The Maintenance of Holiness and the Contours of Leadership: Form and Characterization in the Book of Numbers

The book of Numbers presents numerous problems for interpreters who attempt to garner a sense of meaning from the disparate texts and genres found interspersed throughout the work. This dissertation is a methodological study that incorporates features of form-critical theory, which developed over the course of the 20th century and continues to evolve in the 21st century, alongside literary approaches to the biblical text, specifically the analysis of characterization, to present a new reading of the book of Numbers. After surveying recent research on the book of Numbers, new developments in form-critical method, and approaches to characterization in biblical studies, the work offers a methodological proposal for reading Numbers along synchronic lines, according to the rubrics of structure, characterization, and literary setting. The approach analyzes the form rather than the formation of the text, and, by highlighting the role of characterization within the form-critical enterprise, provides a reading that considers the structure and flow of the book of Numbers as well as, through intertextual readings, the significance of Numbers in the broader structure of the Torah. The remainder of the work analyzes four texts from the book of Numbers: The Commission of the Levites (3:5-51); The Purification of the Levites (8:5-22); The Three-Day Journey from Sinai (10:33-11:34); and The Complaint of Miriam and Aaron (11:35-12:15). Each text is read in relation to the dominant structural marker of the Torah, the toledoth formula, and, particularly, the final formulaic marker in 3:1. Each of the four texts presents a model of Judean leadership set in a narrative that sequentially builds by using the Levites as characters that are assigned roles and appear as illustrations for additional roles necessary to maintain holiness in the camp. As the Torah is structured as a creation text (Gen 1-2; Exod 40:17), the dissertation finds that material in Numbers, which follows the completion of the creation narrative in Exod 40:17 by resetting the narrative chronologically to the same time (Num 3:1; 7:1; 9:15; cf. 1:1), is designed to illustrate the levitical task to maintain creation through attending to holiness. Now that creation has reached completion with the dangerous presence of the holy deity residing within Israel, proper management under proper leadership will result in blessing, but inattentiveness to holiness by the leadership or others is liable to incite danger. The new reading attends to discussions of structure, plot, and coherence in Numbers as well as theological concerns related to leadership, holiness, and divine violence.

Bezet door het ijs

Beset by Ice The Dutch Literary Resonance of Unfortunate Whaling Voyages in the Catastrophic Year 1777/1778 The Greenland whaling catastrophe of the year 1777 resulted in seventeen voyage descriptions, written in five languages over a period of 40 years. Travelogues in Dutch, German and Danish reflect the international character of the 18th century whaling trade. As for the Dutch literary setting, there appear to be great differences in style and processing between printed journals written by surviving seamen and descriptions written by or in collaboration with more or less professional authors.

The Hunter and the Asses: A Neo-Assyrian Paean Glorifying Shalmaneser III

The present article gives a new edition and analysis of ‘The Hunter and the Asses’ (LKA 62) and discusses its political, historical and literary setting. We argue for the identification of the text as a paean, glorifying the campaigns of Shalmaneser III to the west against the coalition of 12 kings led by the king of Damascus.

Introducing the theme of the nations joining the people of Israel (Isaiah 14:1–2)

This chapter demonstrates that 14:1-4a shows an uncanny resemblance to chs 40-55 both in style and in the pattern of thought. Since there is no compelling reason to date the two lengthy poems (at least their main bodies) for which 14:1-4a currently serves as a bridge-text in the post-exilic period, it seems natural to adopt the view that 14:1-4a was written in the late-exilic period by the same circle of writers who wrote chs 40-55. The main function 14:1-2 was designed to serve in its immediate literary setting was to interpret the imminent fall of Babylon in light of the divine will to restore and establish Zion as a place where the people of Israel return to and where the nations come to join and attach themselves to YHWH’s people – one of the core arguments of chs 40-55.

The enemies within: Gog of Magog in Ezekiel 38–39

The most extensive descriptions of Gog and Magog in the Hebrew Bible appear in Ezekiel 38–39. At various stages of their political career, both Reagan and Bush have linked Gog and Magog to the bêtes noires of the USA, identifying them either as the ‘communistic and atheistic’ Russia or the ‘evil’ Iraq. Biblical scholars, however, seek to contextualise Gog of Magog in the historical literary setting of the ancient Israelites. Galambush identifies Gog in Ezekiel as a cipher for Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, who acted as Judah’s oppressor in the 6th century BCE. More recently, Klein concludes that Gog, along with his companions, is ‘eine Personifikation aller Feinde, die Israel im Buch Ezechiel gegenüberstehen’. Despite their differences in detail, these scholars, such as Reagan and Bush, work with a dualism that considers only the features of Judah’s enemies incorporated into Gog’s characteristics. Via an analysis of the semantic allusions, literary position and early receptions of Ezekiel 38–39, this article argues that Gog and his entourage primarily display literary attributes previously assigned to Judah’s political allies.

The Prophets in the Dead Sea Scrolls

This chapter examines the reception of the prophets in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It begins by outlining what books of the sectarian communities of the Dead Sea Scrolls would have been considered in the corpus of ancient prophets. The chapter then analyzes growing centrality of the interpretation of prophetic texts for Jews in the Second Temple period. The Pesharim interpret the words of the ancient prophets as literary ciphers that when properly decoded reveal the origins, unfolding history, and eschatological future of the sectarian communities. Expanded prophetic narratives appropriate the voice of the ancient prophets to create new compositions that either rewrote the words of the ancient prophet or recast the prophetic identity in a new literary setting. The chapter further explores the ways in which the sectarians regarded themselves as recipients of ongoing revelation and therefore saw themselves in continuity with the prophets of old.