Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kevin P. Edgecomb" <kevino AT bombaxo.com>]

I'd like to suggest another possibility for explaining the range of 
impossibly large numbers not only in the Exodus and Numbers texts, but 
throughout the Hebrew Bible.  I think it more likely that late in the Persian 
period or early in the Hellenistic period, and editor or editors consistently 
altered the numbers included in the historical texts by factors of either 10 
or 100.  The idea was suggested by what appear to be a few "misses" and by 
the similarly motivated alteration of numbers in earlier Assyrian texts as 
described in Marco De Odorico's _The Use of Numbers and Quantifications in 
the Assyrian Royal Inscriptions_ (Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 
1995).  I've put my notes on this idea online here:

http://www.bombaxo.com/numbmult.html

Although I don't think this is entirely conclusive, I do find that this 
proposal deals with the presence of impossibly large numbers throughout the 
Hebrew Bible much more effectively than the only partial solution of using an 
alternate meaning for 'elep in only certain cases.  Clearly the authors were 
using numbers, despite the sophistry of their interpreters. "Hundreds" add up 
to "Thousands." "Units" do not add up to "Clans." Incidentally, however, my 
proposal does end up in presenting roughly the same numbers as he "'elef as 
clan" approach.

I would certainly appreciate any comments on the idea. One of the things I'm 
not settled on is the lack of control as to whether the numbers were 
multiplied by either 10 or 100.  The factor chosen is only what seems likely 
in comparison to what is known from other sources in some cases, but is still 
not sufficiently solid for my satisfaction.  It's only a suggestion, but a 
working one which does certainly show some potential.

Regards,
Kevin P. Edgecomb
Berkeley, California