Sunday Sermonette: Talking out of your ass

The next three chapters are the story of Balaam. This is a departure in several ways. It is the first time since Genesis that the focus has not been directly on the Israelites or their progenitors. Rather, the protagonists are other people, perceiving the Israelites and their God. It also has stylistic departures, not so much in today ' s chapter but in the next two. We ' ve come across a song here and there, but there are many songs in the two later chapters of this story. And, as for the first time in the previous chapter, the people are called Israel; anachronistically, they are also called Jacob.I ' ve done a little (very little) research. The scholarship on this is complicated and controversial, but a leading hypothesis is that this is an interweaving of the story as told by J and E, which accounts for some repetitiveness that we will encounter in the next two chapters; and that it was constructed in large part as a framing device for the songs, which come from an unknown older source or sources. It is tempting to think it was the lost Book of the Wars of the Lord, as mentioned in the preceding chapter. However anomalous, the story of Balaam furthers the evolution of the plot. The major focus of Leviticus was the promulgation of the law. This continues to some extent in Numbers but the central concern is establishing the the requirement for absolute loyalty and obedience to Yahweh, through an increasingly absurd series of rebellions and sadistic punishments. Yahweh ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs