Theological Hermeneutics and the Book of Numbers as Christian Scripture

by Richard S. Briggs

Overview

How should Christian readers of scripture hold appropriate and constructive tensions between exegetical, critical, hermeneutical, and theological concerns? This book seeks to develop the current lively discussion of theological hermeneutics by taking an extended test case, the book of Numbers, and seeing what it means in practice to hold all these concerns together. In the process the book attempts to reconceive the genre of "commentary" by combining focused attention to the details of the text with particular engagement with theological and hermeneutical concerns arising in and through the interpretive work. The book focuses on the main narrative elements of Numbers 11–25, although other passages are included (Numbers 5, 6, 33). With its mix of genres and its challenging theological perspectives, Numbers offers a range of difficult cases for traditional Christian hermeneutics. Briggs argues that the Christian practice of reading scripture requires engagement with broad theological concerns, and brings into his discussion Frei, Auerbach, Barth, Ricoeur, Volf, and many other biblical scholars. The book highlights several key formational theological questions to which Numbers provides illuminating answers: What is the significance and nature of trust in God? How does holiness (mediated in Numbers through the priesthood) challenge and redefine our sense of what is right, or "fair"? To what extent is it helpful to conceptualize life with God as a journey through a wilderness, of whatever sort? Finally, short of whatever promised land we may be, what is the context and role of blessing?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268103736
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	06/25/2018
Series:	Reading the Scriptures
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Richard S. Briggs is lecturer in Old Testament and director of biblical studies at Cranmer Hall, St. John's College, Durham University. He is the author of a number of books, including The Virtuous Reader: Old Testament Narrative and Interpretive Virtue.

Read an Excerpt

In general, whether something or some event is a blessing depends significantly (though not exclusively) on how it is perceived, and this is even true of those archetypal elements of Old Testament blessing: land and offspring. In this sense, the logic of blessing is not dissimilar to the much-discussed logic of gift, and the complexities of how one may be freely blessed and/or indebted by the receipt of the good wishes or good gifts that “bless” is worth probing. In Old Testament terms, we can at least note that “blessing” serves as an overarching perspective within which the pursuit of a life orientated toward God can be considered.

Thus if one prays the words of Numbers 6:26 over someone, this is in part the expression of a desire that the person prayed for will receive peace (shalom) as they go through the day. Obviously this is not an automatic guarantee of peace, but in the very invoking of it upon someone it does contribute to the possibility of their experiencing peace as they go on their way.

The Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:24–26 locates the prerogative to perform such blessing with the priesthood, and this dynamic is retained in those church traditions today where only the (ordained) priest may pronounce a blessing in the context of a church service. In this text, YHWH ties his own blessing to the words of the priests, and thus the logic is that only those with the publically acknowledged role of representing YHWH can enact his blessing. Conversely, this paradigmatic version of the human act of blessing draws all Israel back to its dependence on God. This divine-human balance in blessing is the source of much reflection in the theological (and especially liturgical) tradition. Arguably, Numbers 6 inaugurates, or at least exemplifies, a period of “Old Testament time” in which the divine word is mediated through priestly blessing. Some might suggest that this can be contrasted, first, with the more family-orientated setting of blessings from father to son in Genesis, and then secondly, with the new situation that arises in Christ in the New Testament. But the converse point, that all blessing draws one back to dependence on God, is constant throughout.

The argument that the blessing found in Numbers 6 is no longer the Christian option is made by (among others) Karl Barth, whose engagement with the book of Numbers in the Church Dogmatics is largely restricted to this passage and the narrative of chapters 13–14 that we explored earlier. Here, in the midst of his discussion of humanity’s “allotted time” under the rubric of “the doctrine of creation,” Barth diverts to a consideration of blessing as he reflects on how Israel situated itself with respect to its own traditions being handed down, and thus “from whence” Israel came. “A blessing is the word which has divine power to pass on good things. It is thus clear that originally and properly the Word of God alone can be a blessing.” He then cites Numbers 6:24 as emphasizing this dependence upon God. But Barth is insistent that the practice of passing on blessing one to another is fundamentally altered in the New Testament. After considering a range of verses that do reflect practices of blessing there, he adds “We look in vain in the New Testament for a parallel to the Aaronic blessing of Num 6:22ff, or for the adoption of this blessing, or for any blessing of one Christian by another.” And the reason, he avers, is (“probably”) that “the divine word of blessing, as the New Testament sees it, has been uttered once and for all in the incarnation of the Word of God … and cannot therefore be repeated (as in Israel).”

