Book review: Numbers 1-19
David Green is the Vice-Principal and a lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew at London Seminary.
Numbers 1-19 by L Michael Morales, London (Apollos ; AOTC 4a), 2024 (502 pages) £39.99, ivpbooks.com.
L. Michael Morales’s Numbers 1–19 is a comprehensive rather than concise commentary, with this first volume spanning 502 pages. When paired with the forthcoming Volume 2 (chapters 20–36), the combined work may approach 900–950 pages, making it a substantial presence alongside other AOTC volumes (e.g., Leviticus, 538 pages; Deuteronomy, 544 pages; 1 & 2 Samuel, 614 pages; 1 & 2 Kings, 615 pages). Yet, as a commentary, it is not designed to be read cover to cover. Instead, readers will likely turn first to its 75-page introduction, which J. Gary Millar, a noted biblical scholar and author, praises as “worth having for the introduction alone.” There’s something in that.
The value of the introduction is twofold. First, it establishes very quickly and concisely a helpful framework for understanding Numbers, highlighting the book’s emphasis on covenant community and leadership. To achieve this, Morales draws out helpful comparisons and contrasts with Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. He establishes the importance of Israel’s camp around the tabernacle in the wilderness as the visible representation of the covenant community and how this parallels the heavenly host which surrounds the throne of God. The organisational logic of Numbers is established as theological. Morales then links the wilderness encampment to the vision of Ezekiel in chapter 1, the ideal temple in the latter chapters of Ezekiel and from there to the heavenly Jerusalem in Revelation 21–22. We might say the logic of Morales’s commentary is biblical-theological. There are obvious benefits for the preacher (the Apollos series is “intended primarily to serve the needs of those who preach from the Old Testament,” it says on the back): themes of the covenant community in relation to God, the role of human leaders within that (both positive and negative), and the connections between the wilderness encampment and broader themes in biblical theology are all things we would want to preach. From this point of view, Morales has done exegetes and expositors a great service.
The second way in which the introduction is valuable is in showing Morales’s workings. A plethora of Jewish rabbinical and medieval sources informs his analysis of verbal and numerological parallels, everything from the colour blue to the signs of the zodiac. In Morales’s view, “Jewish tradition offers interpretative insight” (p. 24), although this tradition should be viewed critically: “my aim is not to validate every aspect of ancient tradition” (p. 29). All the same, he sees nothing inventive in Jewish exegetical tradition: “the ‘sages’ did not manufacture correspondences but merely made them explicit” (p. 29, my emphasis). This gives the impression that any perceived parallel is either intentional in the biblical text itself or, at least, is legitimate. But more is less: tenuous and unconvincing parallels may undermine confidence in his interpretation as a whole, which would be a shame. Morales does not draw from premodern Christian (Early Church, Medieval Christian or Reformation) exegesis of Numbers in the same way. Perhaps this is because insights from within Judaism have often been overlooked by Christian interpreters, or because Christian exegesis of the Old Testament has showed a lack of interest in the Old Testament on its own terms and from the perspective of its own distinctive theology, but I wonder whether this commentary gives the message that the Christian exegete (and preacher) of Numbers (if not the OT as a whole) must not only be acquainted with Jewish interpretation from the Mishnah onwards, but is also free to embrace its hermeneutical principles.
Book review: Numbers 1-19
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Editorial – Issue 88