How many cities were Levites?
The story told in the biblical text is that when land is distributed to the ancient Israelite tribes in Joshua (13–19), the tribe of Levi is not included. Instead the Levites are assigned a group of forty-eight cities [Joshua 21:1–42 and I Chronicles 6:54–81 (=MT 6:39–66)] drawn from the other twelve tribes. Why do the…