1 Chronicles Introduction
Introduction
In the Hebrew Bible the First and Second Books of Chronicles were a single scroll or book called Chronicles. But as with the books of Samuel and Kings, this book was split into two parts in the Greek Septuagint Bible. The Latin Vulgate Bible, and the KJV in its time, followed the same practice. In the Hebrew Bible Chronicles is the final book. Since it was one of the latest written and one of the last accepted as canonical, that location is not surprising. The concluding chapter of Chronicles ends on a hopeful note, with the decree of Cyrus the Great ending the Exile and allowing Judeans to return home to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. The Christian Old Testament follows the ancient decision of the Greek Septuagint Bible in relocating the two books of Chronicles to a position with the other historical writings, right after the books of Samuel and Kings, because those who reordered the books in the Septuagint thought of the work of the Chronicler (as the author/compiler of Chronicles is sometimes called) as a “supplement” to the earlier historical books. What the Chronicler has written is actually a much later retelling of the history recorded in the earlier histories. The first nine chapters in 1 Chronicles assemble genealogies from the time of Adam and lists of tribal constituencies. There is no narrative here, but at the very end of chapter 9, a list of returnees from the Babylonian Exile points to one of the Chronicler's key messages—the continuing covenant relationship between the people and God that will not be broken, even by catastrophes like exile. The actual narrative begins in chapter 10 with the death of King Saul and the ascent of David to the Israelite throne.
The remainder of 1 Chronicles deals with the reign of David, with much attention to his plans and preparations for a temple in Jerusalem. David is clearly the central figure for the Chronicler but Israel's great king is presented much differently here than in the much more candid earlier accounts found in 2 Samuel. In 1 Chronicles David has no flaws; even his disastrous ethical lapse with Bathsheba is omitted. The Chronicler wants to show the continuing significance of the Davidic dynasty, of the temple, and of the need to continue to worship and serve God in the traditional ways that go back to David. The Exile was truly a long and tragic time of suffering and dislocation, but for the Chronicler it was only a minor disruption in the long and continuing history of God's covenant people. At this late stage of writing (post-Exile), with hopes rising for a new “son of David,” the Chronicler has carefully polished the image of King David. The Chronicler's chief purpose in this re-telling of the Israelite history is to demonstrate that the Jerusalem community now being rebuilt after the Exile is the legitimate successor of the Davidic dynasty.
Outline
From Adam to the Exiles' Return (1.1—9.34)
Saul's Family Line and His Death in Battle (9.35—10.14)
David's Reign and Plans for the Temple (11.1—29.30)
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1 Chronicles Introduction: KJVAAE
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King James Version 1611, spelling, punctuation and text formatting modernized by ABS in 1962; typesetting © 2010 American Bible Society.
1 Chronicles Introduction
Introduction
The Greek title, paraleipomena, means “things omitted,” or “passed over” (i.e., in the accounts found in Samuel and Kings). The Books of Chronicles, however, are much more than a supplement to Samuel and Kings; a comparison of the two histories discloses striking differences of scope and purpose. The Books of Chronicles record in some detail the lengthy span (some five hundred fifty years) from the death of King Saul to the return from the exile. Unlike today’s history writing, wherein factual accuracy and impartiality of judgment are the norm, biblical history, with rare exceptions, was less concerned with reporting in precise detail all the facts of a situation than with drawing out the meaning of those facts. Biblical history was thus primarily interpretative, and its purpose was to disclose the action of the living God in human affairs. For this reason we speak of it as “sacred history.”
These characteristics are apparent when we examine the primary objective of the Chronicler (the conventional designation for the anonymous author) in compiling his work. Given the situation which confronted the Jewish people at this time (the end of the fifth century B.C.), the Chronicler realized that Israel’s political greatness was a thing of the past. Yet, for the Chronicler, Israel’s past held the key to the people’s future. In particular, the Chronicler aimed to establish and defend the legitimate claims of the Davidic monarchy in Israel’s history, and to underscore the status of Jerusalem and its divinely established Temple worship as the center of religious life for the Jewish people. If Judaism was to survive and prosper, it would have to heed the lessons of the past and devoutly serve its God in the place where he had chosen to dwell, the Temple in Jerusalem. From the Chronicler’s point of view, the reigns of David and Solomon were the ideal to which all subsequent rule in Judah must aspire. The Chronicler was much more interested in David’s religious and cultic influence than in his political power, however. He saw David’s (and Solomon’s) primary importance as deriving rather from their roles in the establishment of Jerusalem and its Temple as the center of the true worship of the Lord. Furthermore, he presents David as the one who prescribed the Temple’s elaborate ritual (which, in point of fact, only gradually evolved in the Second Temple period) and who appointed the Levites to supervise the liturgical services there.
The Chronicler used a variety of sources in writing his history. Besides the canonical Books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, and Ruth, and especially the Books of Samuel and Kings (specifically 1 Sm 31–2 Kings 25), he cites the titles of many other works which have not come down to us, e.g., “The Books of the Kings of Israel,” or “The Books of the Kings of Israel and Judah,” and “The History of Gad the Seer.” In addition, the Chronicler’s work contains early preexilic material not found in the Books of Kings.
The principal divisions of 1 Chronicles are as follows:
I. Genealogical Tables (1:1–9:34)
II. The History of David (9:35–29:30)
I. GENEALOGICAL TABLES#1:1–9:34] The Chronicler’s intention seems to have been to retell, from his particular viewpoint, the story of God’s people from creation down to his own day. Since his primary interest was the history of David and the Davidic dynasty of Judah, he hurries through everything that preceded the death of Saul, David’s predecessor as king, by the use of genealogical lists. The sources for these genealogies are mostly the books, already largely in their present form in the Chronicler’s time, that eventually formed the Hebrew canon. For any given portion of these chapters, see the cross-references to their scriptural sources.
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