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NUMBERS, BOOK OF
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See also:NUMBERS, See also:BOOK OF , the See also:fourth book of the See also:Bible, which takes its See also:title from the Latin See also:equivalent of the See also:Septuagint 'Ap1Bptoi. While the See also:English version follows the Septuagint directly in speaking of See also:Genesis, See also:Exodus, See also:Leviticus and See also:Deuteronomy, it follows the See also:Vulgate in speaking of Numbers. Since this book describes the way in which an elaborate See also:census of See also:Israel was taken on two See also:separate occasions, the first at See also:Sinai at the beginning of the See also:desert wanderings and the second just before their See also:close on the plains of See also:Moab, the title is quite appropriate. The name given to it in modem See also:Hebrew Bibles from its fourth word Bemidhbar (" In the desert ") is at least equally appropriate. The other title in use among the See also:Jews, Vayyidhabber (" And he said "), is simply the first word of the book and has no reference to its contents. Numbers is the first See also:part of the second See also:great See also:division of the See also:Hexateuch. In the first three books we are shown how See also:God raised up for Himself a chosen See also:people and how the descendants of Israel on entering at Sinai into a See also:solemn See also:league and See also:covenant with Yahweh (See also:Jehovah) became a separate nation, a See also:peculiar people. In the last three books we are told what happened to Israel between the See also:time it entered into this solemn covenant and its See also:settlement in the Promised See also:Land under the successor of See also:Moses. Yet, though thus part of a larger whole, the book of Numbers has been so constructed by the Redactor as to See also:form a self-contained division of that whole. The truth of this statement is seen by comparing the first See also:verse of the book with the last. The first is as evidently meant to serve as an introduction to the book as the last is to serve as its conclusion. This is not to say, however, that the book is all of a piece, or written on a systematic See also:plan. On the contrary, no book in the Hexateuch gives such an impression of incoherence, and in none are the different strata which compose the Hexateuch more distinctly discernible. It is noteworthy that the problems of Hexateuchal See also:criticism are gradually changing their See also:character, as one after another of the See also:main contentions of Biblical scholars regarding the date and authorship of the Hexateuch passes out of the See also:list of debatable questions into that of acknowledged facts. No competent scholars now question the existence, hardly any one the relative da`as, of J, E, and P. In Numbers one can tell almost at a glance which parts belong to P, the Priestly See also:Code, and which to JE, the narrative resulting from the See also:combination of the Judaic See also:work of the Yahwist with the Ephraimitic work of the Elohist. The main difficulty in Numbers is to determine to which stratum of P certain sections should be assigned. The first large See also:section (i. —x. ro) is wholly P, and the last eleven chapters are also P with the exception of two or three paragraphs in See also:chap. xxxii., while the intervening portion is mainly P with the exception of three important episodes and two or three others of less importance. The three main episodes are those of the twelve spies, the See also:rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, and See also:Balaam's See also:mission to Balak. The last is the only one even of these three in which there is nothing belonging to P. Another passage which we may here mention is one where the elements of JE can be readily separated and assigned to their respective authors, viz. chaps. xi. and xii. It is generally agreed that to E belongs the passage describing the outpouring of the Spirit on Eldad and Medad and the remarkable See also:prayer of Moses in xi. 29, "Would God that all the See also:Lord's people were prophets that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them," a prayer that closely approaches I promulgated by Moses. (2) Chaps. x. 11-xxii., incidents that octhe New Testament See also:idea that all Christians are " priests unto
God." As usual, the J and E elements possess such a vivid character as to render them See also:familiar to See also:ordinary readers. The legislative and statistical and especially the ritualistic parts belonging to P are so detailed and uninteresting that they make no impression on a reader's memory, and P's diffuseness, always undue, reaches a See also:climax in chap. vii. where the offerings presented by each tribe at the See also:dedication of the See also:Tabernacle are actually described in such full detail that six, in themselves extremely uninteresting, verses are repeated in identical terms no fewer than twelve times. Compare also the very similar repetitions and diffuseness in chap. See also:xxix.
