NACHASH (נָחָשׁ) “serpent, serpent's, serpents, snake”
NACHASH (נָחַשׁ) “practice divination, observe signs; divination, divined, enchantments, indeed practice divination, indeed uses, interprets omens, practice divination, took as an omen, used divination”
Not literally a snake that crawls on its belly… but it was a title of a person who practiced divination and kept sacred knowledge.
This is consistent with the title of Akkadian UŠUMGAL (written: 𒃲𒁔 / 𒁔𒃲 / 𒈲𒃲𒁔) / Old Babylonian DIŠ (𒁹) “Great Serpent” (i.e. “Dragon”) conferred on Enki the Sumerian god of knowledge and waters. He functioned as diviner in the court of his father Anu (written: 𒀭𒀭 / 𒌋𒌋𒌋𒌋𒌋𒌋)
As DIŠ (𒁹) / DISH the name is written with a number one suggesting a numerical placeholder as “The One”, perhaps an oblique reference or reverential term used to avoid uttering a sacred / infernal name akin to the epithet "He Who Shall Not Be Named".
This word is also found throughout Island Southeast Asian and Polynesian languages in the following forms with reference to worms, snails, sea snakes, and serpentine fauna of all kinds:
Austronesian:
Japanese: ONAKA (お腹) (literally "guts") Malay: NAGA ("Dragon". Etym., not a saurian but a huge snake (ular naga) with a horn (chula naga) and on its brow a luminous bezoar (gĕmala naga) with which it lights its way at night.") Polynesian:
Tongan: NGATA "snake, sea snake", Sāmoan: GATA "snake, sea snake", Māori: NGATA "snail, slug, caterpillar, MAN (obsolete usage)", Hawaiian: NAKA "snail"
A very interesting usage of the word in Hawaiian is "the skin of one who has drunken kava to excess; dry, cracked, scaly skin - a symptom of overconsumption of kava", just as with Sāmoan gāta'e "to be cracked, to be split", and gatae "Erythrina indica, Indian coral tree". This particular theme will re-emerge when I examine the comparative etymology of the word kava. As a symptom of imbibing the sacred drink of the gods and chiefs, this dry, cracked skin condition is linked to the theme of "glory, honor" and "bitterness, burden, sorrow, responsibility" and an inflected form of the word as kave referring to "tentacles, sunbeams, carrying, taking, parsimony", etc.
"Taking kava continuously for a long time may cause reddened eyes, dry/scaly skin, or yellowing hair/skin/nails. These symptoms usually disappear when kava is stopped." (https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-32897/kava-root-oral/details) "It is well-established that chronic use of kava can cause a reversible ichthyosiform pellagroid dermopathy." (Ruze, 1990; Norton, 1994)
The symptoms of reddish eyes and discolored complexion from excessive kava consumption is very interesting. This is very reminiscent of the description in the theatrical treatise Natya Shastra attributed to the sage Bharat Muni of person of Nāga nature is very interesting. (Bharat Muni, 455)
Erythrina indica, or "Indian coral tree", "is a thorny deciduous tree growing to 60 feet tall. A wide range of chemical compounds have been isolated, mainly alkaloids, flavonoids, triterpenoids, and lectin. Different parts of the plant have been used in traditional medicine as nervine sedative, collyrium in opthalmia, antiasthmatic, antiepileptic, antiseptic, and as an astringent. The alkaloids extracted from the leaves of E. variegata are reported to have anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity. Isoflavonoids isolated from E. variegata having antibacterial and anthelmintic activity. E. variegata shows several other characteristic pharmacological effects like neuromuscular blocking, smooth muscle relaxant, CNS depressant, and hydrocholeretic, which are consistent with the reported uses of the plant extracts in the indigenous system of medicine. Hence the present article includes the detailed exploration of morphology, phytochemistry, and pharmacological aspects of E. variegata in an attempt to provide a direction for further research." (Kumar, 2010)
I believe it is possible that the word for "human being" is derived from a compound of TA'A "to wander abroad" and GATA "serpent". Because the word exhibits much flexibility with regards to different species featuring serpentine forms--worms, caterpillars, snails, slugs, in addition to snakes and sea snakes of all kinds, I believe the word as a reference to "worms" provides a tantalizing linguistic connection to the Sāmoan creation myth and the evolution of the first Sāmoan people from ILO "worms, maggots". Glossed, TA'A+GATA / TA'A+NGATA / TĀNGATA / TĀGATA means literally "wandering worms" or "serpents abroad".
It is unclear to what extent the Naga of legend and the GATA of Oceania are connected, how they came to be so, under what conditions, nor when, but it is unmistakable that there is a direct link between the words from the Middle East all the way to Rapanui based on observations abiding with regular rules for phonetic shift in linguistic drift theory.
Connections of the Crucifixion symbolism with the Brazen Serpent
There is also some interesting parallel symbolism regarding nachash ha-nekh-o'-sheth (נְחַ֥שׁ הַנְּחֹ֖שֶׁת) “the bronze serpent”, and the crucifixion.
“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.”
“…No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
It suggests that Jesus was a great serpent / dragon.
Snake on a pole
Man on a cross
Jesus = Great Serpent = Dragon = [MUŠ]UŠUM.GAL (𒈲𒃲𒁔)?
Jesus was also referred to as the “Lion of Judah”.
In Akkadian / Sumerian [MUŠ]UŠUM.GAL (𒈲𒃲𒁔) meant “Dragon” but also meant “LION, King of the Beasts”.
“And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.”
References:
Bharat Muni, Natya Shastra (with English Translations), Translator: Manomohan Ghosh M.A., Ph.D., Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, 1951.
Churchward, C. Maxwell (Clerk Maxwell), Tongan dictionary : Tongan-English and English-Tongan. London : Oxford University Press, 1959.
Kepano's CombinedHawaiian Dictionary for browsers.
Kumar A, Lingadurai S, Jain A, Barman NR. Erythrina variegata Linn: A review on morphology, phytochemistry, and pharmacological aspects. Pharmacogn Rev. 2010 Jul;4(8):147-52. doi: 10.4103/0973-7847.70908. PMID: 22228954; PMCID: PMC3249914.
Norton S.A., Ruze P. Kava dermopathy. J. Am. Acad. Dermatol. 1994;31(1):89–97.
Pratt, George. A grammar and dictionary of the Samoan Language: Edited by Rev. S. J. Whitmee. Trübner & Company, 1878.
Ruze P. Kava-induced dermopathy: a niacin deficiency? Lancet. 1990;335(8703):1442–1445.
Tregear, Edward, The Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary. Lyon and Blair, 1891.
Wilkinson, R. J. (Richard James), A Malay-English dictionary, University of Michigan, Singapore [etc.] Kelly & Walsh limited, 1901.
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