Numbers: An Introduction and Study Guide: The Road to Freedom (T&T Clark’s Study Guides to the Old Testament)

✍ Scribed by Eryl W. Davies

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 98
• Edition: Study Guide
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Davies outlines the composition and date of Numbers, and the various attempts that have been made to establish a coherent and meaningful structure in its arrangement. Davies also shows how the application of reader-response criticism, feminist criticism and postcolonial criticism have contributed to our understanding of selected passages in the book. Addressing theological issues, Davies considers three themes that occupy much of the content of Numbers, namely; land, purity and holiness, and rebellion. The concluding chapter considers the contentious issue of the historicity of the book of Numbers in the light of recent discussions concerning the historical value of the Old Testament. Davies shows how some of the issues Numbers raises – war, disease, survival, hunger, race relations – are among the perennial problems faced by nations across the centuries and across cultures. While individual passages within Numbers may reflect a questionable sense of morality, Davies demonstrates that the book, when viewed in its totality, encompasses a number of important theological themes which recur throughout the Old Testament: the interplay of forgiveness and judgment, and of sin and punishment, and the need to trust in the power of God rather than human might.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
Select List of Commentaries
Chapter 1: Introductory Issues
Title
Summary of Content
Composition and Date
Structure
Chapter 2: Numbers and Biblical Criticism
Reader-Response Criticism
Feminist Biblical Criticism
Postcolonial Criticism
Chapter 3: Themes in Numbers
Land
Purity and Holiness
Rebellion
Chapter 4: Problematic Passages
The Census (chaps. 1 and 26)
The Balaam Tradition (chaps. 22-24)
The Wilderness Itinerary (33.1-49)
Chapter 5: Historical Value and Contemporary Relevance
Historical Value
Contemporary Relevance
Index of Subjects
Index of Authors