Perhaps, however, the most See also:illuminating example of the difference between traditions as recorded in J or E and traditions as given by P is found in the very first passage that occurs after the first See also:long section of P describing the See also:order of See also: No clearer See also:proof could be desired of the utterly uncritical spirit of the See also:age in which the Hexateuch got its See also:present form than that this detailed See also:account should be immediately followed by two See also:short paragraphs in palpable See also:contradiction of the whole plan of See also:camp and march so elaborately worked out in the preceding narrative. The fact is that Numbers is the result of a long See also:literary See also:process of amalgamation both of traditions and of documents, a process that began in the ciosing decades of the 9th See also:century B.C. and did not finally end till the 2nd century B.C., the earliest date being that of J, and the latest probably that of the various addenda to Balaam's prophecies, e.g. See also:xxiii. lob, See also:xxiv. 9b, xxiv. 18-24. Balaam's prayer in xxiii. lob is not only metrically superfluous, but the See also:personal, individual See also:note in it is quite out of keeping with every other reference in this poem, which is purely See also:national. This addition may therefore have been originally the marginal note of a pious See also:scribe which was afterwards transferred to the See also:text. In xxiv. 24 Kittim is a name originally derived from Kitium, a See also:city of See also:Cyprus. The meaning of " Kittim " was then extended to include the inhabitants of all the islands and See also:coast-lands of the Mediterranean. Hence it might mean not only See also:Macedonia or See also:Greece, but even See also:Italy. In See also:Dan. xi. 3o it is certainly applied to See also:Rome, the Vulgate rendering it " Romam " there just as that version translates it here by " Italia." Hence Baentsch would refer this See also:oracle to the time of See also:Antiochus IV. (Epiphanes) and even to the See also:embassy of Popillius See also:Laenas in 168 B.C. when that haughty See also:Roman humiliated the Syrian See also: The narratives of J and E can no longer be distinguished except from slight linguistic data, perceptible only to Hebrew scholars; but the three stages of development are quite apparent even in See also:translations. 1. The first narrative is that of JE, which relates how two Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram, rebelled against the See also:civil authority of Moses,andwere punished by being buried alive,they and their See also:house-holds. Read together verses ib, 2a, 12-15 and 25-34, omitting 32b, i.e. " and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods," a clause due to the Redactor, who put it in to unite the narratives, forgetting that Korah, not being a Reubenite, could not have had his See also:tent with its belongings among the tents of the Reubenites. 2. The second narrative is P1, which tells how Korah, himself a Levite, at the See also:head of 250 Israelites rebelled against the religious authority of Moses and See also:Aaron because of the privileges conferred on the tribe of See also:Levi. Korah and his associates maintained that the other tribes, belonging as they did to a See also:holy people, had as much right as the See also:Levites to approach Yahweh directly, without the See also:mediation of any Levite, and offer sacrifices and even See also:incense to Yahweh Read together verses la, 2b-7, 19-24. 3. The third narrative is P2, which relates how Korah at the head of 250 Levites protested against the priestly privileges of Aaron, claiming that all the Levites had as much right to See also:sacrifice and offer incense to Yahweh as Aaron and his sons had. Read together verses 8-II and 16 and 17. In both PI and See also:F2 the disputants are summoned from their tents and ordered to assemble before the Dwelling of Yahweh; and in both cases the same See also:fate overtook the rebels. Fire descended from See also:heaven and consumed Korah and his confederates. It is to be noticed that in both Pl and P2 incense is burned in pans or censers, so that even the author of P2 knew nothing about an See also:altar of incense. Indeed in xvii. 3 and 4 the altar is spoken of in such a way as to imply that there was only one altar, viz. the altar of burnt-offering. xvi. 2 proves that according to the second account the members of Korah's See also:band, so far from being all Levites, as they are represented to have been in verses 8-i 1; were probably, with the exception of Korah himself, leading members of the See also:secular tribes. In See also:xxvii. 3 we find a proof, all the more conclusive from being incidental, that Korah's followers were not all Levites; for, had they been so, it could never have occurred to the daughters of Zilpahad to repudiate the idea that their father, a Manassite, had had a See also:share in Korah's See also:conspiracy. Of course none of the narratives is found in its entirety, anything See also:common to two or more of them being given only once; and great skill has been shown in See also:weaving them together. (B) The See also:story of Balaam as we have it in chaps. xxii.