Law and Narrative as »Inner-Biblical Interpretation« in the Book of Numbers

This paper discusses different cases of creative-adaptive expansions of older texts in the book of Numbers. In Num 36:1–12; 27:1–11; 15:32–36; 9:6–14; and Lev 24:10–23, narrative and legal texts are creatively adapted to answer legal questions that had not yet been clarified. Thus, existing source-texts are used and consequently updated in new situations – in the history of Israel or the redactional history of the texts. Num 11:4–35 was formed in a similar way but does not update any legal questions. It does, however, connect different narratives into a new literary unity, thus updating events and constellations of events in Israel's narrated history.