Numbers

Question 1

What is the Hebrew name for the book of Numbers?

Answer 1

‘In the Wilderness’ / bemidbar / בְּמִדְבָּר.

Question 2

Why do we call it Numbers?

Answer 2

Because Moses is told to number the people at the beginning. Or, to count them (census). The men of military age are counted.

Question 3

Why is it full of numbers?

Answer 3

You need to mention all the names, so that the people could trace the fact that their tribe was there at the beginning.

Question 4

At what point in the book do they set out to the Promised Land?

Answer 4

Chapter 10. But, they also tell about how they set out, or how they camped. And it lists all the places they stopped.

Question 5

The oldest fragment of the bible is of Numbers.

Answer 5

A passage from chapter 6. “The Lord bless you and keep you”, etc. It’s the Aaronite blessing. The priests were supposed to use this. It was of the 7th century, on a silver amulet.

Question 6

When was Numbers written, and when was Moses believed to have existed?

Answer 6

The 4th or 5th century BCE. Moses was around the 13th and 14th centuries BCE.

Question 7

Where do we find the Nazarite vow?

Answer 7

Numbers 6

Question 8

What does the snake on the pole represent?

Answer 8

Healing to those who were bitten by snakes, from Numbers 21. The symbol is still used today my medical associations.

Question 9

What are some of the similarities between Exodus and Numbers?

Answer 9

Miriams song
Complaint
3 day journey to Sinai
Manna and Quail
Water from the rock
leaders appointed to help Moses
Isreal defeats/defeated b Amalekites
sacrifice to other gods
killing of apostates demanded
Levites (Phineas) status elevated
plague on the people

Question 10

Briefly describe the happenings of the first 9 chapters of Numbers.

Answer 10

Numbers begins with a number of things to do to get Israel ready for the journey to the Promised Land:

Numbers 1 – a census of the population of Israel by tribes

Excluding the tribe of Levi, who are given special duties vis-à-vis the Tabernacle and its accoutrements

Numbers 2 – the camp is arranged by tribes around the Tabernacle

Numbers 3-4 – the duties of the Levites

Numbers 5-6 – priestly matters

Numbers 7-9 – gifts to the Tabernacle, the consecration of the Levites, and the observance of the Passover

Question 11

What do the Israelites complain about in Numbers?

Answer 11

Just about as soon as they depart from Mt. Sinai, the Israelites start complaining. There are two major subjects of their complaints:

Food and water
Leadership

Question 12

What important structure begins to emerge in the book of Numbers?

Answer 12

Leadership. The focus of the toledot (beggetings) structure is on Moses’ leadership.

My contention is that the toledot that we are to focus on in Numbers is the leadership that flowed from him, civil leadership. Thus, one focus throughout Numbers is the religious and civil leadership of the people of Israel.

Question 13

Korah asserts that all of Israel is holy. Is this true?

Answer 13

No. Only the priests are holy.

Question 14

Who complains about people’s leadership?

Answer 14

Aaron and Miriam, and Korah.

Question 15

What is the core sin of the Egypt generation?

Answer 15

They don’t trust the Yahweh will provide. But he has:

Yhwh provides:

manna [מָן, which means ‘what?’]
quail
water

Question 16

Why does Moses not enter the Promised Land?

Answer 16

He doesn’t acknowledge Yahweh’s provision. Does not give God the glory for bringing water from the rock. Dr. Thomas believes the pressure of leadership and having to provide for the people got to him.

Numbers 20 is a sad point in the story of Moses. Numbers 20.7-12:

Yhwh said to Moses, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

So Moses took the staff from Yhwh’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. But Yhwh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

Question 17

What does the tale of the 12 spies do for us in the book of Numbers?

Answer 17

The tale of the 12 spies sent into the Promised Land is a pivotal moment. It explains why it took 40 years to get from Mt. Sinai to Canaan instead of several weeks.

Question 18

What story in Exodus runs parallel to the 12 spies story in Numbers?

