Numbers (Brazos Theological Commentary On The Bible Series)

This ninth volume in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible offers a theological exegesis of Numbers. This commentary, like each in the series, is designed to serve the church - through aid in preaching, teaching, study groups, and so forth--and demonstrate the continuing intellectual and practical viability of theological interpretation of the Bible.
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"David Stubbs is an able guide as he focuses on the literary shape of the final form of Numbers and its theological implications for the life of the Christian church. Stubbs provides a rich and substantive Christian reading of Numbers, focusing on its vision of who the people of God are to be (Numbers 1-10), the failure of the people to live up to God''s vision and God''s faithfulness in spite of that failure (Numbers 11-25), and the reorganization and new beginning of an emerging generation of God''s people as they prepare for life in the promised land of Canaan (Numbers 26-36). Stubbs interacts responsibly with current Old Testament scholarship on Numbers. He also expands his commentary into a dense theological dialogue with New Testament texts, modern Jewish interpreters like Milgrom and Levenson, and a wide array of Christian interpreters like Origen, Jerome, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Barth, Bonhoeffer, Hauerwas, Tanner, and Moltmann. And he takes up a host of substantive theological issues and concerns--election, blessing, eucharist, holiness, sacrifice, leadership, sabbath, sin, and forgiveness, to name a few. Stubbs manages to offer up a sumptuous theological feast out of what is sometimes seen as the dry fare of the book of Numbers."--Dennis Olson, Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary"The Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible is a crucial venture, and David L. Stubbs''s Numbers is a most welcome addition. With great passion for the text and the people it seeks to form, Stubbs demonstrates that the theological wisdom of the past helps to display the profound importance of the book of Numbers for the cultivation of scripturally shaped ecclesial life. No less does Stubbs''s commentary show the interpretive merits gained by thorough interaction with modern biblical study. In short, Stubbs is to be commended for his steadfast rejection of the false alternative so often posed between ancient and contemporary hermeneutical strategies. Stubbs reads this Old Testament book with an interpretive patience, literary attentiveness, and theological freedom that invite us all to return to the text and consider it more closely--surely a proper end of any theological exegesis worth its name."--C. Kavin Rowe, assistant professor of New Testament, Duke Divinity School"In Numbers Stubbs shows us what theological interpretation of scripture should be: deeply attentive to the biblical text, whilst at the same time drawing richly from the church''s theological heritage. With the church of our day so divided and confused, we have never more needed to hear God''s word from the book of Numbers, this most ecclesiological of books. God willing, with the patient guidance of Stubbs and other theologians like him, we may yet find our way through the desert of our failings and besetting sins."--Nathan MacDonald, reader in Old Testament, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and leader of the Sofja-Kovaleskaja Research Group, University of Gttingen, Germany"Stubbs''s sophisticated literary approach is just what is needed to engage the interplay of law and narrative in this, the most complex book of the Torah. Moreover, his wide-ranging theological and ecclesial imagination is deeply informed by scripture and the history of its interpretation by both Jews and Christians. Stubbs has opened up the riches of a book that was effectively closed to the church, making it accessible and even indispensable for our journey with God."--Ellen F. Davis, Amos Ragan Kearns Professor of Bible and Practical Theology, Duke Divinity School"The Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible was born of the conviction that everyone interprets from a particular tradition, whether they acknowledge it or not, and that those steeped in the practices of the ''Nicene tradition, in all its diversity and controversy,'' are best able to provide ''structure and cogency to scriptural interpretation.'' The editors have chosen theologians for whom do
-Publisher

This ninth volume in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible offers a theological exegesis of Numbers. This commentary, like each in the series, is designed to serve the church--through aid in preaching, teaching, study groups, and so forth--and demonstrate the continuing intellectual and practical viability of theological interpretation of the Bible.

"The Brazos Theological Commentary exists to provide an accessible authority so that the preacher's application will be a ready bandage for all the hurts of life. The Brazos Commentary offers just the right level of light to make illuminating the word the joy it was meant to be."--Calvin Miller, author of A Hunger for the Holy and Loving God Up Close
-Publisher