Numbers.

• Author: Adam, Klaus-peter
• Position: Book review

Numbers. By ROLF P. KNIERIM and GEORGE W. COATS. The Forms of the Old Testament Literature, vol. 4. Grand Rapids, Michigan: WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO., 2005. Pp. xii + 367. $55 (paper).

This commentary has been co-authored, the bulk of it written by G. W. Coats (Num. 10:11-36:13, reworked by Mignon Jacobs and David Palmer), while R. P. Knierim drafted chapters one--four and the portion of chapter five on Num. 11:1-36:13. The outline is as follows: abbreviations and symbols; foreword by the editors; chapter one: "The Book of Numbers: The Saga of the Migratory Campaign (1:1-36:13)"; chapter two: "The Legend of the Organization of the Sanctuary Campaign (1:1-10:10)"; chapter three: "The Individual Units (1:1-10:10)"; chapter four: "The Saga of the Campaign Itself (10:11-36:13)"; chapter five: "The Individual Units (10:11-36:13)." Included is an appendix (outline of Num. 11:1-36:13, including the assumed macrostructure of P and of the source J 334-36 (pp. 332-36 by D. Palmer) and a glossary (pp. 337-67).

The emphasis of FOTL series is on form criticism, i.e., the formal structures of biblical narratives. Hence, this commentary does not point out literary development, but instead focuses on the predominantly priestly text as it currently appears in Numbers.

Chapter one offers, besides a bibliography, a methodological and hermeneutical introduction to Numbers ("Prolegomena"). The commentators interpret Numbers generally as belonging to the genre of history writing before the time of Thucydides, albeit not as historiography in the modern sense of the word. As a consequence, the authors consider Numbers in the context of the Pentateuch. More specifically, they understand the Pentateuch as "torah" in the sense of "instruction, teaching." The commentary is mainly concerned with the form of the units of the biblical book in the Masoretic edition, with their possible theological concerns, and with the concepts of the book's writers.

The third part of the first chapter explains the "Saga of the Migratory Campaign" (1:1-36:13). It is organized into four parts: structure, genre, setting, intention. On the macro-structural level, the book is divided into two parts: 1:1-10:10, "The Legend of the Organization of the Sanctuary Campaign" and 10:11-36:13: "The Saga of the Campaign Itself." The glossary (pp. 358-59) explains that, by "saga" the commentary presupposes the German understanding of "Sage." That is, reference is not to the medieval...