This volume considers how current transitions in postsecondary education are impacting Higher Education institutions and subjects in a number of Northern nations, as well as how these transitions are indicative of the wider shift from the welfare to the market state. The university is now considered a key site for training and wealth generation in the so-called 'knowledge economy' that operates in a globalising, high tech world. Further, these transitions are underpinned by neo-liberal economic ideas that assume that the public (...) sector is a drag on the economy unless it is subject to the rules, regulations and assumptions that govern the private sector. This excellent volume - an important contribution to Education as well as Economics and Politics - furthers our understandings of universities as marketable entities as part of the globalized economy. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to analyze Philo’s presentation of the Exodus and the Conquest of Canaan in the historical section of the apologetic treatiseHypothetica, and the motivations that could have guided this representation. We will inquire other narratives of these same episodes to which Philo can be responding, and we will try to demonstrate that the oddness and novelty of the treatise among Philo’s works can be explained from its production in the changing and urgent context of (...) the Jewish-Alexandrian conflicts of the years 38-40, but they should not hide the lines of continuity between this text and other Philonic writings. (shrink)

Este texto ten como centro una pesquisa, una propuesta de trabajo que puede dar alguna luz no que respecta al proceso de nacimiento del monoteísmo. Partimos de la idea de que, en el espacio de Israel, cualquier construcción de una idea de dios único partiría de su base cultural. Vemos en la analice de la duplicidad funcional de los dioses Ilu (que significa «dios») e Baal («señor»), presentes en Ugarit, una arqueología do que mas tarde se pasa con los nombres (...) Adonai e Eloim por parte de Yahweh, una clara asimilación funcional de los dioses cimeros de la región, se construyendo la posibilidad monoteísta por lo uso de los nombres. (shrink)

Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.--Harvard University, 1985).

After discussing the so-called Ham myth in South Africa, my focus is on the African church father Augustine (354–430). All texts from his immense oeuvre in which he mentions biblical Ham are reviewed in chronological order. In Against Faustus, the story of Noah and his sons is mainly explained as being Christological: Ham figures as a type of the unbelieving Jews who consented to the murder of Christ, but he is also a type of the Jews because he is ‘the (...) slave of his brothers’ carrying the books by which the Christians may be instructed. Later Augustine corrects his confusion of Ham with the slave Canaan. The story of Ham (and Canaan) is most extensively discussed in the City of God. Neither here nor in the Expositions on the Psalms, Ham is described as being black or a slave. The same goes for a number of his other writings. In Augustine’s late works Against Julian and Unfinished Work against Julian, he thoroughly goes into the question of why (although Ham sinned) ‘vengeance was brought upon Canaan’. Augustine perceives God’s prophecy: from Canaan stems the cursed seed [ semen maledictum ] of the Canaanites. Nowhere, however, he claims that Ham or his descendants would have been cursed to be black or that all of his offspring were condemned to slavery. Contribution: This article demonstrates that the Ham myth does not occur in Augustine. It argues that the ‘ mestizo ’ African Augustine might have been extra sensitive to questions of race and colour. (shrink)

The attitude to the Bible is a seismograph for scrutinizing the attitude of Zionism, in general, and that of the settlers, in particular, to their ideological and political world view. To where in the Bible are the settlers returning? To the Land of Canaan, to the land of the Patriarchs, or perhaps to the Kingdom of David? And what is the meaning of this return? It is not only the land that is basic to this question, but the relationship (...) of the Land of Israel to the people of Israel. In this article, we will mainly address the radical theological facets of the settler movement, not the proponents of Greater Israel. Our article will focus on the replication of settler theology from the first stage of Gush Emunim and the act of settlement, which in the opinion of the settlers is in accord with the continuation and completion of the Zionist project, to a more metaphysical phase, in which the centrality of the act of settlement gives way to Hassidic or kabbalistic thinking. The models which we present, make possible a fresh look at the utopian thinking and radical theology that are nourished by the settler movement and reflect a new, non-homogeneous stage. (shrink)

