nāḥāš

Semantic range

1. 1snake
2. 2by association with a similar root: to practise divination, to whisper an omen
3. 3shining one (a possible link to nəḥōšet, bronze)

Genesis 3 identifies the tempter only as the serpent, "more subtil than any beast of the field." It is the Restoration scripture that names him: "Satan... yea, even that old serpent, the devil" (Moses 4:5–6; compare Revelation 12:9), and Moses 4:6 supplies the motive Genesis withholds — he sought to destroy the agency of man.

The consonants n-ḥ-š also underlie a verb for divination and a noun for bronze, which is why the bronze serpent of Numbers 21:8–9 is such a charged image: the instrument of death raised up as the means of healing. Christ applies it to Himself (John 3:14–15), and Nephi and Alma both press the point that the remedy failed only because it looked too easy (1 Nephi 17:41; Alma 33:19–20).

See also

• אָדָםʾādām
• עֵדֶןʿēden