The Book of Numbers (NICOT)

Ashley, Timothy R. The Book of Numbers (NICOT).
ISBN: 0-8028-2523-0. 667 pages. From the New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT).

Reviewed by Henry Neufeld

I moved to this commentary after I finished reading Dr. Jacob Milgrom's three volume commentary on Leviticus from the Anchor Bible series. I felt a bit of a letdown during my study of Numbers because of the extremely high quality of the former series. But many of the things that gave me that feeling are things that others will see as positive benefits in this smaller volume. The material here is certainly more limited, but what is included is carefully selected. You just can't cover the same amount of ground in 660 pages (the extent of the text less the index) as you can in more than 2,400.

There are some key issues that I look at in commentaries. This is not a devotional or homiletical commentary. It covers text critical issues thoroughly. The author tends to dismiss other critical issues, such as sources, very quickly, as he focuses on how the text may be understood in its final form. Many readers, especially pastors, will consider that a feature. For the most part, when you preach, you need to preach on more or less the final form of the text, and that is what is covered most thoroughly. I prefer a little more discussion of source, redaction and tradition issues, however.

You do not need to know the original languages to make use of this commentary. More technical issues are relegated to the footnotes, and you can read the main commentary text without reference to the footnotes for the most part. Since I have an interest in the Hebrew text, and in many of the more technical issues that were put there, I found myself following the footnotes pretty much throughout the book, and there is much profitable information in them.

I would put this commentary high on my list of recommendations for teachers or pastors who are serious students, but either have limited knowledge of the language and critical issues, or simply don't have the time to pursue those. It will be of less interest to those specifically interested in critical issues, but the look at the text in its final form is also rewarding.

In my recent reading, I have found that both the New International Commetary on the New Testament and on the Old Testament are strong representatives of the evangelical position on the books where they are available.

I'm now moving on to Deuteronomy and I'm reading it with the commentary in the Apollos Old Testament Commentary: Deuteronomy by J. G. McConnville. I'll be adding a short review of that volume as an introduction to its series on this web site.