Michael Walzer's endeavor to disentangle and explain the conflicting scriptural stories of the conquest of Canaan is resourceful and instructive but unfinished. The adequacy of his account as a means of coming to terms with the historica witness is compromised by what he does "not" examine: he does not, for example, examine very closely the lineaments of the program of limited war he praises, does not convey the complexity of the cultic pratice of "herem" and does not take account (...) of the impact of the failure of the Israelite experiment in royal statehood.more importantly, by treating the passages regarding holy war as an embarrassing problem to be solved, he leaves dangling the function of these texts in the life of the faith community. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:WORKING WARFARE AND ITS RESTRICTIONS IN THE JEWiSH TRADITION Reuven Kimelman Brandeis University The test case for any political theory of checks and balances is war. It also tests the outer limits of the ethical deployment of power. I. Types of Wars The Jewish ethics of war focuses on two issues: its legitimation and its conduct. The Talmud classifies wars according to their source oflegitimation. Biblically mandated wars are (...) termed mandatory (milhemet mitzvah or milhemet hovah). Wars undertaken at the discretion of the Sanhédrin are termed discretionary (milhemet reshut). There are three types of mandatory wars: Joshua's war of conquest againstthe seven Canaanite nations, the war againstAmaleq, anddefensive wars against an already launched attack. Discretionary wars are usually expansionary efforts undertaken to enhance the political prestige of the government or to secure economic gain. The first type of mandatory war is only of historical interest as the Canaanite nations lost their national identity already in ancient times. This ruling, which appears repeatedly in rabbinic literature, is part ofa tendency to blunt the impact of the seven-nations policy. The Bible points out that these policies were not implemented even during the zenith of ancient Israel's power (Kings 9:20; 2 Chr 8:7-9; see also Judges 1:21-33, Ps 106:34). Indeed, an ancient Midrash explicitly excludes the possibility of transferring the seven-nations ruling to other non-Jewish residents of the Land ofIsrael. Maimonides is just as explicit in emphasizing that all trace 44Reuven Kimmelman of them has vanished. By limiting the jurisdiction of the seven-nations ruling to the conditions ofancient Canaan it was effectively removed from the postbiblical ethical agendaand vitiated as aprecedent forcontemporary practice. The second category ofmandatory war, against Amaleq, has also been rendered operationally defunct by comparing them with the Canaanites, or by postponing the battle to the immediate premessianic struggle, or by viewing them as a metaphor for genocidal evil. The two remaining categories, reactive defensive wars (which are classified as mandatory) and expansionary wars (which are classified as discretionary) remain intact. So, for example, King David's response to the Philistine attackaredesignated mandatory, whereashis wars "to expandthe border of Israel" are designated discretionary. Intermediate wars such as preventive, anticipatory, or preemptive defy so neat a classification. Not only are the classifications debated in the Talmud, but commentators disagree on the categorization of the differing positions in the Talmud. The major clash occurs between the eleventh century Franco-German scholar Rashi and the thirteenth century Franco-Provencal scholar Meiri. According to Rashi, the majority position considers preemptive action to be discretionary whereas the minority position expounded by Rabbi Judah considers it to be mandatory. According to Meiri, a preemptive strike, against an enemy who it is feared might attack or who is already known to be preparing for war is deemed mandatory by the majority ofthe rabbis, but discretionaryby Rabbi Judah. Accordingly, Rabbi Judah defines a counterattack as mandatory only in response to an already launched attack. A similar reading of Maimonides also limits the mandatory classification to a defensive war launched in response to an attack. With these distinctions between mandatory and discretionary wars in mind, we should be able to investigate the Jewish concerns with the problematics ofwarby focusing on preemptive strikes, declarations ofwar, ethics of warfare, and draftability. II. Preemptive Strikes as Self-Defense Not only Machiavellians view the security and survival ofthe state as nonnegotiable. National self-defense is as much amoral right as is personal self-preservation. Whereas it is clear that offensive war cannot be subsumed under the inalienable right of self-defense, the moral status of pre-emptive attacks is not as clear. Is the moral category of self-defense Working Warfare and Its Restrictions in the Jewish Tradition 45 limited to an already launched attack? The majority talmudic position, according to Rashi, and that of Rabbi Judah, according to Meiri, would answer in the affirmative. Their position is seconded by Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which states: "Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherentright ofindividual ofcollective self-defense ifan armed attack occurs against a member." The minority position of Rabbi Judah, according to Rashi, and the... (shrink)

Skeptics challenge God’s fairness for ordering Israel to destroy the Canaanites, but a close look at the horror of Canaanite sinfulness, the corruptive and seductive power of their sin as seen in the Canaanization of Israel, and God’s subsequently instituting Israel’s own destruction because of Israel’s committing Canaanite sin reveals that God was just in His ordering the Canaanite’s destruction. But Western culture’s embrace of “Canaanite sin” inoculates it against the seriousness of that sin and so renders it incapable of (...) responding to Canaanite sin with the appropriate moral outrage. (shrink)

