Today is Ash Wednesday, so I could, quite reasonably, have waited until tomorrow to start my Lenten challenge of reading may way through Exodus and Numbers (total 76 chapters) but actually I was eager to get started, so I began today.

I am deliberately choosing to read using the online tool Oremus Bible Browser where you can choose to hide both verse numbers and section headings, restoring the text more or less to its original form (chapters, verses, and especially section headings, are a much, much later addition designed to make publication and referencing easier).  The advantage of this approach is that I won't be steered into someone else's mindset about where breaks in the narrative occur... though by choosing to accept chapter breaks to manage the chunks I read, that is, to a degree, unavoidable.

I'm sure most readers know the etymology of the names of the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch or Torah) but just in case anyone has forgotten, it's worth a quick reminder...

Genesis = beginnings or origins and echoes the opening words "In the beginning"

Exodus = road/way out or departure, expressing the focus of this book as the departure from Egypt.

Leviticus = the book of the Levites, and contains the priestly codes and laws of the emergent nation

Numbers = well, numbers!  It refers to the lists of data which open this book.  Why this one is in plain English and the others carry eahcoes of the Septuagine Greek I have no idea!  Apparently it's Hebrew name is be-Midbah which means 'In the wilderness' and is a far better name in my opinion!

Deuteronomy = second law, which explains why so much of it seems to repeat earlier material, albeit slightly differently.

Setting aside all the theories of Yawist, Elohist, Deuteronomist and Priestly traditions, all woven (and readily discernible) into these ancient texts, we  have some complex, confusing, sometimes contradictory material with which to engage as we ponder the stories of some very ordinary humans and their relationship with God. 

I am hoping that my 'way out' Lenten reading will give me things to ponder and maybe my thoughts will spark your own.

So, welcome to this forty day (or thereabouts) meander through part of the Old Testament!