Phinehan Zeal: A Consideration of James Dunn’s Proposal

This article considers James Dunn’s understanding of Phinehas’s zeal. Dunn has given special attention to Jewish zeal in his writings, and this study considers specifically his view of Phinehan zeal in Numbers 25, Sirach 45, and 1 Maccabees 2. Dunn argues that the focus of this zeal is its ethnic or nationalistic dimension; it is a zeal for Israel’s set-apartness from the nations (horizontal). Upon a close reading of these three texts, it is concluded that Dunn makes primary what is in fact secondary. The focus of these texts is instead obedience to God through Torah-loyalty (vertical).