The divine command to kill the Canaanites is the most problematic of all Old Testament ethical issues. This article responds to challenges raised by Wes Morriston and Randal Rauser. It argues that biblical and extrabiblical evidence suggests that the Canaanites who were killed were combatants rather than noncombatants and that, given the profound moral corruption of Canaan, this divinely-directed act was just. Even if it turns out that non­combatants were directly targeted, the overarching Old Testament narrative is directed toward (...) the salvation of all nations—including the Canaanites. (shrink)

This paper analyses the formation of power of the Christian regime of truth in the context of Foucault’s concept of strategic formations. The main emphasis is on the sexual formation of power in three focal points of its agency. The first focal point is formed around the conflict between the Old Testament truth regime and the Canaan cult of fertility. The second focal point is formed around the influence of ancient philosophical thought, primarily through the philosophy of stoicism, which (...) sees abstinence from the sexual act as an opening to divine inspiration and around medical knowledge of antiquity. The third focal point is formed around control mechanisms of the Christian regime of truth through classification, regulation, prohibition, tariffing offences and corrections of doctrine. The main purpose of the formation of power is the vertical structuring of the regime of truth in its anthropomorphic and androcentric immanence. (shrink)

The article deals with etymological hermeneutics of proper names as method of determining of approximate dating of a text, as well as of its content and intention of its authors or editors. The author of the article illustrates this method on example of an etymological analysis of proper names of personnages of the legend about Shem, Ham and Japheth, and draws the conclusion, that their etymology is Greek, therefore one needs to date this legend with Hellenistic periode, and it was (...) created in order to give a legal basing for dwelling of Israel on the territories of conquered peoples of Canaan. At the same time, the author is ready to admit, that the Greek etymology of the mentioned proper names is secondary and derived, if the specialists in the brances of the Old Hebrew and the Old Testament Bible Science would prove, that a Semitic etymology of the mentioned proper names is more ancient, than the Greek one. (shrink)

Historically, deserts have served to distinguish the essential from the superfluous. Therefore, a desert experience has been an excellent lens with which to focus on what really matters and to learn what may be impossible to learn in more stable environments. The desert experience of the ancient Hebrews, as they journeyed from Egypt, land of slavery, to Canaan, land of promise, embodied a number of timeless spiritual truths in the context of an environmental framework where priorities became crystal clear. (...) Three elements of this framework will be presented here as we examine the Jewish people, liberated in a land "that was not sown." First, the desert environment revealed the reality of God. While the portrait of God painted on the sandy canvas of the Sinai Peninsula was incomplete, it served well to reacquaint this wayward people with their Lord. Second, the way in which the Israelites were sustained pictures a specific attribute of God, that of provider. He actively met the needs of His chosen people as a loving father meets the needs of his children. God provided everything from food and water for physical survival to discipline and guidance for healthy spiritual and emotional growth. Finally, their desert experience illustrated that disobeying God caused environmental disaster. The desert they crossed sustained life when the Israelites trusted God but failed to do so when they disobeyed Him. Through the physical experience of wandering in the wilderness, the Hebrews learned a spiritual lesson of faith and saw how their corporate faith affected the quality of the natural environment for the entire nation. This timeless lesson, if applied today would result in significant environmental improvement worldwide. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. I Corinthians 10:1-5,11-13. (shrink)

Modern, Stevie In the movie Exodus set in 1947, Paul Newman plays a Jewish 'people smuggler' Ari Ben Canaan in an amusing early scene where he disguises himself as a British soldier. Ben Canaan fools a commanding officer into signing off on the transport of recent holocaust survivors out of detention in Cyprus, making the officer believe the survivors would be shipped back to Germany.

