{"id":4210,"date":"2012-01-11T01:00:38","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=4210"},"modified":"2013-03-28T13:38:29","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T20:38:29","slug":"bob-1-2-chronicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2012\/01\/11\/bob-1-2-chronicles\/","title":{"rendered":"BOB &#8211; 1 &#038; 2 Chronicles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/files\/2012\/02\/BOB_header.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4550\" title=\"BOB_header\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/files\/2012\/02\/BOB_header-300x193.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/files\/2012\/02\/BOB_header-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/files\/2012\/02\/BOB_header.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>by Stephen Rodgers<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>1\u00a0&amp;\u00a02 CHRONICLES IN\u00a010\u00a0WORDS\u00a0OR\u00a0LESS<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1 Chronicles:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cKing David&#8217;s reign is detailed and analyzed.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>2 Chronicles:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe history of Israel from Solomon to division to destruction.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>TITLE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the early Hebrew man\u00adu\u00adscripts, 1\u00a0and 2\u00a0Chronicles were con\u00adsid\u00adered a\u00a0sin\u00adgle book. They were divided into sep\u00ada\u00adrate books by the trans\u00adla\u00adtors of the Greek ver\u00adsion, the Septuagint (LXX), which was later copied by the Latin Vulgate (Vg.), and English trans\u00adla\u00adtions (where they are referred to as \u201c1 Chronicles\u201d and \u201c2 Chronicles\u201d). The\u00a0LXX\u00a0des\u00adig\u00adnated 1\u00a0and 2\u00a0Chronicles as \u201cthe things omitted\u201d (<em>Paraleipomena<\/em>) whereas the Vg. labeled them \u201cThe Chronicles of the Entire Sacred History\u201d (which is where we get the term &#8220;chronicles&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>Like Kings, the\u00a0division\u00a0of 1\u00a0and 2 Chronicles has long been con\u00adsid\u00adered to be one of copy\u00adist con\u00adve\u00adnience (allow\u00ading the work to fit on standard-sized scrolls) rather than con\u00adtent or theme, and so should be under\u00adstood as a\u00a0uni\u00adfied volume.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, the ear\u00adli\u00adest Hebrew man\u00adu\u00adscripts enti\u00adtled the book \u201cthe annals of the days\u201d (<em>Dibre Hayyamim<\/em>) after 1 Chronicles 27:24.<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong>AUTHOR\u00a0&amp;\u00a0AUDIENCE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jewish tradition claims that Ezra the priest (Ezra 7:1-6) was the author, often alluded to in the books as &#8220;the Chronicler&#8221; but nowhere directly identified. Some modern scholarship has supported this view, but the question of authorship is heavily influenced by both ones view of the original form of the Chronicler&#8217;s work and its relationship to Ezra-Nehemiah (because Ezra begins by repeating the final verses of 2 Chronicles, some scholars believe the same author wrote both; other scholars believe this is nothing more than a scribal convention to indicate order).<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, internal evidence indicates the following about the author:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The author was a priest or a Levite with scribal training<\/li>\n<li>The author was employed in the service of the temple during the Persian period (539-332 BC)<\/li>\n<li>The author had access to temple records<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>That last point is especially significant, as the Chronicler (whoever he was) cites at least 20 nonbiblical sources in writing the book of Chronicles:<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Book of the Kings of Israel\/Book of the Kings of Judah (1 Ch 9:1; 2 Ch 16:11; 20:34; 25:26; 27:7; 28:26; 32:32; 35:27; 36:8)<\/li>\n<li>The Chronicles of David (1 Ch 27:24)<\/li>\n<li>The Chronicles of Samuel (1 Ch 29:29)<\/li>\n<li>The Chronicles of Nathan (1 Ch 29:29; 2 Ch 9:29)<\/li>\n<li>The Chronicles of Gad (1 Ch 29:29)<\/li>\n<li>Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite (2 Ch 9:29)<\/li>\n<li>Visions of Iddo (2 Ch 9:29)<\/li>\n<li>Records of Shemaiah (2 Ch 12:15)<\/li>\n<li>Records of Iddo (2 Ch 12:15)<\/li>\n<li>Treatise of Iddo (2 Ch 13:22)<\/li>\n<li>Annals of Jehu (2 Ch 20:34)<\/li>\n<li>Treatise of the Book of the Kings (2 Ch 24:27)<\/li>\n<li>Acts of Uzziah by Isaiah (2 Ch 26:22)<\/li>\n<li>Letters\/Messages of Sennacherib (2 Ch 32:10-17)<\/li>\n<li>Vision of Isaiah (2 Ch 32:32)<\/li>\n<li>Words of the Seers (2 Ch 33:18)<\/li>\n<li>Records of the Hozai (2 Ch 33:19)<\/li>\n<li>Written Instructions of David and Solomon (2 Ch 35:4)<\/li>\n<li>The Lamentations (2 Ch 35:25)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>The orig\u00adi\u00adnal audi\u00adence would have been Jews\u00a0returning\u00a0to Israel after their exile in Babylon. At this point the monarchy, temple, and nation had all been destroyed, so Chronicles would have reestablished a sense of continuity of the past with the present.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong>DATE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Somewhat similar to Samuel and Kings, the book of Chronicles does not provide an exact indication as to the date of composition. However, last individual cited in the Davidic geneology \u00a0is Anani (1 Ch 3:24) who was born somewhere around 450-445 BC, making that the earliest possible date of composition. Most scholars believe that it was written no later than 400 BC, giving us a likely 45-50 year window of opportunity for composition.