HOW MANY ISRAELITES DIED? (I CORINTHIANS 10:8; NUMBERS 25:1-9)

Paul reviews the sins of the Israelites while in the wilderness and the consequences of their sins. Specifically, in I Corinthains 10:8 he states that 23,000 of them died in a single day due to their sexual immorality. The problem comes in when one consults the OT stories to which he refers. First, in v. 7 he talks about those who worshiped the golden calf (see Exodus 32:7), and then in the following verse he cites the incident in Numbers 25:1-9 where the Israelites had several relationships with the women of Moab in the context of Baal worship. As a result, 24,000 Israelites died of the plague.

There have been several theories offered to explain the apparent discrepancy. Ashley summarizes the situation as follows: “This contradiction has never been satisfactorily explained, and attempts at harmonizing the accounts raise more questions than they solve.” Fee echoes that opinion: “Most of the 'harmonistic' solutions are less than satisfactory at best.” But for what they are worth, I have tabulated the theories below.

Brauch begins by saying, “It is difficult to explain exactly what happened” to cause this discrepancy. However, he offers two theories which have been proposed by others. He rejects both out of hand:

    1. Paul is quoting from another version of the OT text.

The problem with this solution is that all ancient translations of this passage read the same as the standard Hebrew text. And in addition, both Philo and Josephus quote from Numbers 25 and say 24,000 Israelites.

    2. Paul chose the number 23,000 for symbolic reasons.

But there is no known symbolism for this number. However, it is always remotely possible that the author of Numbers chose 24,000 for its symbolic meaning (as an exact multiple of the number seven, which often stands for completeness) while Paul, relying on some other ancient tradition, is the one restoring the literal number to the story. Of course, this is as much speculation as positing the existence of another OT textual tradition of which we have no record.

Some more likely solutions to the problem include:

    4. 24,000 is the total number of people who died, but 23,000 of these were “in a single day.”

Fee asks, “Where did Paul have access to such a tradition?”

    5. The actual figure of 23,500 was rounded up in Numbers and rounded down in I Corinthians.

Lindsell in his book Battle for the Bible opts for this solution, but Fee asks, “Where did he learn of the 'correct' number, and why did he round it off downward?”

    6. Paul was quoting or dictating from the OT passage from memory and accidentally got the number 23,000 from Numbers 26:62 in which it equals the number of enrolled Levites. This is a real possibility since that episode directly follows 26:61 in which the death of two disobedient priests is mentioned.

    7. Keil, followed by others such as Lowery, suggests that Paul did not include the leaders who were hanged (see Numbers 25:4), only the ones who died in the plague.

There are two objections to this theory. In the first place, Ashley notes the obvious fact that the OT text does not state how many leaders were hanged, and so Paul would have had to had access to some other tradition of which we have no evidence. An even more obvious problem to this suggestion is that Numbers 25:9 specifically says that all 24,000 died “by the plague.”

    8. Lastly, both Ciampa and Rosner cite Koet's possible explanation that Paul purposely fused together elements from Numbers 25:9 and Exodus 32:28. In that latter story, the slaughter of the people following the Golden Calf incident is related. His evidence for this theory is that Exodus 32 contains the phrase “fell on that day,” which in its Greek translation is identical to Paul's wording. Also, the number 3,000 appears in that passage, referring to the number of those killed. It may be the origin of Paul's 23,000.

Why would Paul conflate these passages together?” Koet feels that his rationale was that Paul wished the reader to have both events in mind in I Corinthians10:7-10 so that the punishments from both events would be heeded. Ciampa and Rosner's judgment is that while Koet's explanation is certainly intriguing, it is “less than compelling.”

    9. A variation of Possibility #8 is that the conflation described there could have happened accidentally. “Perhaps Paul confused the two numbers since he would be writing [or dictating] from memory.”: Orr and Walther.

Brauch's summary of the situation is well worth quoting: “The issue is not the missing 1,000 from the Old Testament, but whether we will be counted among those judged by God in the New.” And Grosheide also puts the matter into perspective: “The main thing is that Paul describes a case of sin and consequent punishment which is applicable to the Corinthians.”