Pekka Pitkanen - A Commentary on Numbers: Narrative, Ritual, and Colonialism

First published 2018
by Routledge
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2018 Pekka Pitknen

The right of Pekka Pitknen to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pitkanen, Pekka, author.
Title: A commentary on Numbers : narrative, ritual, and colonialism / Pekka
Pitkanen. Other titles: Numbers
Description: First edition. | New York : Routledge, 2017. | Series: Routledge
studies in the biblical world | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016055883 | ISBN 9781138706576 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315201740 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Bible. NumbersCommentaries.
Classification: LCC BS1265.53 .P58 2017 | DDC 222/.1407dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016055883

ISBN: 978-1-138-70657-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20174-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
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As I indicate in the introduction to this book, I think that Numbers can be a difficult piece of literature to interpret, and many others who have worked on it seem to have concurred with such a statement. But due to the complexities that are involved, the book also makes for an exciting puzzle. In that sense, and otherwise, too, it has been a pleasure to have been able to engage with the issues and offer my personal take on them as an individual reader and academic. I would like to thank David Firth for his comments on an earlier version of the manuscript and those made by the partially anonymous reviewers for Routledge. This book has incorporated material from my previous work as particularly listed in the bibliography and individual passages in question. In connection with that, I am grateful to those who have reviewed and commented on that earlier work and thus helped me develop my thinking along the path towards the book at hand here. From a rather practical perspective, I am also grateful to Carl Sweatman for compiling the indexes. Importantly, I would, as always, like to thank my family, and no words can express my gratitude towards my wife, Sowon, who has always sacrificially supported my academic work and also goaded me towards pressing harder with my research and writing, including on a day-by-day basis. This book would not have been possible without her.

A section in the introduction and comments on Numbers 27, 35, 36 include material adapted from Pitknen (2010b), used by permission of Inter-Varsity Press. Comments on Numbers 32 include material adapted from Pitknen (2014c/2003), used by permission of Gorgias Press, and material from Pitknen (2016b), used by permission of Biblische Notizen . has been reproduced from Pitknen (2016c) and the introduction incorporates material from the same article, used by permission of Old Testament Essays . The introduction incorporates material adapted from Pitknen (2014b, 2014d and 2016a), used by permission of Taylor and Francis.