What does the staff represent in "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

Stephen Holliday

Another interesting use of the
staff as symbol occurs when Goody Cloyse asks the Old
Man for his arm to help
her walk to the meeting deep in the forest.  He responds that he cannot
lend
her his arm, but he does offer his staff:

So
saying,
he threw it down at her feet, where, perhaps, it assumed life, being
one of the rods which its
owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian magi.  Of
this fact, however, Goodman Brown could not
take cognizance.

The scene would resonate with
Hawthorne's
readers because it comes from the episode in Exodus, chapter 7,  in the

Bible in which the Pharaoh asks Moses for a miracle to prove God's
power.
 Moses then tells his brother Aaron to throw down his staff, which
turns into a serpent.
 Pharaoh's's magicians then throw down their staffs,
which also turn into serpents.
 Unfortunately for the Egyptian magi's
serpents, Aaron's staff-serpent devours them.

It is
likely that Hawthorne included this episode to reinforce the point that the

staff is indeed a serpent,...

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