<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong>BACKGROUND\u00a0&amp;\u00a0SETTING<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>Chronologically speaking, Chronicles is a recap of the entire OT. The Chronicler begins with Adam (1 Ch 1:1), gets to David by chapter 3, spends the rest of the first third of the book on various\u00a0genealogies, and then focuses back on the reign of David for the final two-thirds of the book. 2 Chronicles begins with a nine-chapter recap of the reign of Solomon, and book then spends the last 27 chapters focused on the monarchy of the southern kingdom of Judah (unlike Kings, which recounted the monarchies of <em>both<\/em>\u00a0Israel and Judah).\u00a0Much of the information is repeated from Samuel and Kings, although the sins and indiscretions of David are conspicuous in their absence.<\/p>\n<p>(For a great chart that highlights the unique and redundant narratives of Samuel\/Kings\/Chronicles, see the table titled &#8220;Comparison of 1-2 Chronicles with 2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings&#8221; in the <em>ESV Study Bible<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>It should also be noted that like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=4166\">Kings,<\/a> Chronicles is <em>interpreted<\/em> history. The author clearly expected his readers to be familiar with Samuel and Kings, and wrote both to provide a corrective understanding of Israel&#8217;s history and to provoke a response to the spiritual apathy of the time.<\/p>\n<p>To understand Chronicles, you have to understand the setting: the Jews had returned from their 70 years in captivity to a homeland that was both unfamiliar and uncertain. In contrast to their former status, they had no king (the monarchy was destroyed and they were under Persian\u00a0governance per Ezra 5:3; 6:6), no fortified central city (Jerusalem had been sacked and the walls destroyed per Neh 1-7), no temple (the glorious <a href=\"http:\/\/esvstudybible.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/solmons-temple-illustration.jpeg\">temple of Solomon<\/a> had been destroyed per Ezra 3), no distinct homeland (in their absence, hostile tribes had moved back into the land per Ezra 4; Neh 4), no divine blessings (aside from their return), no national wealth (the riches of the Davidic and Solomonic dynasties were long spent or stolen), and no certain divine support (God&#8217;s presence had departed per Ezekiel 8-11).<\/p>\n<p>The Jews faced the difficult task of rebuilding, and so the Chronicler wrote a history and emphasized genealogies to remind them of the plan and purpose of God for their land, nation, monarchy, priests, temple, and worship.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HISTORICAL\u00a0&amp;\u00a0THEOLOGICAL\u00a0THEMES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are a number of themes that are prevalent throughout Chronicles:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Davidic Covenant.<\/strong> The genealogies of 1 Chronicles 1:1-9:44 emphasize the tribes of Judah and Benjamin because the Chronicler is primarily concerned with the Davidic dynasty. God had made a promise to David regarding his descendant (1 Ch 17:7-14) and Chronicles demonstrates His faithfulness to that promise.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Worship.<\/strong> There is an emphasis throughout Chronicles on worship, beginning with David&#8217;s preparation for building the temple, the building of it by Solomon, and its symbol as the presence of God among his people (2 Ch 7:12,16; 33:7)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Blessing and Judgment.<\/strong> Much like the author of Kings, the Chronicler emphasized that blessings followed obedience (2 Ch 7:17-18; 15:12-15; 17:3-6; 30:15-20; 31:20-21) but that God&#8217;s judgment followed disobedience (2 Ch 12:1-2; 34:19-21).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong>INTERPRETIVE\u00a0CHALLENGES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are a number of challenges that are presented by Chronicles that we can deal with briefly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Authorship.<\/strong> As previously mentioned, while the author of Chronicles is never identified with certainty, the author of Ezra-Nehemiah is considered by a number of scholars to be Ezra, and some of those scholars argue that Ezra is therefore the author of Chronicles due to the\u00a0repetition\u00a0of material at the end of 2 Chronicles and the beginning of Ezra. Suffice to say that while this is an interesting topic to discuss, it&#8217;s hardly conclusive one way or the other, and ultimately has little to no bearing on the texts themselves.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Multiple Sources.<\/strong>\u00a0Some have suggested that the Chronicler&#8217;s use of a variety of contributing sources presents a problem to the doctrine of inerrancy, inspiration, or both. While there isn&#8217;t space here to exhaustively deal with that, suffice to say that whether <em>revelation<\/em> comes through primary, secondary, or tertiary means makes it no less <em>revelatory<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Variations in\u00a0Genealogies. <\/strong>The short version here is that a number of genealogies in Chronicles appear to be incorrect when compared to genealogies from other Biblical sources. This can be easily explained by the fact that the Chronicler presented genealogies to make thematic points rather than to represent relationships exactly.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Variations in Spelling and Statistics.