The
Books of Chronicles (
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
Dibh're Hayyamim, דברי הימים,
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
Paralipomenon) are part of the
Hebrew BibleThe Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
. In the
Masoretic TextThe Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible and is regarded as Judaism's official version of the Tanakh. While the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and...
, it appears as the first or last book of the
KetuvimKetuvim or Kəṯûḇîm in actual Biblical Hebrew is the third and final section of the Tanak , after Torah and Nevi'im . In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, this section is usually entitled "Writings" or "Hagiographa"...
(the latter arrangement also making it the final book of the Jewish bible). Chronicles largely parallels the
DavidDavid was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
ic narratives in the
Books of SamuelThe Books of Samuel in the Jewish bible are part of the Former Prophets, , a theological history of the Israelites affirming and explaining the Torah under the guidance of the prophets.Samuel begins by telling how the prophet Samuel is chosen by...
and the
Books of KingsThe Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
. In the Christian ordering, it is divided into two parts, 1 & 2 Chronicles, immediately following 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings as a summary of them with minor details sometimes added. The division of Chronicles and its place in the Christian canon of the Old Testament are based upon the
Septuagint.
Name
In
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
the book is called
Divrei Hayyamim (i.e. "the matters [of] the days"), based on the phrases
sefer divrei ha-yamim le-malkhei Yehudah and "sefer divrei ha-yamim le-malkhei Israel" ("book of the days of the kings of Judah" and "book of the days of the kings of Israel"), both of which appear repeatedly in the Books of Kings. Chronicles was formerly presumed to represent the source-material whence
SamuelThe Books of Samuel in the Jewish bible are part of the Former Prophets, , a theological history of the Israelites affirming and explaining the Torah under the guidance of the prophets.Samuel begins by telling how the prophet Samuel is chosen by...
and
KingsThe Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
were composed; that is, the kings' official
Day-BooksA logbook was originally a book for recording readings from the chip log, and is used to determine the distance a ship traveled within a certain amount of time...
, much like the U.S.
Congressional RecordThe Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published by the United States Government Printing Office, and is issued daily when the United States Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks...
of modern times.
In the
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
Septuagint (LXX), Chronicles bears the title
Paralipomenon , i.e., "that which has been left out or left to one side". According to the Chronicles-
Ezra-NehemiahEzra-Nehemiah is the combined biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah - the two were originally one, but were divided by Christians in the 3rd century CE, and in Jewish circles in the 15th century...
theory, it contains material set aside from the rest of the book of Ezra, which was canonized first. In other words, scholars have theorized that these books were originally composed as one book by a single author, but later were split apart. Although now debated, this theory has been the scholarly consensus for many centuries.
Chronicles summarizes and reviews the deuteronomic history of the foregoing books, adding only minor details here and there, and therefore does not "supplement" the history to any noteworthy degree.
JeromeSaint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
, in the introduction to his
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
translation of the books of Samuel and Kings (part of the
VulgateThe Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
), referred to the book as a
chronikon ("Chronicles" in English). The book itself is titled
Paralipomenon in the
VulgateThe Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
.
Location
In the
masoretic textThe Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible and is regarded as Judaism's official version of the Tanakh. While the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and...
, Chronicles is part of the third part of the
TanakhThe Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
, namely the
KetuvimKetuvim or Kəṯûḇîm in actual Biblical Hebrew is the third and final section of the Tanak , after Torah and Nevi'im . In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, this section is usually entitled "Writings" or "Hagiographa"...
("Writings"). In most printed versions it is the last book in Ketuvim (following Ezra-Nehemiah). This order is based on medieval
AshkenazIn the Bible, Ashkenaz is Gomer's first son, brother of Riphath and Togarmah , thereby a Japhetic descendant of Noah. A kingdom of Ashkenaz is called together with Ararat and Minni against Babylon In the Bible, Ashkenaz (Heb. אַשְׁכֲּנָז) is Gomer's first son, brother of Riphath and Togarmah (Gen....
ic manuscripts. The order of the books of Ketuvim given in the
TalmudThe Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
(
Bava Batra 14b-15a), though it differs from the Ashkenazic order, also places Chronicles at the end of Ketuvim. In these traditions, Chronicles becomes the final book of the Bible. However, in early Tiberian manuscripts such as the
Aleppo codexThe Aleppo Codex is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the 10th century A.D.The codex has long been considered to be the most authoritative document in the masorah , the tradition by which the Hebrew Scriptures have been preserved from generation to generation...
and the
Leningrad codexThe Leningrad Codex is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the masoretic text and Tiberian vocalization. It is dated AD 1008 according to its colophon...
