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Document Details : Title: La spécificité de Nb 26-36 dans la composition du livre des Nombres Author(s): ARTUS, Olivier Journal: Semitica Volume: 65 Date: 2023 Pages: 383-409 DOI: 10.2143/SE.65.0.3293127 Abstract : Most of the commentaries of the book of Numbers split the text in three parts, according to its topographical data. The two first main parts of the book (Num 1-10; 11-21) seem coherent, from a theological point of view. Their theocratical post-P composition describes, in Num 1-10, the organization of the community according to a logic of hierarchy of holiness, and in Num 11-21 the consequences of the disobedience of all the members of the first generation liberated from Egypt. The consequence of this disobedience is the death of the sinners, before the conquest of the Land. The third part of the book deals with the reorganization of the second generation of the community, at the prospect of the conquest of the Land. Surprisingly, the organization described by Num 26-36 differs from that instituted in Num 1-10: two and a half tribes are authorized to settle in Transjordan, illustrating another way of belonging to the community — outside the Land, far from the sanctuary and from the authority of the High Priest. So, distinguishing the organization of the tribes about to settle in the Land, and the specific organization of Transjordan, Num 26-36 echoes the religious and social life of a geographically diverse community, at the end of the Persian period. |
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