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28 So Jesus said [to them], “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.(A)

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32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”(A)

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34 So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever.[a] Then how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 12:34 There is no passage in the Old Testament that states precisely that the Messiah remains forever. Perhaps the closest is Ps 89:37.

The Bronze Serpent. From Mount Hor they set out by way of the Red Sea, to bypass the land of Edom, but the people’s patience was worn out by the journey; so the people complained(A) against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!”[a]

So the Lord sent among the people seraph[b] serpents, which bit(B) the people so that many of the Israelites died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses: Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover.[c] Accordingly Moses made a bronze serpent[d] and mounted it on a pole, and whenever the serpent bit someone, the person looked at the bronze serpent and recovered.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 21:5 This wretched food: apparently the manna is meant.
  2. 21:6 Seraph: the Hebrew name for a certain species of venomous snake; etymologically the word might signify “the fiery one.” Compare the winged throne guardians in Is 6:2, 6; see also Is 14:29; 30:6.
  3. 21:8 Everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover: in the Gospel of John this scene is regarded as a type for the crucifixion of Jesus (Jn 3:14–15).
  4. 21:9 King Hezekiah, in his efforts to reform Israelite worship, “smashed the bronze serpent Moses had made” (2 Kgs 18:4).

For when the dire venom of beasts came upon them(A)
    and they were dying from the bite of crooked serpents,
    your anger endured not to the end.
But as a warning, for a short time they were terrorized,
    though they had a sign[a] of salvation, to remind them of the precept of your law.
For the one who turned toward it was saved,
    not by what was seen,
    but by you, the savior of all.

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Footnotes

  1. 16:6 Sign: the brazen serpent, as related in Numbers 21, but the author deliberately avoids any misunderstanding by addressing the Lord as responsible for the healing, since he is “the savior of all” (v. 7; see also vv. 12 and 26 for the role of the “word” of God).