This argument seems to go hand in hand, conceptually, with thinking that the notion of priesthood is a problematic one that the New Testament relegates to history. But as I urged in our reading of Numbers 16, this is not the only option open to interpreters. Indeed, it seems to me that Barth’s concerns might be met by the recognition that priesthood in Christian terms is always Christ’s, represented by the human priest. Priestly blessing, therefore, is indeed in New Testament terms, Christ’s blessing. It would take us too far afield to explore why Barth does not go down this route, though one can imagine reasons that are not unconnected to his particular theological commitments. In this case those commitments do seem to allow his supreme Christological focus to drift over into the “Christomonist” approach of which he is sometimes accused, and to do so particularly at the expense of other ecclesiological concerns.

(excerpted from chapter 8)

Table of Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction: A Map of the Wilderness

1. The Figure in the Wilderness: Readings in the Book of Numbers

2. Trust and Suspicion: Approaches to a Holy Text that Invites Little Approach

3. “Fraught with Background”: Towards Ascriptive Realism and Figural Reading (Numbers 10–12)

4. “What Did You Go Out into the Wilderness to See?”: Theological Interpretation, the Eyes of the Heart, and Karl Barth’s Reading of Sloth (Numbers 13–14)

5. “It is the Text that Swallows Up the World”: The Eclipse of Numbers’ Narrative and the Literal Sense of Korah’s Rebellion (Numbers 15–16)

6. “The Rock was Christ”: Typology Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Numbers 20)

7. “‘Peace, Peace,’ when there is no Peace”: The Zeal of Readers in Defense and in Dissent (Numbers 25)

8. Blessing for an Unfinished Journey: On Reading Numbers as Christian Scripture (Numbers 6; 22–24; 33)

Bibliography

Indices

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a sophisticated meditation on the nature of theological interpretation flowing from an extended discussion of the text of Numbers. Of particular value is the manner in which the book uses some of the central passages of the text as test cases for exploring possible paths through complex hermeneutical quandaries. I cannot think of other texts in the burgeoning literature on 'theological interpretation' that manage this task so successfully." —Lewis Ayres, Durham University and Australian Catholic University

"This scholarly study scintillates. Richard Briggs holds together premodern, modern, and postmodern perspectives in creative tension. This guide to Israel’s journey through the wilderness has springs of insight all along the way." —Walter Moberly, Durham University

“At once judicious and bold, Briggs’s hermeneutical meditations on Numbers model an open style of biblical interpretation that is methodologically self-conscious and modern but also theologically adept. The wilderness locale within the biblical story serves as his metaphor for the journey of reading, and Briggs guides his own readers to become better readers of scripture by developing an approach he calls 'ascriptive realism.' The result? Numbers, the most overlooked book in the Pentateuch, comes alive again with renewed vigor and theological importance.” —Stephen B. Chapman, Duke University

“With refreshingly little throat-clearing Briggs gets his hands dirty and offers a compelling, theologically engaged reading of a complex text. Combining textual, literary, hermeneutical, historical (in the broadest sense), moral, and theological insight, Briggs’ reading of Numbers is a demonstration of readerly wisdom. All who want to know what wise theological interpretation looks like will need to engage with this book.” —Angus Paddison, University of Winchester

From the Publisher

"This book is a sophisticated meditation on the nature of theological interpretation flowing from an extended discussion of the text of Numbers. Of particular value is the manner in which the book uses some of the central passages of the text as test cases for exploring possible paths through complex hermeneutical quandaries. I cannot think of other texts in the burgeoning literature on 'theological interpretation' that manage this task so successfully."

Lewis Ayres

"This scholarly study scintillates. Richard Briggs holds together premodern, modern, and postmodern perspectives in creative tension. This guide to Israel’s journey through the wilderness has springs of insight all along the way."

Walter Moberly

At once judicious and bold, Briggs’s hermeneutical meditations on Numbers model an open style of biblical interpretation that is methodologically self-conscious and modern but also theologically adept. The wilderness locale within the biblical story serves as his metaphor for the journey of reading, and Briggs guides his own readers to become better readers of scripture by developing an approach he calls 'ascriptive realism.' The result? Numbers, the most overlooked book in the Pentateuch, comes alive again with renewed vigor and theological importance.

Stephen B. Chapman

With refreshingly little throat-clearing Briggs gets his hands dirty and offers a compelling, theologically engaged reading of a complex text. Combining textual, literary, hermeneutical, historical (in the broadest sense), moral, and theological insight, Briggs’ reading of Numbers is a demonstration of readerly wisdom. All who want to know what wise theological interpretation looks like will need to engage with this book.

Angus Paddison