Abstrak: Artikel ini merupakan analisis terhadap hubungan antara Israel dan bangsa-bangsa lainnya dengan menggunakan pemikiran tentang “liyan.” Dalam masyarakat multikultural kehadiran liyan tidak terhindarkan dan menuntut tanggapan yang sungguh-sungguh. Keadaan ini pada gilirannya akan menciptakan ambiguitas, sebagaimana yang dialami oleh Israel. Penemuan arkeologis akhir-akhir ini membuktikan bahwa hubungan antara Israel dengan bangsa-bangsa lain ternyata tidak seperti yang dilukiskan oleh Alkitab. Israel bukanlah sebuah bangsa yang pada suatu masa datang ke Kanaan yang sudah berpenduduk, tetapi mereka muncul secara bertahap dari antara (...) bangsa Kanaan sendiri. Maka, Israel memiliki banyak kesamaan dengan bangsa-bangsa lain itu. Pada pihak lain, Israel juga menumbuhkan sebuah ideologi yang lama-kelamaan akan membentuk mereka menjadi sebuah bangsa. Telah disarankan agar hubungan antara Israel dengan bangsa-bangsa lain itu dipandang sebagai hubungan interkultural. Meskipun pandangan itu masuk akal, namun penulis hendak mengajukan cara pandang lain. Cara pandang itu adalah hibriditas relasional. Dalam pandangan ini, Israel dilihat sebagai sebuah bangsa yang bersifat hibrid, namun bukan dalam arti yang statis. Hibriditas di sini dipandang sebagai sebuah keadaan yang menuntut tanggapan aktif. Dengan kata lain, kesamaan dan perbedaan antara Israel dengan bangsa-bangsa lainnya tidak boleh dianggap sebagai sebuah kondisi yang sudah jadi melainkan terus-menerus dalam proses pembentukan. Kata-kata kunci: Liyan, ambiguitas, budaya, interkultural, agama, kesamaan, perbedaan, hibriditas relasional. Abstract: This article will analyze the relationship between Israel and other nations using the concept of “the other.” In a multicultural society, the presence of the other is unavoidable and demands a serious response. This, however, creates ambiguity, as experienced by Israel. Recent archeological findings have proven that the relationship between Israel and other nations mentioned in the Bible was unlike the description provided by the Bible. Israel was not a separate nation that came into an already occupied land of Canaan, but rather, it gradually emerged as agroup from within the people of the land. Therefore, it can be expected that this nation shared many similarities with its cohabitants. On the other hand, it also developed a distinctive ideology which over time formed Israel as a separate nation. It has been suggested to consider the relationship between Israel and the others through the lens of interculturality. This article proposes another perspective, that is, a relational hybridity. From this perspective, Israel is seen as a hybrid nation. The hybridity is understood as a state of life, but, as one that always demands an active response. In other words, it is a process continously evolving. Keywords: The other, ambiguity, intercultural, religion, similarity, difference, hybridity, relational. (shrink)

The morally offensive idea of holy and total war, presented by the Deuteronomic authors as a religious duty, perplexes and disturbs us by its cruelty. We can identify in the biblical texts two different accounts of Israel's conquest of Canaan and can examine the development and interplay of these narratives - and their correlative divergent sets of moral laws. Study of these documents suggests that the notion of holy war was a retrospective invention of the last years of the (...) monarchy. It is closely connected to the Deuteronomic conception of a covenantalkinship community, and it ought to worry political theorists and theologians who find such a community attractive. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Ease of CareTravis CearleyRoughly nine years ago, I was deer hunting on a friend's property just outside of Canaan, Missouri, where he had graciously provided me access to one of his premier tree stands. It was early in bow season and even though the calendar had suggested it was Autumn, the weather mirrored a classic Missouri August morning, muggy and thick. Dressed in my lightest hunting gear, I (...) had just gotten settled—bow in lap, arrow knocked, binoculars ready—when I felt a stinging sensation in my calf. Slowly hiking up my pant leg so as not to make too many sudden movements, I saw a familiar yet harrowing sight: Seed ticks had invaded my socks, and I was covered from the mid-calf down with black pulsating parasites. I knew instantly (as many outdoorsmen know) that my hunt had come to an end. Somewhere on the hike down the hillside or the climb into the tree, I had stepped on a nest of ticks, and the rest of my morning was shot (no pun intended). I quickly clambered out of the stand, made my way back to my friend's house and proceeded to strip down in his front yard. Left with only one option, I placed all "infected" articles of clothing in a burn pile, took my naked self to the nearest hose, rinsed feverishly in his yard, and checked every inch of my body for burrowed residents. You see, removal—complete and thorough—is the only way to keep the tick from becoming an unwelcome guest, causing itching and burning, or even spreading disease.The seed tick is an especially menacing foe. He can be invisible to the naked eye. He is faster than you would expect. He travels in herds. However, all ticks, regardless of size, are capable of causing weeks of discomfort. This discomfort and concern multiplies based on where the tick chooses to lodge itself. You see, there is a spot on the base of a man's penis where the penis itself meets the scrotum—a private, quiet, warm and damp location—that is particularly enticing to the tick. As an avid outdoorsman and lover of nature, I have had my fair share of uninvited guests attempt to call this place home. Multiple times in my life, I have taken caution in the painstaking removal of ticks in all sorts of locations, and I will tell you, few tasks are more galling or difficult than removing one burrowed next to the crease of the scrotum just under the penis itself. It seems they are keenly aware of the small bit of extra skin that exists on this part of the male anatomy, and part of me believes that they are also aware of the difficulty it presents. [End Page 79]At the time of the Canaan seed tick attack, my wife was pregnant with our first son who was due to be born that coming December. I am now the father of three sons. As a family, being outside is our favorite pastime. We run, we play, we chore; and whenever we can, we spend time in the woods. Whether we are exploring the various state parks of Missouri or rambling through the treelines of the family farm, some of the happiest times we spend as a family include nature. Nature means bugs; and even as a veteran tick assassin, I wasn't really prepared for the painstaking process of removing one from my son's nether regions. A few shivers, a few gasps and more than a few tears—juggling the "Get it off me, dad" with the "Don't worry, Daddy does this all the time"—nothing builds trust like tweezing a parasite from another person's scrotum. It is these moments that also remind me of how thankful I am for the absence of foreskin.I am a circumcised father of three circumcised boys. My wife and I chose to have our sons "clipped" after their births and by a medical professional. When my wife and I discussed whether or not to have them circumcised, I consistently came back to the same thought: "What benefit could foreskin... (shrink)

