Was Hercules...Jewish? Biblical Influences on Greek and Roman Mythology

Is there a path from a bronze snake all the way to Thor?

In honor of Marvel's new movie, Thor Love & Thunder, it seemed appropriate to pull a lesson out of bag in which I went far off-topic and deep down the rabbit hole of research.

How did we get here?

To answer your first question...No, Lifeway did not have an adult Sunday School lesson about Hercules or Greek Mythology (that I know of). The core lesson, which we will cover first, was about a reference that I'd never heard of before that got me curious. Turning off curiosity isn't one of my strengths.

Jesus in the Old Testament

A couple of years ago, I joined a Men's Bible Study at my church who's goal was to cover an entire book of the Bible each week while using a book called The Bible From 30,000 Feet as a guide. That study was cut short by Covid, but it was a wonderful learning experience up until that point.

I can't recommend the book highly enough if you're interested in understanding deeper context around each book of the Bible. It's also an excellent guide if you should decide to read the Bible yourself.

One of the key elements to the book is to reference the Gospel of Jesus, with each book of the Old Testament, including points where we can even see Jesus foretold. This wasn't something I was aware of the first time I read the Bible, so for the most part I just missed it on the first run through.

In Numbers 21:4-9, we see one of the most blatant references of all.

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

- Numbers 21:4-9 NIV

Now, if we assume that a snake made of bronze is going to be heavy it probably wasn't simply wrapped around the pole or it would slide down. More than likely, there was a crossbar near the top to hold it up. Which would actually make the pole...a cross.

So the Israelites were able to look upon a cross...to be saved from their sin. It's hard to find a more direct illustration of Jesus Christ in the entire Old Testament.

A Bronze Snake on a Pole...for Healing?

That image sounded incredibly familiar to me. So I started Googling.

World Health Organization

Here's the WHO...

Logo for the World Health Organization (WHO)

Emergency Medical Services

EMS uses the Star of Life logo.

Logo for EMS

US Army Medical Corps

This one includes a different look that includes two snakes.

Logo for US Army Medical Corps

Finland

There are two Finnish cities that include the 2 headed version in their logos as well: Tampere and Jyväskylä.

So what are these two logos?

We see repeated uses of a "1 snake" and "2 snake" logo, both wrapped around some type of pole or staff.

The single snake logo is referred to as the Rod of Asclepius, wielded by the Greek god Asclepius, associated with healing and medicine.

Statue of Rod of Asclepius

The 2 snake logo is called Caduceus, which is the staff carried by the Greek god Hermes. This excerpt from Wikipedia gives us a little background on their usage.

Although the Rod of Asclepius, which has only one snake and is never depicted with wings, is the traditional and more widely used symbol of medicine, the Caduceus is sometimes used by healthcare organizations. Given that the caduceus is primarily a symbol of commerce and other non-medical symbology, many healthcare professionals disapprove of this usage.

What we do clearly see here are numerous references to the Rod of Asclepius, which depicts a snake on a pole with the power to heal. That sounds awfully similar to our bronze snake on a pole. If we look to the attributed origins of the symbol for the various logos, they will all directly cite the Greek usage for medicine.

This imagery is attributed to an origin of 300 B.C. Numbers was written sometime between 1450-1410 B.C. which predates the Rod of Asclepius by over 1,000 years...interesting. This isn't the only reference to the bronze snake on a pole in the Bible either.

King Hezekiah takes down the Bronze Snake in 715 B.C.

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah a daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.

He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)

- 2 Kings 18:1-4

So now we have a name for the bronze snake and the knowledge that King Hezekiah destroyed "Nehushtan" because the Israelites were treating it as an idol. What's even more interesting about this is that Hezekiah became king in 715 B.C. meaning that Nehushtan had been with the Israelites for 700 years! 700 years is a long time. The United States of America isn't even 250 years old yet. Think of all the generations of people that would have known about this snake on a pole with the ability to heal. Even after 700 years, it was still destroyed a full 400 years before the Rod of Asclepius.

Now...let's look at a map.

As the region goes, Israel and Greece are not too far apart. At this point in the world, the Mediterranean Sea was the center of commerce and trade between nations. Israel was made up of 12 tribes, one of which was the tribe of Dan. When the Israelites reached the Promised Land, the tribe of Dan was allocated a coastal portion.

They built ships and traded with Greece maintaining a strong presence in the Greek Isles. The tribe of Dan was also known as the most pagan of all the Israelite tribes. There's a clear path of evidence here that Nehushtan was the inspiration for the Rod of Asclepius and therefore the primary medical symbol used throughout the world today, about 100 of which are listed on our Wikipedia page right after this nugget.

Biblical scholars look to the Book of Numbers, in which the Nehushtan (Hebrew: נחושתן or נחש הנחושת) was a brass serpent on a pole that God told Moses to erect, saying that anyone bitten [by a snake] would live if they looked at it. This Biblical account is the earliest known record of the pole/serpent combination (though the exact configuration is not known).

So how do we get from that to Hercules?

Glad you asked. Even after teaching this lesson, my curiosity got the better of me and I may have taken a deep dive researching the Tribe of Dan. I bought the book, "DAN: The Pioneer of Israel" by Colonel J.C. Gawler, Keeper of the Crown Jewels written in 1880. In this book, Colonel Gawler goes deep on these bits of history including phonetic analysis, which is critical for oral history. We'll come back to that in a moment.

There's a famous Bible story associated with the Tribe of Dan and that is the story of Samson who was a great warrior of incredible strength given by God. Does that sound familiar?

From Wikipedia...

Hercules is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmene. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.

Hercules. Heracles. Son of Zeus, King of the gods.

The Hebrew word for merchants is "Haroclim".

Hercules origins were traced by Aristotle to Argos on the island of Cyprus, which was established by a tribe known as the "Danaoi", "Danaid", "Danaan" which is equated with "Tuathe de Danann" or...Tribe of Dan, who were also called the Danites. Cyprus was a natural hub where many of the Tribe of Dan settled. It's not hard to see how stories could easily travel from the Tribe of Dan to directly influence Greek and Roman mythology of the time period which makes a strong case that Hercules was actually a story inspired from Samson himself. Recently a Roman mosaic depicting Hercules was found on Cyprus as well. There’s even a Mt. Olympos on Cyprus as well as one in Greece itself!

And that is fascinating. Colonel Gawler goes much deeper on this subject in his book, including the migration of the Tribe of Dan all the way to Ireland as well as likely influences on Norse mythology, potentially even being the basis for Norse mythology, by tracing the origins of the Scythians.

So is it possible that Thor was actually inspired by Samson as well?

After all, the parallels of Thor and Odin with Hercules and Zeus are certainly difficult to avoid. When you start to think about it, it's not much of a stretch to wonder if Zeus and Odin themselves were potentially inspired by these same stories. How much of a stretch is it to go from God in the heavens above to...thunder and lightning representing God?

If nothing else, it's certainly an interesting topic to research and talk about. As you get to watch Thor meet Zeus at the movies this week, tell your friends and see where the conversation goes. Could all of this mythology have come from one of the most direct foreshadowings of Jesus in the Old Testament? It might get them interested in reading the Bible.