interesting here.

If the account of this story in Numbers suggests that everyone is willing to be saved—and therefore is saved—why is the Book of Mormon so keen on arguing against this universalism? Why must we create a version of the story where some people can’t be saved? Where they are too stubborn, not faithful enough, or otherwise unworthy of salvation? Faced with a universalist version of the story and an exclusivist version of the story, I strongly prefer the former, and I’m kind of upset that it wasn’t until 2020 that I never realized that this version of the story also existed in the scriptures because my religious community was so keen on the exclusivist, anti-universalist version.

Now, some folks might resist my take on all of this with an insistence that if the bronze serpent does indeed represent Jesus, if Jesus is the only way to salvation, and if there are plenty of people in today’s world who reject Jesus as the means of salvation, then I don’t have the luxury of choosing between the two versions of the story. The Book of Mormon story is just how it is, no matter how many liberal Christian tears it may provoke. I don’t know that I can change anyone’s mind on those particular theological foundations, but there’s another telling of the bronze serpent story in the Bible that complicates this symbolism in fascinating ways.

Here’s 2 Kings 18:1-4:

In the third year of King Hoshea son of Elah of Israel, Hezekiah son of King Ahaz of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his ancestor David had done. He removed the high places, broke down the pillars, and cut down the sacred pole. He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it; it was called Nehushtan.

At some point, the bronze serpent became too important to the people of Israel, and it became time to set aside the idolatry of a particular aspect of their faith and refocus on a bigger, truer view of God. Now, I may be a non-literal, non-theist Christian, but I am still a bit uncomfortable with how all of the pieces here fit together for the point I’m trying to make: I don’t want to argue that we need to “break in pieces” the place of Jesus in our faith to focus on something different. Yet, I do think there’s an invitation here for us to “break in pieces” any view of Jesus that works like the bronze serpent in those Book of Mormon passages. It’s not valuable to focus our faith on an exclusivist view of Jesus that lets us pat ourselves on the back for being saved and bemoan those who are just too foolish to come to where we are and be saved in the way we think is necessary. Our understandings of Jesus can become idols to us, and those idols must be cast aside just like all the others.

I still have issues with this story (why send poisonous serpents in the first place? why is there no way to be saved for the first complainers?), but if I’m going to take any inspiration from the story of the bronze serpent, it’s not going to be the one that assures me that I’m on the right path, unlike all those lazy heathens out there. It’s the one that assures me that everyone can—and will—be saved.

• bronze serpent
• Book of Mormon
• universalism
• exclusivism
• Exodus