Dating the Old Testament Synopsis

Related Topics - The Literary Genre of Chronicles

One of the difficulties in reading the Bible is in understanding what type of literature we are reading. It is natural that we should try to fit the literature of the Bible into modern categories with which we are familiar. For example, Ruth, Esther and Jonah fit quite well into a literary genre we call short stories . These are short stories in pretty much the same sense as modern short stories.

Unfortunately, much of the Bible does not fit so well into modern literary categories. Psalms is truly a song book, and can be understood that way, though the Psalms are quite different from modern songs. We don’t have anything in modern literature much like the prophetic books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc., and this can make them hard to understand. Fortunately, there are quite a number of these prophetic books in the Bible, so at least we have a large selection for comparison.

One book of particular difficulty to understand due to its literary genre is Chronicles, which in modern Bibles has been divided into the two books of 1 and 2 Chronicles. The problem chiefly arises due to its natural comparison to the book of Kings (1 and 2 Kings) and to a lesser extent Samuel (1 and 2 Samuel). Many of the stories in Samuel/Kings have been duplicated in Chronicles. This comparison can lead us down the wrong path. To explain why, let us first discuss Kings.

The literary genre of Kings is that of a history book. Now Kings may not be history quite like modern history books - the author of Kings has a very specific theological purpose. He selects his stories and tells them in such a way as to conform to that purpose, and he is very selective in covering events that span across 400 years. Still, Kings remains basically a history book and can be read that way.

Kings was completed around 550 B.C., although much of it was written during the reign of Josiah 70 years before, and it used still older sources. Chronicles was written around 400 B.C., quite a bit later than Kings (The dates of writing for these books are discussed in some detail in my book, Dating the Old Testament). Chronicles retells many of the stories from Kings, often using the same words – the author of Chronicles obviously had Kings before him as he wrote. The problem is that this close relationship between Kings and Chronicles tempts us to view Chronicles as primarily a history book, like Kings. The idea is that Chronicles is also a history book like Kings, but with a somewhat different theological perspective. This is a bad understanding, because reading the books this way quickly leads us to judge Chronicles as inferior to Kings. Chronicles was farther away in time from the events described, and thus is less likely to be a good historical record. Chronicles obviously leaves out many negative stories – David’s sin with Bathsheba, Absalom’s rebellion, Solomon’s apostasy, etc. This leaves Chronicles open to the charge that it is whitewashing history in comparison to the more truthful account in Kings. Finally, the numerous genealogies and lists in Chronicles are usually of no interest at all to the modern reader, further diminishing the status of the book in modern eyes. What is the solution to this problem?

I believe that we should understand Chronicles not as a history book, but as a scrapbook. Of all modern book types, a scrapbook most closely matches the literary genre of Chronicles. People who work with scrapbooks will quickly understand what I mean, but for those unfamiliar with them, the genre of yearbook will work nearly as well, as Chronicles also has some aspects of a yearbook. Chronicles was written to give encouragement to the Jewish community that had returned from the Babylonian exile. Chronicles does review the history of Judah in some detail, and this is largely drawn from Kings and Samuel, but it includes numerous additional passages not in Samuel and Kings describing praise and worship experiences throughout that history. Like a scrapbook or yearbook, negative elements are minimized or ignored entirely. Think about it – if a parent was making a scrapbook for an older teen about to move out of the home, with the scrapbook containing memories of the teen’s life growing up in that home – how many negative stories would be included? The answer is few to none. Likewise, a yearbook reviews much of the history of a school year, but with a relentlessly positive perspective.

The genealogies in Chronicles serve a similar purpose to the names and pictures in a yearbook. Because modern yearbooks have photographs, we focus mostly on the pictures, but the text of a yearbook is also full of names, names, and more names. The author of Chronicles chose to include as many names as possible, because some in the post-exilic Jewish community remembered their family genealogies and with great pleasure could trace to some of the individuals mentioned in Chronicles. Chronicles ignores the northern kingdom of Israel (except when their history intersects with Judah), as they are no longer part of the community. The positive outlook of a yearbook is reflected, as Chronicles finds silver linings in the otherwise troubled reigns of Rehoboam (2 Chron 11:22-23), Abijah (2 Chron 13) and Manasseh (2 Chron 33:12-16).

In a style similar to scrapbooking, some of the stories and worship expressions in Chronicles are not historically connected. Many have commented on the brief account of Jabez and his prayer in 1 Chron 4:9-10, which is embedded in a lengthy genealogy. A bestselling book, The Prayer of Jabez, has been written on the subject. It is interesting to note that although this passage is embedded in a genealogy, Jabez is not part of that genealogy. His father is not mentioned nor his sons – he is just seemingly glued on the page like a decoration. In another example, 1 Chron 16:1-7 continues a story about how David brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, appointed Asaph and his relatives to give thanks, and then follows with a Psalm of thanksgiving in 1 Chron 16:8-32. Now in a history book one might expect that the Psalm of thanksgiving would come from the mouth of David or Asaph, but that is not what Chronicles says; it does not say that the psalm was spoken by either of them. The Psalm is just pasted into the account much like the prayer of Jabez. In fact, a close look at the Psalm (which is the same as Psalm 105:1-15 followed by Psalm 96:1-13, then 106:1 and 106:47-48) will show that it is actually a post-exilic psalm written hundreds of years after David (The date of these Psalms is discussed in Dating the Old Testament).

When Chronicles does report something negative, the story is short, and it carries a lesson which says “listen to the priests and the prophets”. Even the good kings fall into difficulty when they do not listen to these religious leaders. Thus the good kings Asa (2 Chron 16:7-14), Uzziah (2 Chron 26:16-23) and Josiah (2 Chron 35:21-24) all suffer from lapses of obedience.

The stories in Chronicles are filled with expressions of praise, with particular emphasis on the roles of priests and Levites. The author wants the reader to be proud of his heritage and to identify with it. The ending of the book is a charge of encouragement and challenge to the community: "Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up!" (2 Chron 36:23).