One of my students from Pentateuch class asked me the following question, which I thought I would answer here:

The story of Korah in Numbers 16 makes a point that “levites have gone too far” as these are only priests that are holy, to put it simplisticly. How does the test of the rods in 17 prove that the levites were wrong since it was their clan’s rod that blossomed? Is 17 a P source material?

The material in Num.16-18 is a composite of three different layers.

  • First, we have the J story of the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram, which has nothing to do with the priests. It is concerned merely with a challenge to Moses’ authority.
  • The second layer is the rebellion of the 250 chiefs of the congregations, who challenge the exclusive right of Moses and Aaron to be priests. The test of the censers and the budding of the rod show that it is in fact the Levites who are to be priests. This layer comes from the P source — or more specifically from the H source.
  • The final layer is the layer that introduces Korah, and turns it into a question of whether all the Levites are priests or only the descendants of Aaron. This layer comes from the H redactor, who has combined the J and H stories plus added his own material. This redactor expands the story of the censers so that it is the Levites who make the offering and are punished.

It is this final redaction that is creating the tension, since it now contrasts the test of the censers and the test of the rod. Aaron’s rod budding confirms the Levites power in the original story. As it stands in combination with the Korah story, however, it appears to only confirm the power of the Aaronids over against the rest of the tribes. It is the H stratum in the Pentateuch that first makes a distinction between the Aaronids and the Levites. Prior to this, all Levites seem to have been eligible to serve as priests (see Deuteronomy and Judges for examples).

Permalink