, Chronicles is placed as the first book in Ketuvim, preceding
PsalmsThe Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
.
The Jewish ordering of the canon suggests that Chronicles is a summary of the entire span of history to the time it was written. Such broad scope of the book may be the reason the Chronicler commences his genealogy with Adam. Steven Tuell argues that having Chronicles as the last book in the canon is appropriate since it "attempts to distill and summarize the entire history of God's dealings with God's people."
In Christian Bibles, Chronicles 1 and 2 are part of the Old Testament, following Kings and before
EzraEzra , also called Ezra the Scribe and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible he returned from the Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem...
. This order is based upon that found in the
Septuagint and followed by the
VulgateThe Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
, since the material is historical and the narrative flows seamlessly into the book of Ezra.
Contextual division
Based on its contents, the book may be divided into four parts:
- The beginning of 1 Chronicles (chapters 1–10) mostly contains genealogical
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
lists, including the House of Saul-People:Saul is a given/first name in English, the Anglicized form of the Hebrew name Shaul from the Hebrew Bible:* Saul , including people with this given namein the Bible:* Saul , a king of Edom...
and Saul's rejection by God, which sets the stage for the rise of David.
- 1 Chronicles (chapters 11–29) is a history of David's reign.
- The beginning of 2 Chronicles (chapters 1–9) is a history of the reign of King Solomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
, son of David.
- The remainder of 2 Chronicles (chapters 10–36) is a chronicle of the kings of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
to the time of the Babylonian exile, concluding with the call by Cyrus the GreatCyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
for the exiles to return to their land.
However, it is also possible to divide the book into three parts rather than four by combining the sections treating David and Solomon, since they both ruled over a combined Judah and Israel, unlike the last section that contains the chronicle of the Davidic kings who ruled the
Kingdom of JudahThe Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
alone.
Authorship and composition
For over a century biblical scholars believed that Chronicles and the narrative portions of
Ezra-NehemiahEzra-Nehemiah is the combined biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah - the two were originally one, but were divided by Christians in the 3rd century CE, and in Jewish circles in the 15th century...
came from the same author, but many scholars now believe this to be improbable.
The last events in Chronicles take place in the reign of
Cyrus the GreatCyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
, the Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BCE; this sets an earliest possible date for the book.
Martin NothMartin Noth was a German scholar of the Hebrew Bible who specialized in the pre-Exilic history of the Hebrews. With Gerhard von Rad he pioneered the traditional-historical approach to biblical studies, emphasising the role of oral traditions in the formation of the biblical texts.-Life:Noth was...
was of the opinion that it dated from the 3rd century BCE, and
Gary KnoppersGary Neil Knoppers is a professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University. He has written books and articles regarding a range of Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern topics...
, while acknowledging that Chronicles theoretically could be written anywhere between 500 and 250 BCE, tends to see it as probably dating between 325 and 275 BCE.
In its general scope and design, Chronicles is not so much historical as didactic. The principal aim of the writer appears to be to present moral and religious truth. He does not give prominence to political occurrences, as is done in the books of Samuel and Kings, but to religious institutions, such as the details of the temple service. The genealogies were an important part of the public records of the Hebrew state. They were the basis on which the land was distributed and held, and by which the public services of the
templeThe Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
were arranged and conducted. The Chronicles are an epitome of the sacred history from the days of Adam down to the return from Babylonian exile, a period of about 3,500 years. The writer gathers up the threads of the old national life broken by the captivity.
The sources whence the chronicler compiled his work were public records, registers, and genealogical tables belonging to the Jews. These are referred to in the course of the book (1 Chr. 27:24; 29:29; 2 Chr. 9:29; 12:15; 13:22; 20:34; 24:27; 26:22; 32:32; 33:18, 19; 27:7; 35:25). There are in Chronicles, and the books of Samuel and Kings, forty parallels, often verbal, proving that the writer of Chronicles both knew and used those other books.
