In the New Testament, pharmakeia carried with it the idea of sorcery, occultism, and black magic
(media.greatawakening.win)
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I've never been comfortable with that medical staff....
Same here, I remember being a kid and thinking it was weird and "why would the medical profession be associated with snakes???" Now I know why.
Do you not know history? Did you not think to seek the answers that made the most sense, instead of referring to imagery that is much more recent than the source?
There are two reasons that stem from two places:
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake image and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. Whenever someone was bitten, and he looked at the bronze snake, he recovered.’” -Numbers 21:8-9
The other one comes to honor the fathers of medicine who were huge parts in the revolution of modernized medicine, Hippocrates II and Asclepiades, named from the Ancient Grecian hero and god (lower case G) of healing, Asclepius, son of Apollo who was said to have a snake entwined staff.
It's also important to recognize the impact of other minor gods and goddesses in the development of medical symbols. Hygieia is another such one, whose symbols are expressed in the compounding and medical aspect of our "Health System"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygieia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_of_Hygieia
It seems even the NIH must publish such information. It seems as if they are bragging:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4190767/
True, I forgot Hygieia's place in reference because of the efforts of Hippocrates and Asclepiades.
Interestingly, Hygieia being the namesake of the word hygiene ended up purging many diseases and illnesses that civilization encountered many times. Just by being clean, and having clean water, etc.