Numbers (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible)
"InNumbersStubbs shows us what theological interpretation of scripture should be: deeply attentive to the biblical text, whilst at the same time drawing richly from the church's theological heritage. With the church of our day so divided and confused, we have never more needed to hear God's word from the book of Numbers, this most ecclesiological of books. God willing, with the patient guidance of Stubbs and other theologians like him, we may yet find our way through the desert of our failings and besetting sins."--Nathan MacDonald, University of St Andrews, Scotland, and University of Goettingen, Germany"The Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible is a crucial venture, and Stubbs'sNumbersis a most welcome addition. With great passion for the text and the people it seeks to form, Stubbs demonstrates that the theological wisdom of the past helps to display the profound importance of the book of Numbers for the cultivation of scripturally shaped ecclesial life. No less does Stubbs's commentary show the interpretive merits gained by thorough interaction with modern biblical study. In short, Stubbs is to be commended for his steadfast rejection of the false alternative so often posed between ancient and contemporary hermeneutical strategies. Stubbs reads this Old Testament book with an interpretive patience, literary attentiveness, and theological freedom that invite us all to return to the text and consider it more closely--surely a proper end of any theological exegesis worth its name."--C. Kavin Rowe, Duke Divinity School"The editors of the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible have chosen theologians for whom doctrine is a living engagement with the tradition, a habit of mind and heart, not a chiseling of propositions on stone tablets--theologians like David Stubbs. His commentary on Numbers helps to bridge the divide that has arisen between theologians and exegetes to the impoverishment of both and the Church. He sees in the diverse material of Numbers a consistent portrayal of God as a 'burning fire that tests us and ultimately cleanses us to make us holy.'"--Thomas A. Boogaart, Western Theological Seminary