Dissertation
The forgotten promise to Phinehas: a reception history of numbers 25:10–13
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Summer 2025
DOI: 10.25820/etd.008078
Abstract
Despite the covenant of a “perpetual priesthood” granted to Phinehas in Numbers 25:10–13, he is scarcely mentioned in the texts of the Hebrew Bible. Perhaps more notably, vv. 10–13 provide the only reference to Phinehas’ covenant within the MT. While he is not an altogether unknown figure, appearing in texts spanning from Exodus through Psalms, as the ancestor of the Zadokite line, son of Eleazar, grandson to Aaron, and recipient of the divine “covenant of perpetual priesthood” (ברית כהנת עלום) (Num 25:13) enshrining the Zadokite priesthood, his “history of influence” is surprisingly modest. Scholarly attention has seemingly followed the biblical precedent with its consideration of Phinehas. Despite its relatively demure scale and fragmentary nature, the existing scholarship surrounding Phinehas has revealed, but as of yet has not fully considered, the period of the emergence of the covenant in Numbers 25 and the presence of two distinct stages of literary development within the Phinehas tradition. By identifying the late emergence of the covenant of the “perpetual priesthood,” it not only becomes possible to explain otherwise textually problematic aspects of Phinehas’ promise of a “perpetual priesthood,” but one can also understand more fully the varied and creative Zadokite efforts to secure their position in the postexilic high priesthood. Additionally, by removing the assumption of the covenant from readings of Phinehas’ few appearances, it becomes possible to disentangle the layers of Phinehas’ literary wake within the text of the Hebrew Bible into that of an earlier genealogical and priestly-violence tradition and a later covenant tradition.
In this study, I propose that the development of the promise of the “perpetual priesthood” to Phinehas found in Numbers 25:10–13 is a late development in the Phinehas tradition within the texts of the Hebrew Bible. It developed after the emergence of the genealogical and priestly-violence traditions of texts like Numbers 25:6–9, Exodus 6:25, and Psalm 106, but before the translation/composition of LXX Joshua, Ben Sira, and 1 Maccabees, thereby placing its insertion into the biblical text in the late-post exilic period, between the late 4th and mid 3rd c. BCE. Finally, its development is intimately connected to the Zadokite priesthood.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The forgotten promise to Phinehas: a reception history of numbers 25:10–13
- Creators
- Jordan Scott Jones
- Contributors
- Robert Cargill (Advisor)Paul Dilley (Committee Member)Mark Leuchter (Committee Member)William Schniedewind (Committee Member)Celsiana Warwick (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Classics
- Date degree season
- Summer 2025
- DOI
- 10.25820/etd.008078
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- xvi, 200 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2025 Jordan Scott Jones
- Language
- English
- Date submitted
- 07/14/2025
- Description illustrations
- Tables
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 182-200).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
Despite the covenant of a perpetual priesthood granted to Phinehas by God in Numbers 25:10 13, the priest Phinehas is scarcely mentioned in the texts of the Hebrew Bible. More remarkably, Numbers 25:10 13 provides the only reference to Phinehas covenant within the biblical text. While Phinehas appears in various texts from Exodus to Psalms as the ancestor of the Zadokites, the grandson of Aaron, and recipient of the divine covenant of perpetual priesthood (Num 25:13) that secures the Zadokite priesthood, his legacy within the biblical text is surprisingly modest. This study is concerned with the development of Phinehas covenant within the biblical text and the impact that the covenant has on Phinehas various appearances and argues that the development of the promise of the perpetual priesthood to Phinehas found in Numbers 25:10 13 is a late development in the Phinehas tradition created by the Zadokites between the late 4th and mid 3rd c. BCE.
- Academic Unit
- Classics
- Record Identifier
- 9984948641802771
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