Additionally, though the Chronicler's principal source is the
Deuteronomistic History, coming primarily, as stated above, from the books of 2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings and other public records and sources (see above), the Chronicler also uses other biblical sources, particularly from the
Pentateuch, as redacted and put together by P (the
Priestly SourceThe Priestly Source is one of the sources of the Torah/Pentateuch in the bible. Primarily a product of the post-Exilic period when Judah was a province of the Persian empire , P was written to show that even when all seemed lost, God remained present with Israel...
). One example is the Chronicler's use of genealogies in 1 Chronicles 1-9, which seem to come directly from the Pentateuch and possibly, as well, from Joshua and other books. There are in the Chronicles also many quotations from the Book of Psalms and occasional references from the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
The Chronicler appears to use other works that we no longer possess from the Deuteronomistic historians. A typical example can be found in 2 Chronicles 9:29 and references the work
Acts of Solomon and, additionally, several unknown prophets, such as Ahijah the Shilonite and the seer Ido. And there are several non-biblical historically and archaeologically attested details that can only be found in Chronicles, including the account of the Egyptian Shistak's campaign in the late 10th century BCE (2 Chronicles 12:2–4), and Hezekiah's preparing and safeguarding Jerusalem's water supply prior to the Assyrian attack in the late 8th century BCE (2 Chronicles 32:2-4).
As compared with Samuel and Kings, the Book of Chronicles omits many particulars there recorded and includes many things not found in the other two documents. Often the Chronicles paint a somewhat more positive picture of the same events. This corresponds to their time of composition: Samuel and Kings were probably completed during the exile, at a time when the history of the newly wiped out Hebrew kingdoms was still fresh in the minds of the writers. The Chronicles, on the other hand, were written much later, after the restoration of the Jewish community in
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, at a time when the kingdoms were beginning to be regarded as the nostalgic past, something to be at least partially imitated, not something to be avoided. Scholars continue to debate over which history is more reliable: Chronicles or Samuel-Kings.
Twenty whole chapters of the Chronicles, and twenty-four parts of chapters, are occupied with matters not found elsewhere. It also records many people and events in fuller detail, as the list of David's heroes (1 Chr. 12:1–37), the removal of the
Ark of the CovenantThe Ark of the Covenant , also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in Book of Exodus as solely containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed...
from Kirjath-jearim to
Mount ZionMount Zion is a place name for a site in Jerusalem, the location of which has shifted several times in history. According to the Hebrew Bible's Book of Samuel, it was the site of the Jebusite fortress called the "stronghold of Zion" that was conquered by King David, becoming his palace in the City...
(1 Chr. 13; 15:2–24; 16:4–43; comp. 2 Sam. 6),
UzziahUzziah , also known as Azariah , was the king of the ancient Kingdom of Judah, and one of Amaziah's sons, whom the people appointed to replace his father...
's
tzaraas (commonly translated as "
leprosyLeprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
") and its cause (2 Chr. 26:16–21; comp. 2 Kings 15:5), etc. In addition, some of the Chronicler’s additions consist of speeches by key figures, such as David (1 Chr. 29:10–19), or other pronouncements, such as Hezekiah’s
PassoverPassover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
letter (2 Chr. 30:6–9).
It has also been observed that another peculiarity of the book is that it substitutes more modern and more common expressions for those that had then become unusual or obsolete. This is seen particularly in the substitution of modern names of places, such as were in use in the writer's day, for the old names; thus
GezerGezer was a Canaanite city-state and biblical town in ancient Israel. Tel Gezer , an archaeological site midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is now an Israeli national park....
(1 Chr. 20:4) is used instead of Gob (2 Sam. 21:18), etc.
The Book of Chronicles is alluded to, though not directly quoted, in the
New TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
(Hebrews 5:4;
MatthewThe Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
12:42; 23:35;
LukeThe Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
1:5; 11:31, 51).
See also
- The Chronicler
- Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
- Rashi
Shlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
- Martin Noth
Martin Noth was a German scholar of the Hebrew Bible who specialized in the pre-Exilic history of the Hebrews. With Gerhard von Rad he pioneered the traditional-historical approach to biblical studies, emphasising the role of oral traditions in the formation of the biblical texts.-Life:Noth was...
- Gary N. Knoppers
Gary Neil Knoppers is a professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University. He has written books and articles regarding a range of Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern topics...
External links
Translations