<\/strong>\u00a0ANE spelling and\u00a0quantifications\u00a0are often inexact, and most ANE documents (the Bible included) were not concerned with exact spellings. Furthermore, the differences in amounts, statistics, and quantifications can often be reconciled based on the context, or can be \u00a0reasonably attributed to copyist errors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong>LITERARY\u00a0FEATURES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The genre of Chronicles is that of a <em>court history<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The ESV Study Bible explains:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>1 Chronicles also focuses strongly on the heroic figure of King David. Specific forms of documentary writing include genealogies, inventories, and summaries of events such as lists of David&#8217;s victories. There are also speeches or orations, prayers, and a psalm of praise (1 Chron. 16:8\u201336). The story of David is placed within the encompassing story of God&#8217;s dealings with his covenant nation Israel, whose identity assumes a corporate character (repeatedly called \u201call Israel\u201d)&#8230;Second Chronicles is expansive in its scope, tracing the history of a nation as embodied in its kings over a span of 400 years. Because the focus is so thoroughly on individual kings, the book has the feel of an anthology of brief biographies and hero stories.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>OBJECTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apart from the\u00a0INTERPRETIVE\u00a0CHALLENGES\u00a0listed above, there are no sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant\u00a0OBJECTIONS\u00a0to the book of Chronicles that I\u2019m aware\u00a0of. Some individuals try to make a fuss over the variations in spelling and statistics between Chronicles and Samuel\/Kings, but the vast majority of those are either explainable from genre and context or are obviously copyist errors.<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong>NOTABLE\u00a0QUOTABLES<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 Chronicles 17:14<\/li>\n<li>2 Chronicles 6:14<\/li>\n<li>2 Chronicles 7:14<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>DID\u00a0YOU\u00a0KNOW?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The NT does not directly quote 1 or 2 Chronicles<\/li>\n<li>Names are often spelled differently in Chronicles than in the earlier books. However, this is not unusual or problematic as ANE records were not concerned with standard spellings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong>Other Works Referenced<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Apologetics Study\u00a0Bible<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=p3dT6ZPr_mkC&amp;lpg=PA1&amp;dq=apologetics%20study%20bible&amp;pg=PA583#v=onepage&amp;q=apologetics%20study%20bible&amp;f=false\" class=\"broken_link\">&#8220;1 Chronicles Introduction&#8221;<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=p3dT6ZPr_mkC&amp;lpg=PA1&amp;dq=apologetics%20study%20bible&amp;pg=PA629#v=onepage&amp;q=apologetics%20study%20bible&amp;f=false\" class=\"broken_link\">&#8220;2 Chronicles Introduction&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>Archaeological Study\u00a0Bible<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>ESV\u00a0Study Bible<\/em>,\u00a0\u201cIntroduction to\u00a01\u00a0&amp;\u00a02\u00a0Chronicles\u201d<\/li>\n<li><em>MacArthur Study\u00a0Bible<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gty.org\/resources\/bible-introductions\/MSB13\/1-chronicles\" class=\"broken_link\">&#8220;First Chronicles&#8221;<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gty.org\/resources\/bible-introductions\/MSB14\/2-chronicles\" class=\"broken_link\">&#8220;Second Chronicles&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>NET Bible<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/net.bible.org\/#!bible\/1+Chronicles+1\" class=\"broken_link\">1 Chronicles<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/net.bible.org\/#!bible\/2+Chronicles+1\" class=\"broken_link\">2 Chronicles<\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>NIV\u00a0Study\u00a0Bible, <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblica.com\/niv\/study-bible\/1-chronicles\/\" class=\"broken_link\">&#8220;1 Chronicles&#8221;<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblica.com\/niv\/study-bible\/2-chronicles\/\" class=\"broken_link\">&#8220;2 Chronicles&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>Reformation Study\u00a0Bible,<\/em>\u00a0&#8220;The First Book of Chronicles&#8221; and &#8220;The Second Book of Chronicles&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><em><\/em><em>The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Know Your\u00a0Bible<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Driscoll,\u00a0<em>A\u00a0Book You\u2019ll Actually Read On the Old Testament<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Knight,\u00a0<em>The Layman\u2019s Bible Handbook<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Stephen Rodgers 1\u00a0&amp;\u00a02 CHRONICLES IN\u00a010\u00a0WORDS\u00a0OR\u00a0LESS 1 Chronicles:\u00a0\u201cKing David&#8217;s reign is detailed and analyzed.\u201d 2 Chronicles:\u00a0\u201cThe history of Israel from Solomon to division to destruction.\u201d TITLE In the early Hebrew man\u00adu\u00adscripts, 1\u00a0and 2\u00a0Chronicles were con\u00adsid\u00adered a\u00a0sin\u00adgle book. They were divided into sep\u00ada\u00adrate books by the trans\u00adla\u00adtors of the Greek ver\u00adsion, the Septuagint (LXX), which was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-of-the-bible"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4210"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7866,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4210\/revisions\/7866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}