“As Moses Lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness…” (Jn 3:14).

An Approach to a Hermeneutics of Israel’s Religious Symbols in the Fourth Gospel

Abstract

This article explores the relationship that the evangelist establishes between the revealing sign par excellence, that is the exaltation of the Son of man, with an ambivalent religious sign like that of the serpent
lifting up by Moses in the desert. To do this, the texts of the Old Testament that speak of that serpent are analyzed in order to obtain some keys to establish a hermeneutical paradigm that allows understanding and extending that relationship to other religious signs.