-xxiv. is an See also:amalgam of J and E with later additions; but xxxi. 8, 16 proves that Balaam was not unknown to P. According to E, Balak sent certain Moabite princes all the way to Pethor on the See also:Euphrates to ask Balaam to come and curse Israel. But Elohim came to Balaam by night and forbade him to go. So the princes returned disappointed. A second and still more influential embassy having been sent, Elohim again appeared by night, and this time permitted Balaam to go on See also:condition that he said nothing but what Elohim bade him say. The See also:journey being a long one and across a difficult desert, requiring a See also:caravan well equipped with camels, the princes of Moab waited till Balaam was ready to accompany them. When Balaam reached the frontier of Moab Balak was waiting to.welcome him, but could not refrain from asking why he had not come with the first embassy. With equal frankness Balaam replied that, though he had come now, he had no See also:power to say anything but what Elohim might put into his mouth. On being taken to Bamoth-See also:Baal he was met by Elohim. Thereupon, instead of cursing the Israelites, Balaam blessed them. Though bitterly disappointed Balak still attempted to effect his purpose and took Balaam to the See also:top of Pisgah, with the result that Israel received a second blessing. Balak, now utterly disheartened, abandoned his project altogether. According to J, Balaam was among his own people the Bne-See also:Ammon when Balak sent messengers to him with presents such as soothsayers generally received, asking him to come and curse a people that had come up out of See also:Egypt. Balaam protested that, though he were to receive a houseful of See also:silver and See also:gold, he could not go beyond the word of Yahweh, his God. Nevertheless his scruples were somehow overcome; and, without consulting Yahweh, he agreed to go. As the journey was not a long or dangerous one, the servants of Balak returned at once to inform their See also:master of their success, leaving Balaam to follow at his own convenience. So Balaam, still without consulting Yahweh, saddled his See also:ass and set out for Moab, attended only by two servants. The land through which he had to pass, so far from being a desert, was a land of oil and See also:wine; and when Balaam was See also:riding along a narrow path between two See also:vine-yards, the See also:angel of Yahweh would have slain him, had not his ass swerved and saved him. That this See also:episode belongs to J no one need ever forget, since the only parallel in Scripture to the speaking ass is the serpent that spoke in See also:Eden. Balaam, after being sternly rebuked, was allowed to proceed, but only on condition that " the word that I shall speak to thee, that See also:thou shalt speak." Balak met Balaam at Ar-Moab, whence they went to Kiriath-Huzoth and thence to the top of Peor. There Balaam blessed Israel. Balak angrily taunted Balaam with having lost the honours intended for him, and bade him flee to his own place. Balaam reminded Balak of his See also:declaration that he could not go beyond the word of Yahweh, and then boldly announced the respective destinies of Israel and Moab, xxiv. 15-19. As seven is the perfect number and as Balaam had ordered seven altars to be built, the Redactor thought it would be well to have seven Meshalim or metrical oracles; and so he added other three which are certainly not pertinent to the situation, as they allude not merely to the See also:Assyrian See also:empire but to the Macedonian, and even, as some maintain, to the Roman empire, cf. xxiv. 24. The poetical quotations in Numbers are of the utmost importance, not only as helping to determine the date of the book but as indicating the value of See also:poetry in its bearing on history. In xxi. 14 we have a poetical See also:quotation from a lost See also:volume of See also:early poetry entitled " The Book of the See also:Wars of Yahweh." It is highly probable that See also:Deborah's See also:song was also originally in this book; and when we compare the statement in that song as to Israel's full fighting strength, viz. 40,000 men, with the statements in the See also:prose of Numbers as to 600,000 men and more, we at once realise how much closer to actual facts we are brought by early poetry than by the later prose of writers like P. Perhaps it is in chap. xxxi. that we have the clearest proof of the non-See also:historical character of the book. There we are told that 12,000 Israelites, without losing a single See also:man, slew every male Midianite, children included, and every Midianite woman that had known a man, and took so much See also:booty that there had to be See also:special legislation as to how is should be divided. But if this were actual fact, how could the Midianites have ever reappeared in history? And yet in See also:Gideon's time they were strong enough to oppress Israel. From this See also:chapter, unhistorical as it must be, we see how the legislation of Israel, whatever its character or origin, was referred back to Moses the great Law giver of Israel. (J. A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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