Book of Mormon Evidence: Flying Fiery Serpents

The Bible records that on one occasion, when the Israelites murmured in the wilderness, they were subsequently bitten by “fiery serpents” (Numbers 21:4–9; Deuteronomy 8:15). When Nephi related this story to his brothers at Bountiful, he referred to them as “flying fiery serpents” (1 Nephi 17:41).¹ Several lines of evidence suggest that the addition of “flying” in reference to these serpents authentically reflects ancient beliefs about venomous snakes living in the desert regions of Arabia and Sinai.

Flying Serpents in the Bible

Although the biblical accounts about the Israelites in the wilderness do not explicitly say that the serpents were “flying,” Isaiah twice mentions “fiery flying serpents” in his writings (Isaiah 14:29; 30:6). One of these is in reference to “the beasts of the south” (Isaiah 30:6), meaning the Negev desert—the very place where the Israelites were when the brazen serpent incident happened.² This is the same region Lehi’s family traveled through when fleeing Jerusalem (1 Nephi 2).

The Hebrew expression translated “fiery flying serpents” (śrp mʿpp) in these Isaiah passages uses the same word that Numbers and Deuteronomy use to refer to “fiery serpents”: seraph (plural seraphim). This is also the word used in Isaiah 6 to describe the fiery, winged beings protecting the throne of God (Isaiah 6:2, 6). Thus, many scholars believe that the seraphim of Isaiah’s vision were winged, serpent-like creatures.³

Since Isaiah’s vision was set in the heavenly temple, some scholars have argued that its imagery reflects the physical realities of the temple in Jerusalem.⁴ If this is true, the seraphim mentioned by Isaiah would correlate with the brazen serpent (referred to as a seraph in Numbers 21:8) which was most likely kept in the temple prior to being destroyed by Hezekiah (see 2 Kings 18:4).⁵

This has led some scholars to conclude that the brazen serpent itself likely had wings,⁶ and that the seraph-serpents encountered by the Israelites in the wilderness were remembered as being winged or flying serpents. For instance, Moshe Weinfeld has translated the reference to seraph-serpents in Deuteronomy 8:15 (where Moses is recapping the dangers the Israelites faced in the wilderness) as “flying serpents.”⁷ Similarly, James Charlesworth defined seraphim as “winged-serpents” or “fiery winged-serpents.”⁸

Archaeological Evidence

Winged serpents are commonly depicted on ancient Egyptian artifacts. Perhaps the most famous example is the golden throne found in Tutankhamun’s tomb, with “armrests … in the form of winged serpents.”⁹ Egyptian shrines or throne rooms were often decorated with rows of winged cobras above the throne to protect the king or god. Winged cobras have also been found on Egyptian scarabs from the early first millennium BC.10 The fact that Nephi was writing in an Egyptian script (1 Nephi 1:2) suggests that his family may have been familiar with other aspects of Egyptian culture and tradition, such as its use of winged-serpent symbolism.

Winged serpents are associated with royal symbolism in Israel and Judah as well.¹¹ For example, winged serpents were carved into ivories from a 9th century BC palace in Samaria (capital of the northern kingdom),¹² and Israelite bronze bowls depict a royal/divine symbol flanked on each side by a winged serpent.¹³

Most frequently, winged serpents were depicted on Israelite and Judahite seals from the 8th and early 7th centuries BC.¹⁴ One noteworthy example is a stamp seal with a four-winged serpent, found in a 7th century BC home on the slopes of the western hill in Jerusalem.¹⁵ This region of Jerusalem was settled by refugees from the northern Israelite tribes in the late 8th century BC,¹⁶ leading some Latter-day Saint scholars to believe that this is where Lehi and his family lived around 600 BC (cf. 1 Nephi 5:14–16; Alma 10:3).¹⁷ Most biblical scholars believe that the winged serpents depicted on these artifacts are the biblical seraph, i.e., the “fiery serpent.”¹⁸

Word Order Evidence

In the current edition of the Book of Mormon printed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1 Nephi 17:41 uses the same word order found in the King James translation of Isaiah 14:29 and 30:6: “fiery flying serpents.” As noted above, this is actually a translation of only two words in Hebrew: śrp mʿpp.

In the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon’s translation, however, the expression appears as “flying fiery serpents,” with flying coming before fiery.¹⁹ Since “fiery serpent” is the translation of a single word in the parallel expressions from Isaiah, Royal Skousen argued that the word order of the original manuscript was more faithful to the underlying Hebrew:

In the two Isaiah passages as well as the one in Numbers 21:8, there is a single Hebrew word for ‘fiery serpent’, namely śārāf, … . In the two other passages (Numbers 21:6 and Deuteronomy 8:15), the Hebrew word for ‘serpent’, naḥaš, occurs with the modifying śārāf … . Thus, in a literal translation of the Hebrew in any of these five passages, the words fiery and serpent should occur together. In the Isaiah passages, where the word for flying is added, the literal translation would thus be “flying fiery serpent”, which is the word order found in the original manuscript from 1 Nephi 17:41.²⁰

Skousen thus concluded that “the reading of the original manuscript … follows the Hebrew construction.”²¹

Conclusion

Although the biblical account of the brazen serpent only mentions “fiery serpents” (Numbers 21:6, 8; Deuteronomy 8:15), the underlying Hebrew term (seraph) for these fiery serpents indicates winged creatures in other biblical contexts, and some scholars even translate seraph or its plural form seraphim as inherently referring to flying or winged serpents—something not readily apparent to someone unfamiliar with biblical Hebrew, such as Joseph Smith was in 1829.

Furthermore, the word order of “flying fiery serpent” found in the original manuscript more faithfully follows the likely underlying Hebrew expression, again suggesting a knowledge of Hebrew that Joseph Smith lacked at the time of the translation. If Joseph had merely copied this phrase from relevant passages in the King James Bible (Isaiah 14:29; 30:6), the word order would have been different.

The flying-fiery-serpent connection is reinforced by iconography from Nephi’s day that represented seraphim as winged serpents. Yet these serpent-depicting artifacts were only discovered and studied by scholars long after 1829, again making relevant knowledge inaccessible to Joseph Smith. As Neal Rappleye concluded:

This evidence strongly suggests that, whatever the actual nature of the serpents which pestered the children of Israel in the wilderness, in the 8th–7th centuries BC, seraphim (śrpym) were understood to be flying, winged serpents. … Thus, Nephi’s reference to “flying fiery serpents” reflects the common Israelite understanding of seraph-serpents at that time.²²