Answer 18

In this story, we see many shades of the Golden Calf incident: distrust on the part of the people, God’s desire to destroy Israel and start over with Moses, and Moses’ case to God on behalf of the people of Israel.

Question 19

What do the spies report about the land and the people?

Answer 19

The spies come back with a mostly positive report about the land: it is fertile and good. They also have a mostly negative report about the people of that land and their prospects for invading it: the people are huge, and they have fortified cities!

Question 20

How do Caleb and Joshua see the situation?

Answer 20

Only Caleb and Joshua (although there is some fluidity in the editing concerning whether Joshua was included here) have a positive take on the prospects for Israel’s invasion of the land: Yhwh has promised it to us, so let’s go!

The people return to the murmuring motif and side with the 10 spies who were more negative at the prospects of invasion.

Question 21

What is God’s response to the people after the 12 spies incident?

Answer 21

In a clear reflection of the Golden Calf incident, Yhwh once again wants to kill off Israel and start over with Moses:

Numbers 14.12: Let me strike it [this people] down with pestilence and dispossess it, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier (in number) than it!

Exodus 32.10: So now, let me be, that my anger may flare against them and I may destroy them—but you I will make into a great nation!

Question 22

What arguments does Moses use to convince God to not destroy the people?

Answer 22

Moses makes two main arguments with Yhwh, just as he had done in Exodus 32:

What will this do to your reputation (the Egyptians will hear)?

Remember what you said in Exodus 34.4-6 (Numbers 14.18). You are a God of grace and compassion.

So, Yhwh again relents.

Question 23

What is the consequence of believing the 10 spies instead of Caleb and Joshua?

Answer 23

However, this time, Yhwh’s grace comes with a steep cost: the current generation will die in the wilderness.

Question 24

According to Olson, what was wrong with the Old generation?

Answer 24

In the article by Dennis Olson, “Negotiating Boundaries: The Old and New Generations and the Theology of Numbers,” Olson gives a brief overview of his work on the change of generations in Numbers (pp. 230-232). His basic idea is that Numbers is structured around two generations, each introduced with census lists in Numbers 1 and 26.

The exodus generation was a generation that grew up in slavery. Thus, they had a ‘slave mentality.’ Their thinking was shaped in a world where freedom didn’t exist. They had a hard time adjusting to relying on God in the wilderness. This might help to explain the desire to return to Egypt that we see in the murmuring stories.

Question 25

What did Donald Hebb have to say about the brain?

Answer 25

Donald Hebb, an influential figure in neuropsychology in the mid- to late- 20th century, developed ideas about how the brain works that have become quite influential. Hebb’s Law: ‘Neurons that fire together, wire together’ became the basis for a number of studies of neuroplasticity, or the idea that the brain can rewire itself even later in life.

The basic idea is this: when you habitually do or think something or in a certain way, it makes physical changes in your brain. The neurons used in a course of common thinking become more and more efficient at working together. Thus, in order to change one’s thinking in a fundamental way, you have to create new pathways that supercede the old and use them enough that the old pathways atrophy. Some brains are able to accomplish this more easily than others.

Question 26

What was the different between the Old and Wilderness generations?

Answer 26

The brains of the Hebrews who escaped from slavery, then, were formed on a biological level in captivity. The brains of their children, however, were formed in the context of the wilderness. Thus, the generations would have had fundamentally different ways of interpreting reality. This is not to say that the exodus generation couldn’t change their patterns of thinking, just that it would have been harder than for the new generation.

Question 27

How many deaths do we see in chapter 26-36 of Numbers?

Answer 27

Whereas Numbers 1-25 records a number of deaths and disasters among the people, Numbers 26-36 records no deaths.

Question 28

What was the major difference of the Wilderness generation when you compare them to their parents?

Answer 28

The new generation, one could argue, was more conscious of their sin:

Numbers 21.7: The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against Yhwh and against you. Pray that Yhwh will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

Numbers 25.6: Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting.