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The Death of the Old and the Birth of the New: The Framework of the Book of Numbers and the Pentateuch (Brown Judaic Studies, No. 71)

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This was an excellent comment on the coherence of the book of Numbers, so often treated by scholars as a jumbling of ancient sources and traditions and literary genres. What Olson has argued for in this work is 1) that the book of Numbers is itself a literary unit and not dependent upon Exodus or Leviticus to make sense of its own communication, against Guthrie and Dentan's understanding that "neither in its final form nor in any of the sources underlying it is Numbers a separate unit. It is part of a larger unit the division of which is largely arbitrary" (43). And 2)that internally the book of Numbers has a cohesive structure framed by the 2 census lists in Numbers 1 and 26 which divide the book in two generational haves (1-25 the death of the Old exodus generation of infidelity and 26-36 the birth and hope of a new generation of faithfulness). and 3) how the book of Numbers situates in and has profound significance for the meaning of the Pentateuch.

The book is divided into three parts; here is the condensed Table of Contents:

Part 1 -- the book of numbers: the problem
Chapter 1: A survey of the modern study of the book of numbers
Chapter 2: the problem of the structure of the book of numbers
Conclusion to part 1
Part 2 -- the framework of Numbers: an alternative proposal
Chapter 3: the case for the book of numbers as a literary unit
Chapter 4: Modern interpretations of Numbers 1 and 26 (the census lists)
Chapter 5:The census lists as the unifying framework of numbers
Conclusion to part two
Part 3 -- the interpretation of numbers: implications
Chapter 6: the spy story in numbers 13-14
Chapter 7: the Balaam cycle in numbers 22-24
Chapter 8: selected legal material in numbers
Chapter 9: the book of numbers, the Pentateuch and beyond
Conclusion to part three

His main thesis is put forth in Chapter 5. Here are two sentences at the end of chapter 5 on "the division of Numbers into two parts -- 1.1-25.18 and 26.1-36.13"
"The placement of the first census list as the very beginning of the book, the chronological and geographical indicators, the them of the death of one generation and the beginning of a new generation as it is developed and continued from the spy story throughout the book, the concern for succession of offices, the motive of the death of leadership in Miriam, Aaron and Moses, the emphasis on the enduring quality of the laws of God as perpetual statutes from one generation to another, the climactic eschatological promise oracle of Balaam which is addressed to the first generation of God's people but points to a later generation all support the understanding of the two-generation scheme and the census lists as the overarching and unifying structure. This basic structure embraces and gives comprehensible order of the disparate material which comprises the book of numbers" (121).

His arguments are convincing and coherent and he provides the reader of Numbers with a tremendous amount of hermeneutical and theological possibility! I would suggest this book for anyone who desires to read the Torah with greater understanding. Moreover this work has influenced Jacob Milgrom's commentary on Numbers in "The JPS Torah Commentary" and was the starting point for Adriane Leveen's "Memory and tradition in the book of Numbers". If someone wants the "effect" of this monograph, one can get Olson's commentary on Numbers in the Interpretation series where he develops the interpretive implications of his thesis beyond part 3 of this book to the entire book of Numbers.