Joseph Blenkinsopp, «The Baal Peor Episode Revisited (Num 25,1-18)», Vol. 93 (2012) 86-97
The Baal Peor episode (Num 25,1-18), followed by the second census (Num 26), marks the break between the first compromised wilderness generation and the second. This episode is a «covenant of kinship» between Israelites and Midianites resident in Moab, sealed by marriage between high-status individuals from each of these lineages. The violent repudiation of this transaction by the Aaronid Phineas is in marked contrast to the Midianite marriage of Moses, for which an explanation is offered, and is paradigmatic of the attitude to intermarriage of the Aaronid priesthood during the mid-to-late-Achaemenid period.
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THE BAAL PEOR EPISODE REVISITED
of J in Genesis where this elusive source can be most securely identified,
while E has proved impossible to identify with assurance even in Genesis,
it seems that assigning this passage to these sources is more a faute de mieux
than the result of serious analysis. This leaves us free to read it as a
particularly significant instantiation of the prohibition of intermarriage as
stated, using much the same language, in texts of Deuteronomistic type,
specifically Exod 34,15-16 and Deut 7,3-4 (language identical with or
similar to Num 25,1-5 italicized):
You must not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for
when they prostitute themselves after their gods and sacrifice to their
gods someone will invite you and you might eat their sacrificial food.
Then you will take some of their women for your sons, and their
daughters will prostitute themselves after their gods and lead your sons
to prostitute themselves after their gods (Exod 34,15-16).
Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or
taking their daughters for your sons, for that would turn away your sons
from following me to serve other gods, and the anger of Yahweh would
flare out against you and he would soon destroy you (Deut 7,3-4).
In these passages the narrative pattern and much of the language is
identical with the account in Num 25,1-5. There is also the brief reference
to the episode in Deut 4,3-4, clearly of Deuteronomistic origin, in which
those addressed are reminded that they are the only survivors of the
destruction of the idolaters 6. Following this reading, we may leave aside
man original, 1883]) 356-357 (Jehovistic followed by P Code); W. RUDOLPH,
Der ‘Elohist’ von Exodus bis Joshua (BZAW 68; Berlin 1938), 128 (E); M.
NOTH, A History of Pentateuchal Traditions (Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1972 [Ger-
man original, 1948]) 16, 75, 196-197; J. GRAY, A Critical and Exegetical Com-
mentary on Numbers (ICC; Edinburgh 1903) 380-387 (vv. 1-5: J and E
combined by a redactor; vv. 6-18: P Grundschrift); P.J. BUDD, Numbers (WBC
5; Waco, TX 1984) 275-279 (Yahwistic followed by Priestly source); B.A.
LEVINE, Numbers 21-36 (AB 4B; New York 2000) 282-291 (JE followed by
Priestly narrative); H. SEEBASS, “Zu Numeri 25,1-18â€, Verbindungen.
Festschrift für Werner H. Schmidt zum 65. Geburtstag (eds. A. GRAUPNER et
al.) (Neukirchen-Vluyn 2000) 351-362 (a reconstructed early core narrative
from vv. 1-18 filled out by a P and post-P writer); id., more recently, Numeri
(BK 4.3; Neukirchen-Vluyn 2005) 108-145; U. FISTILL, Israel und das
Ostjordanland. Untersuchungen zur Komposition von Num 21,21-36.13 im
Hinblick auf die Entstehung des Buches Numeri (OBS 30; Frankfurt a.M.
2006) (a post-P redactional stratum from 4th century B.C.).
6
On the late-exilic origin of Deuteronomy 4 see A.D.H. MAYES, “Deuteron-
omy 4 and the Literary Criticism of Deuteronomyâ€, JBL 100 (1981) 23-51; Id.,
The Story of Israel between Settlement and Exile (London 1983) 22-39.
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