Numbers 3:11-13 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Verses 11-13

Numbers 3:11-1 Chronicles : . The Relation of the Levites to the People.— The Levites are here considered as dedicated to Yahweh in lieu of the first-born of Israel to whom He had a claim, and for whom no redemption money had been paid in the past (in the future every first-born child is to be redeemed by the payment of 5 shekels ( Numbers 18:16)). Yahweh’ s claim is here based on the sparing of the Hebrew children at the Exodus ( Exodus 13:11-Ezra :); but elsewhere all first-born creatures are regarded as Yahweh’ s ( Exodus 22:29 f; Exodus 34:19 f.); Perhaps originally supernatural qualities were associated with the firstborn (in whom, if a family were thought to be descended from a Divine ancestor, the Divine strain might seem to be strongest, cf. Genesis 49:3 *), so that such were held to be more than ordinarily sacred; and if a sacrifice were required, the holiest victim would appear the most appropriate ( cf. Genesis 22:2, 2 Kings 3:27, Ezekiel 20:26, Micah 6:7).

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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