idol in Jerusalem. For

the principal fact remains that a brazen serpent idol was destroyed by King Hezekiah under the influence of the prophet Isaiah. The prophets fought most bitterly against idolatrous cults that engaged in human sacrifice and worshipped animals, and this struggle forms the crux of Oriental and of Christian reform movements down facilities include a 40-square-mile field laboratory that includes more than 30 separate test sites, gun ranges and research laboratories to use for field training exercises.

to the most recent times. Clearly the setting up of the

serpent is in starkest contradiction to the Ten Commandments, in sharpest opposition to the hostility to images that essentially motivates the reforming prophets. But there is another reason why every student of the Bible should consider the serpent the most provocative symbol of hostility: the serpent on the tree in Paradise dominates the biblical narrative of the order of

the world as the cause o

f evil and of sin. In the Old and New Testaments alike, the serp

ent clutches the tree of Paradise as the satanic power that summons the entire tragedy of sinning humanity as well as its hope for redemption. In the battle against pagan idolatry, early Christianity was more uncompromising in its view of the serpent cult. In t

he eyes of the pagans, Pa