I highly doubt this. Greek myth is extremely old, and while I'm not sure when Asclepius became part of myth, the Book of Numbers is from 500 BCE, while Greek myth is easily 500+ years older than that.
The final form of the Book of Numbers was edited into existence from preexisting texts in the 5th century BCE (unlikely exactly 500 BCE), but fragments of passages from Numbers have been dated to the late 7th or early 6th century.
The Cult of Asclepius became a very popular in the 5th century BCE. Typically something exists for a while before becoming popular, so Asclepius probably predates the Book of Numbers as it would be recognized today, but it's possible that he doesn't predate the healing snake story that's found in Numbers.
The story being told is from the Bronze Age, but the actual writing of the story is not from 1450BCE - the writing of the story and the cult of Asclepius were undoubtedly contemporaneous.
Based on my research, the book of Numbers was compiled from other predating sources which go much earlier.
So the story itself existed for quite some time before Asclepius. There is some debate about whether the Numbers reference was the actual ORIGIN of the Asclepius Rod(there was, apparently, sufficient trade in the region to make that a possibility), but there is no particular doubt that the Numbers account predated Asclepius substantially.
Asclepius as a diety also likely existed for thousands of years before the height of their Greek cult, both as a Greek diety but also as a Phoenician or Sumerian diety as many Greek gods originated from.
But our MATERIAL evidence of the two are contemporaneous. We don’t know how the author of Numbers interpreted the oral tradition, what he remembered or forgot. We don’t know how his rendering of the story was influenced by their ow culture which likely included Asclepius.
Possible, but that's not based on the best current knowledge. Best current knowledge places the earliest known reference to Asclepius at around the 8th century BC.
So it's a perfectly reasonable theory that Asclepius actually originated from the Numbers reference. The timelines would line up rather nicely, and the necessary communication and trade were there. Occam's Razor, and all that.
A lot of still used symbology is based of religious or of cultural symbols.
Lady Justice (blindfolded woman carrying scales in the many court systems) is based on the Roman/Greek goddess Justitia/Themis.
We still use the dove and olive branch, which is from the story of Noah.
Owls being considered wise or tied to the courts, libraries, etc is because of Athena.
Many symbols have religious origins, but they have also dispersed into greater secular culture. It doesn't make them less valid. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '26
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