The version of tbe
Priestly Code, however, mixes up with the Baal-Peor story of the
Jehovist the figure of Balaam, which is also borrowed from the
Jehovist but entirely transformed in the process. In the form
under which he appears in the early history he transgresses all
the ideas of the Priestly Code. An Aramaean seer, who is hired
for money and makes all sorts of heathen preparations to
prophesy, but who yet is not an impostor, but a true prophet as
much as any in Israel, who even stands in the most intimate
relations with Jehovah, though cherishing the intention of cursing
Jehovah's people--that is too much for exclusive Judaism. The
correction is effected by the simple device of connecting Balaam
with the following section, and making him the intellectual
instigator of the devilry of the Midianitish women; and in this
new form which he assumes in the Priestly Code he lives on in the
Haggada. The reason for changing the Moabites into Midianites
is not made clear; but the fact is undoubted that the Midianites
never lived in that part of the world.
In the Book of Numbers the narrative sections, which are in the
style and colour of the Priestly Code, have more and more the
character of mere additions and editorial supplements to a
connection which was already there and had a different origin.
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