The Rebellion
Korahs rebellion was depicted in the Book of Numbers. Originally, the story was from two different sources- the Priestly (P) source and the Yahweh-Elohim (JE) source. P had built upon the older JE version, adding his own agenda to the mix. In its final form in the torah, the two different versions were combined together into a single, confusing narrative. The story jumps from place to place, protagonist to protagonist. It was a difficult story to comprehend until the two distinct voices, and their separate agendas, were unraveled. Korahs rebellion is depicted in the Book of Numbers, which began where Exodus left. It covered the period that the Israelites spent wandering the desert after escaping from Egypt. The time spent…show more content… The book began where Exodus left. It covered the time spent wandering the desert in search of the promised land after leaving Sinai. The JE story was written before the P version. In the JE narrative, Moses was the protagonist. Dathan and Abiram challenged Moses leadership and complained of the unfortunate circumstance- wandering around the desert with no sign of the land of milk and honey. In fact, they felt so hard set upon that they began to wax poetic about their life as slaves in Egypt, as if it had been so much grander. Moses defended himself, stating that he had only done Gods will, not what he himself wanted to do. God then sends an earthquake that swallows the rebels. Moses came out of this confrontation as the victor. JE had wanted to support and justify Moses importance and, by extension, his heirs. The E author specifically built up a narrative that made Moses a sympathetic and personal character. Believing that he was a descendant of Moses himself, the need to depict Moses in a flattering light affected the way he wrote about the rebellion. Moses brother Aaron did not receive such treatment from JE. The Aaronite priest who authored P saw the story quite