Wikipedia's first sentence called it “staff of copper and brass”. Today it says “bronze image of a serpent on a pole”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2010 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2010
Moses lifts up the brass snake, curing the Israelites of snakebites . Hezekiah called the snake Nehushtan.1The Nehushtan (or Nehustan , Hebrew : נחושתן or נחש הנחושת), in Judaism , was a sacred object in the form of a copper snake upon a pole.2King Hezekiah (reigned 715/6 – 687) instituted a religious iconoclastic reform and destroyed "the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did offer to it; and it was called Nehushtan." ( 2 Kings 18:4 ); the Masoretic text does not in fact say so, but rather "he [Hezekiah] called it Nehushtan".3The Priestly source of the Torah says that Moses used a 'fiery serpent' to cure the Israelites from Snakebites ( Book of Numbers , chapter 21:4-9), though the tradition of naming it Nehushtan is no older than the time of Hezekiah. Snake cults had been well established in Canaan in the Bronze Age : archaeologists have uncovered serpent cult objects in Bronze Age strata at several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two at Megiddo , one at Gezer , one in the sanctum sanctorum of the Area H temple at Hazor , and two at Shechem . "Modern exegesis holds two different opinions in regard to the meaning of the word "Nehushtan," which is explained either as denoting an image of bronze, and as entirely unconnected with the word "naḥash" (serpent), or as a lengthened form of "naḥash" (comp. νεεσθάν in the Septuagint), and thus as implying that the worship of serpents was of ancient date in Israel. The assumption that the tradition about "Nehushtan" is not older than the time of Hezekiah is, however, not contested." Jewish Encyclopedia , s.v. Callaway and Toombs to Joiner (Joiner 1968:246 note 5).4
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 371211185.
The opening as it stood in 2005
Nehushtan was a staff of copper and brass .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 15962778.
The opening as it stood in 2015 6 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Moses lifts up the brass snake, curing the Israelites of snakebites . Hezekiah called the snake Nehushtan. In the biblical Book of Numbers , the Nehushtan (or Nohestan ) ( Hebrew : נחושתן or נחש הנחושת) was a bronze serpent on a pole which God told Moses to erect to prevent the Israelites who saw it of dying from the bites of the "fiery serpents" which God had sent to punish them for speaking against God and Moses.King Hezekiah later instituted a religious iconoclastic reform and destroyed "the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; [it was called|and he called it] Nehushtan." ( 2 Kings 18:4 ) Numbers 21:4–9
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 667447734.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Moses lifts up the brass snake, curing the Israelites of snakebites . Hezekiah called the snake 'Nehushtan'. In the biblical Books of Kings ( 2 Kings 18:4 ; written c. 550 BCE), the Nehushtan ( Hebrew : נחשתן Nəḥuštān ) is the derogatory name given to the bronze serpent on a pole first described in the Book of Numbers which God told Moses to erect so that the Israelites who saw it would be protected from dying from the bites of the " fiery serpents ", which God had sent to punish them for speaking against him and Moses ( Numbers 21:4–9 ).In Kings , King Hezekiah institutes an iconoclastic reform that requires the destruction of "the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan".The term is a proper noun coming from either the word for "snake" or "brass", and thus means "The (Great) Serpent" or "The (Great) Brass".
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 958496111.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Brass serpent in Torah "Brazen Serpent" redirects here.Moses lifts up the brass snake in a photograph of the stained glass window at St Marks Church, Gillingham In the biblical Books of Kings ( 2 Kings 18:4 ; written c. 550 BC), the Nehushtan ( Nəḥuštān ) is the bronze image of a serpent on a pole.The image is described in the Book of Numbers , where Yahweh instructed Moses to erect it so that the Israelites who saw it would be cured and be protected from dying from the bites of the " fiery serpents ", which Yahweh had sent to punish them for speaking against Him and Moses ( Numbers 21:4–9 ). According to the Book of Kings , King Hezekiah institutes an iconoclastic reform that included the destruction of "the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan".
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1178896839.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Brass serpent in Torah "Brazen Serpent" redirects here. In the biblical Books of Kings ( 2 Kings 18:4 ; written c. 550 BC), the Nehushtan ( / n ə ˈ h ʊ ʃ t ə n / ; Hebrew : נְחֻשְׁתָּן , romanized : Nəḥuštān [nəħuʃtaːn] ) is the bronze image of a serpent on a pole. The image is described in the Book of Numbers , where Yahweh instructed Moses to erect it so that the Israelites who saw it would be cured and be protected from dying from the bites of the " fiery serpents ", which Yahweh had sent to punish them for speaking against him and Moses ( Numbers 21:4–9 ). According to 2 Kings 18 :4, King Hezekiah instituted an iconoclastic reform: "He abolished the shrines, smashed the pillars, and cut down the sacred post.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1295619489. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “staff of copper and brass”. Today it says “bronze image of a serpent on a pole”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
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What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
staff of copper and brass
Now
bronze image of a serpent on a pole
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