In order to engage more faithfully with the reality of migration in the modern world and the challenges of immigration in the United States today, we take a closer look at perspectives on immigration in Scripture. In the stories of their ancestors, the authors of Genesis describe their own origins as migratory, thereby claiming for themselves and their people an immigrant identity. To understand these migration narratives clearly, we construct a new set of lenses that view Israel’s ancestors as sedentary (...) residents of Canaan—not nomads—who cross administrative borders and encounter different cultures, who are named immigrants (gērîm)—not sojourners, foreigners, or aliens—by the authors in Genesis, and who experience the same kinds of crises—especially climate change—as modern immigrants who are forced to leave their countries of origin and relocate in destination countries. (shrink)

Far from being straightforward, as Jewish and Christian tradition might suggest, Abram’s call raises questions about the exact time it took place and was followed up. After surveying the solutions suggested so far, the current article looks into various evidence offered in the text to deliberate on this matter: Abram’s birth in relation to Terah’s genealogy, Abram’s family in relation to Terah’s death, the form of the ‘calling’ verb, the country Abram departed from, and the narrative art of the literary (...) piece. We reached the conclusion that God called Abram to leave Ur in order to travel to Canaan, and he did that before Terah’s death, although he stopped on the way in Haran for a while. Abram’s example provides a model to obey God’s highest call over any other human duty and responsibility. (shrink)

This article offers an analysis of the biblical stories about two heroines: Jael and Judith who save their people by killing the foreign generals. Both stories narrate critical historical situations, namely Jael’s story in Judges 4–5 dates to the XII–X cc. B.C.E. and reflects the ongoing conflict between the twelve tribes of Israel with their neighbors in the land of Canaan, Judith’s story dates to the II c. B.C.E. and reflects the conflict between the Jews and the Seleucid rulers (...) who oppressed the Jewish populace, forced them to practice Hellenistic rituals and abandon the Jewish law and religious practices. Jael invites Sisera, a commander of the Canaanite army of king Jabin, to her tent, gives him milk to drink, and when the man falls asleep, she kills him with a hammer and а tent peg. Judith, a widow from the town of Bethulia, uses her beauty and charm to kill Holofernes, an Assyrian general. First, she gains his trust. Then, when Holofernes drunken falls asleep, she decapitates him in his tent. These texts explicitly show the collapse of the male power and demonstrate the ability of women to step in to save the people. Both heroines are praised by the narrators for their heroism. It is also demonstrated that Jael’s and Judith’s stories have an aim to teach how one may think out of the box. Due to the lack of male capability to solve the problem or, in other words, to protect the people as it is expected according to the patriarchal norms, social roles are shifted, and perception of masculinity and femininity is reеvaluated. The heroic stories of Jael and Judith represent the idea that women can be subjects of history, violence as а means to protect people is not limited to the male domain, and women can save people in critical situations. The violence performed by the women is perceived as an extraordinary act yet necessary and not deviant in the situation. (shrink)

