Numbers and Chronicles: False Friends or Close Relatives?

This article investigates the possible terminological and thematic relationships between the books of Numbers and Chronicles. This is done within the parameters of newer studies on Pentateuch formation, and particularly of the formation of Numbers, which date these processes in the fourth century B.C.E., thus in close temporal proximity to Chronicles. The majority view that Chronicles follows after the final reworking of Numbers is accepted here, but the investigation also examines the possibility that the Chronicler could have influenced the final reworking of Numbers. Finally, the article contributes certain methodological perspectives which may assist scholars towards more responsible comparisons of literature from the late Persian period.