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Above the carved crown on Smith's serpent cane is a symbol that closely resembles the magic seal or sigil of Jupiter (figs. 28-33, 38). Although one could construe that symbol as a representation of St. Andrew's cross, there is no other religious motif on the cane (unless one chooses to regard the serpent as a Satanic motif, which would not fit with the other motifs at all), and it is doubtful that the carvings on Joseph Smith's cane would spontaneously remind even the most ardent Christian of the crucifixion. (D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, p.72)

Let me start off by saying that I agree with Bushman that Quinn's book "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View" is brilliant. But I also agree with Bushman that the book has some problems in it. I find the above quote from Quinn (about Smith's cane) problematic for a couple reasons. 1) The serpent isn't merely a symbol of Satan to Christians; it is also a symbol for Christ. 2) The Crown is a Christian symbol too. 3) The cross he speaks of is the tiny x found on the crown, but he completely overlooks the large petrine cross on the shield.

I side with Forsberg that this shield was probably more inspired by chivalrous freemasonry than anything else. What do you think?

I wasn't familiar with the snake being a symbol for Christ. Would you mind explaining that a little?

Sethbag wrote:I wasn't familiar with the snake being a symbol for Christ. Would you mind explaining that a little?

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:14-15

At the lower right corner you can see the cross and serpent on this Boston Masonic lithograph:
Link to oversized image
http://lodgepambuladaylight.org/lithograph.htm

A pretty good article on the dual symbolism of the serpent was written by Andrew Skinner a few years ago, published by FARMS:
http://maxwellinstitute.BYU.edu/publica ... chapid=255

Sethbag wrote:I wasn't familiar with the snake being a symbol for Christ. Would you mind explaining that a little?

I believe Mike's thinking of John 3.14-15 (and its attendant Old Testament reference):

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Chris

Yeah, thanks guys. Now I get it.

Sethbag wrote:Yeah, thanks guys. Now I get it.

:)

Edit: Never mind... while typing, looks like others answered. I suck.

Sethbag wrote:I wasn't familiar with the snake being a symbol for Christ. Would you mind explaining that a little?

John 3:14-15 is probably the best example (at least that I'm aware of). I don't think it has ever been all that widespread as a symbol for Christ as even within scripture, there is a rarity of favorable comments for serpents (the only other that comes to mind is when Christ tells the apostles to go forth with the wisdom of serpents). I imagine Mike might know of some instances within antiquity though.

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

As a side note, I recall reading something a while back that identified YHWH as the consort of Asherah (in lieu of Asherah being His consort), and that YHWH was originally a serpent. I believe it was attempting to draw correlations between Temple-period Judaism worship and Egyptian worship of Set (of course, as this is from memory, take it with a helping of salt).
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Mike,
Do you know to what extent English roots remained in 1800's New England? Perhaps it's just a coat-of-arms type motif. Then again, maybe it has Kabalistic meaning, and the serpent is a throwback to Moses…

Dunno.

I think the idea of Christ as a serpent is probably a latter reading by early Christians to try to appropriate old Hebrew writings as point towards Jesus as the Messiah. Early Christians had strong motivation to demonstrate that the ancient prophecies of the messiah were pointing to the man Jesus. As would be expected, there was some creative reinterpretation which would probably be anachronistic from a historical Hebrew view.

I don't think anyone has made the case that the serpent was used by Hebrews as a symbol of the coming messiah prior to the Christian era. If anyone has any evidence otherwise I would be interested in.

Of course, this idea was around by the time of Joseph. I think more than anything, the carving points to the idea that Joseph was very interested in symbols and symbolic meaning and there were a lot of things that he believed and professed that have been lost or destroyed.

John Larsen wrote:[...]I don't think anyone has made the case that the serpent was used by Hebrews as a symbol of the coming messiah prior to the Christian era. If anyone has any evidence otherwise I would be interested in.
[...]

It was however used as a symbol for the first Messiah (Moses). It wasn't a wide-spread use (If I recall correctly), but it was used somewhat. Some traditions suggest that the "brazen serpent" was one of the items that was kept in the ark.

I don’t believe there was ever (or has been) any “symbol” that was used (or is used) to depict the Messiah ben David (nor the Messiah ben Joseph for that matter) within Judaism. Focus on G-d and the Torah tends to leave little room to be enamored with the Messiah(s), and in my opinion the Messiah(s) have always taken a backseat within Judaism (with the exception of Moses, of course).

Doctor Steuss wrote:Edit: Never mind... while typing, looks like others answered. I suck.

LOL! Need to get quicker on the draw tex!

Mike,
Do you know the what extent English roots remained in 1800's New England?

They spoke english for one. ;) No... I don't know the exact level influence (and I am certainly not qualified to try to calculate it), but I think it would be safe to say that the roots were far reaching and strong.

Perhaps it's just a coat-of-arms type motif.

I agree. The shield with a cross and a crown above it is among the more popular designs for a coat-of-arms. The inverted (petrine) cross on Smith's shield is what I am most curious about.