This essay studies Genesis 12:10–13:2 with a literary close reading approach that takes seriously the text’s literary, historical and theological constituent elements. After a brief history of interpretation, it situates the narrative in its historical context, which is followed with a narrative critical reading of the text. The analysis of the text unveils the dissimulations of Abram, who manipulated his wife, Sarai, into thinking her beauty posed a threat to him, while his primary motive rested with the pursuit of economic (...) gain in the face of the severe famine that had impoverished him in Canaan. Abram also succeeded in making Pharaoh believe that Sarai was his sister, on which account he exchanged her for material again. This analysis affords insight into the insecurity, anxiety, feelings of alterity of immigrant populations in their liminal conditions, the mistrust of immigrants by the state and host communities, and the ensuing power play with its concomitant perils. Through these, the passage speaks anew to contemporary communities of faith in view of the prevalent and ever-increasing migratory trends of the 21st century. (shrink)

Several scholars observed that narratives about the human past are evaluated comparatively. Few attempts have been made, however, to explore how such evaluations are actually done. Here I look at a lengthy “contest” among several historiographic narratives, all constructed to make sense of another one—the biblical story of the conquest of Canaan. I conclude that the preference of such narratives can be construed as a rational choice. In particular, an easily comprehensible and emotionally evocative narrative will give way to (...) a complex and mundane one, when the latter provides a more coherent account of the consensually accepted body of evidence. This points to a fundamental difference between historiographic narratives and fiction, contrary to some influential opinions in the philosophy of historiography. Such historiographic narratives have similarities with hypotheses and narrative explanations in natural science. (shrink)

A perícope das serpentes no deserto destaca-se do conjunto de escritos que recorrem ao simbolismo da serpente, ao utilizar esse elemento potencialmente enganoso para a fé de Israel, ambivalente. Diante disso, o objetivo deste trabalho foi compreender o simbolismo da serpente em Nm 21,4-9, a partir de uma análise do texto e da possível influência por parte dos egípcios e povos do Antigo Oriente Próximo. A análise narrativa destacou o texto como um enredo de conflito-solução no drama vivido pelo povo. (...) Na ótica do conflito, foram levados em conta os aspectos antropológicos e culturais do simbolismo da serpente e seu alcance teológico. A interpretação favoreceu a compreensão da dimensão pedagógica de Deus diante da necessidade de conversão do povo que estava na etapa final da caminhada do deserto, prestes a entrar na terra de Canaã. Dentro da economia da revelação, o autor dá um novo significado à serpente levantada na haste. No início do relato, fora instrumento de castigo expresso na mordedura que causou muitas mortes; no fim, torna-se sinal de salvação. Assim, mediante o sinal, o mesmo Deus que castiga é o que está sempre pronto a oferecer uma nova chance àquele que volta seus olhos para Ele. Palavras-chave : Exegese. Números. Símbolo. Serpente. Conflitos.The pericope of the wilderness’ snakes is highlighted in the set of writings using the symbol of the serpent, for this symbol is potentially doubtful to the faith of Israel, ambivalent. Therefore, this paper aims to comprehend the symbolism of the serpent in Numbers 21,4-9, through a text analysis and a study of the possible influence of Egyptians and the nations from Ancient Near Eastern. The narrative analysis highlighted the text as a plot of conflict-solution in the drama lived by the people. In that conflict approach, it was considered the anthropological and cultural features of the serpent symbolism and its theological range. The interpretation favored the comprehension of the pedagogic dimension of God before the necessity of people’s conversion, once they were in the final stage of the wilderness’ pilgrimage, being about to enter at the land of Canaan. In line with the economy of revelation, the author gives a new meaning to the serpent raised in the rod. In the beginning of the report, it was an instrument of punishment expressed in the bite that caused a lot of deaths; at the end, it becomes a sign of salvation. Thus, through this signal, the same God who punishes is the One who is always ready to offer a new chance to those whose eyes turn upon Him. Keywords : Exegesis. Numbers. Symbol. Serpent. Conflicts. (shrink)