The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 12

for that work P Keil think.a it might have been done, quoting an instance from. Josephus ('Ware,' VI. ix. 3) in which the blood of 256,600 paschal lambs was sprinkled. upon the altar in the time of the Emperor Nero; but since this second passover was entirely exceptional, and was not directly contemplated in the enactments which had been made in view of the people's settlement in Oe.naan, and since the statute, forbidding the killing of the paschal lambs at any other place than the tabernacle- , (Deut. :xvi. 2) had not yet been published, nay, since the terms of this statuto- appear rather to imply that up to the time of ite publication, the fortieth year, they had been in the habit of slaughtering them elsewhere, it would seem as if the inference of Kurtz were correct-that the lambs were killed by the heads of families themselves, and the blood sprinkled on the door-poets; that, in short, the second year's passover was observed not upon the model of the future celebrations in Palestine, but upon that of the past celebration in Egypt; so that, even with regard to this, no undue exaction of strength would be required from Aaron and his sons. But even should we hold that the Levitical system was in operation in the wilder- ness with anything approaching to completeneee, it must be borne in mind (3) that the Levites had been assigned to the prieste for aseistante in matters relating to the tabernacle, and that they were not strangers forbidden to come nigh on pa.in of death, as Colenso alleges, on the strength of eh. iii 10, 38, but, as eh. i. 51 shows, persons who by their very office were under obligation to minister unto the tabernacle (eh. i. 47). TI. THE ASSEMBLING OF THE CONGREGATION. The objection here alluded to only needs to be stated to discover ite s.beurdity. Interpreting the narrative with the severest, and let it be also ea.id the simplest, literality, it supposes that two millions and a ha.If of people were required to assemble at the door of the tabernacle, which according to exact arithmetical calculation was eighteen feet wide, which would allow nine full-grown men to stand in front of it, which, with eighteen inches between each rank, would necessitate a line of nearly twenty miles to bring all the adult males precisely in front of it, and a line of sixty miles if the old men, women, and children were included I II It is surely inconceivable,'' writes Colenso, '' that such an enormous congregation should have been summoned expressly by Jehovah to attend for the purpose of witnessing s. ceremony taking place in a tent eighteen paces long and six wide, which could only have been seen by a few standing at the door" (' On the Pent.,' Part I. oh. iv.). To this it might be amply sufficient to reply that there is one thing even more inconceivable, viz., that a person of intelligence could have proposed such a difficulty; but for further satisfaction it may be added that the expressions," the whole s.ssembly" (Exod, xii. 6; Numb. x. 3, 4), and" all the congregation" (oh. xvi. 19, 25), do not necessarily signify every individual member of the community, but, in perfect consistency with historical accuracy. may mean a portion, representative or otherwise, of the whole. The foolishness of insisting in every instance on the universal sense of the terms " all" and " whole " is recognised by Coleneo himself, who, writing of oh. :x. 3, 4, admits that " no one would suppose that every individual would be able to attend such a summons (to the tabernacle door), or would be expected to do so," and who accordingly limits the expressions, "all the congregation," and "the whole assembly," first to the adult males in the prime of life, and eventually to II the great body of the 603,650 warriors," i. e., we presume, the major part of them. But if" all" may import something less than the whole, it will be difficult to adduoe a cogent argument to show that the " all" may not sometimes be represent.ad by a pa.rt. And indeed in the Book of Numbers itself there are not wanting hints of the representative character of the xiv THE .AUTHENTICITY .AND AUTHORSHIP OF