Numbers

Chapters

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
10. 10
11. 11
12. 12
13. 13
14. 14
15. 15
16. 16
17. 17
18. 18
19. 19
20. 20
21. 21
22. 22
23. 23
24. 24
25. 25
26. 26
27. 27
28. 28
29. 29
30. 30
31. 31
32. 32
33. 33
34. 34
35. 35
36. 36

In the maps

• Numbers 4:5

  Whenever the camp moves, Aaron's sons must veil the Ark, cover it in blue, and set its poles; only then may the Levites carry it, and they may not touch it (4:15). Pitre cites these verses for the Ark's untouchable holiness (p 46), the background to Uzzah's death when the Ark was moved on a cart instead of by its poles. The reverence owed the old Ark is the model for reverence toward the new.

• Numbers 4:15

  The ark was so holy that touching it meant death, a law Uzzah later breaks at the cost of his life (2 Samuel 6:6–7). Pitre uses this to show that the ark's holiness was not decorative but absolute, set apart entirely for God. The reverence and awe owed to the old ark is the backdrop for the reverence the New Testament shows toward Mary, the new ark, and for the holiness such a vessel must have.

• Numbers 30:6

  A married woman's vow stands if her husband hears it and says nothing; he may annul it only when he first hears of it. Pitre reads Numbers 30 as the legal framework of Mary's vow (pp 97–100): the chapter regulates vows for three kinds of women — the unmarried (vv. 3–5), the married (vv. 6–8, 13–15) and widows or divorcees (vv. 9–12) — and such vows, once confirmed, are lifelong. Joseph, hearing of Mary's vow at betrothal and accepting it, was then bound to honour it.

• Numbers 30:13

  The Law of Moses assumes that a married woman may take a binding vow of self-denial, and gives her husband the right either to confirm it or to annul it when he hears of it; if he says nothing, the vow stands (30:6–8, 13–15). Pitre presents this as the legal framework that makes Mary's vow of virginity within marriage intelligible: Joseph, told of her state and her calling, upholds rather than annuls it. It is the second of his three evidences for the perpetual virginity.

• Numbers 30:15

  If a husband annuls his wife's vow after having let it stand, 'he shall bear her iniquity.' Pitre draws the consequence for Joseph (p 100): Matthew calls him a 'righteous man,' obedient to the Law, so once he had accepted Mary's vow he was bound under penalty of sin to honour it. This is why the couple's abstinence, even on the wedding night, is exactly what a vow under Numbers 30 would produce.

• Numbers 35:21

  Pitre cites this law to define the word 'enmity.' Striking someone 'in enmity' is the mark of a murderer, so the word denotes deadly hostility rather than dislike. Genesis 3:15, which uses the same term, therefore announces a war to the death between the serpent and the Woman and her seed.