Books of Chronicles: Difference between revisions
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{{Tanakh OT |Ketuvim |historical}} | {{Tanakh OT |Ketuvim |historical}} | ||
The '''Book of Chronicles''' ({{langx|he|דִּבְרֵי־הַיָּמִים}} {{Transliteration|he|Dīvrē-hayYāmīm}}, "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books ('''1–2 Chronicles''') in the Christian [[Old Testament]]. Chronicles is the final book of the [[Hebrew Bible]], concluding the third section of the Jewish [[Hebrew Bible|Tanakh]], the [[Ketuvim]] ("Writings"). It contains a genealogy starting with [[Adam]] and a [[history of ancient Judah and Israel]] up to the [[Edict of Cyrus]] in 539 BC. | The '''Book of Chronicles''' ({{langx|he|דִּבְרֵי־הַיָּמִים}} {{Transliteration|he|Dīvrē-hayYāmīm}}, "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books ('''1–2 Chronicles'''<ref>Labeled as '''"the book of 1 Chronicles"''' and '''"the book of 2 Chronicles"''' in the [[New Living Translation]].</ref>) in the Christian [[Old Testament]]. Chronicles is the final book of the [[Hebrew Bible]], concluding the third section of the Jewish [[Hebrew Bible|Tanakh]], the [[Ketuvim]] ("Writings"). It contains a genealogy starting with [[Adam]] and a [[history of ancient Judah and Israel]] up to the [[Edict of Cyrus]] in 539 BC. | ||
The book was translated into Greek and divided into two books in the [[Septuagint]] in the mid-3rd century BC. In Christian contexts Chronicles is referred to in the plural as the '''Books of Chronicles''', after the Latin name {{lang|la|chronicon}} given to the text by [[Jerome]], but is also referred to by its Greek name as the '''Books of Paralipomenon'''.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle= Books of Paralipomenon |volume= 11 |last= Bechtel |first= Florentine Stanislaus |author-link= Florentine Bechtel |short=1 }}</ref> In [[Christian Bible]]s, they usually follow the two [[Books of Kings]] and precede [[Ezra–Nehemiah]], the last history-oriented book of the Protestant Old Testament.{{sfn|Japhet|1993|p=1-2}} | The book was translated into Greek and divided into two books in the [[Septuagint]] in the mid-3rd century BC. In Christian contexts Chronicles is referred to in the plural as the '''Books of Chronicles''', after the Latin name {{lang|la|chronicon}} given to the text by [[Jerome]], but is also referred to by its Greek name as the '''Books of Paralipomenon'''.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle= Books of Paralipomenon |volume= 11 |last= Bechtel |first= Florentine Stanislaus |author-link= Florentine Bechtel |short=1 }}</ref> In [[Christian Bible]]s, they usually follow the two [[Books of Kings]] and precede [[Ezra–Nehemiah]], the last history-oriented book of the Protestant Old Testament.{{sfn|Japhet|1993|p=1-2}} | ||
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[[File:Cambridge University Library, MS Ff.1.24, fol. 1r.jpg|thumb|First page of ''Chronicles'' in a 10th- or 11th-century Greek manuscript acquired by [[Robert Grosseteste]]]] | [[File:Cambridge University Library, MS Ff.1.24, fol. 1r.jpg|thumb|First page of ''Chronicles'' in a 10th- or 11th-century Greek manuscript acquired by [[Robert Grosseteste]]]] | ||
Jewish and Christian tradition identified this author as the 5th-century BC figure [[Ezra]], who gives his name to the [[Book of Ezra]]; Ezra is also believed by the [[Amoraim|Talmudic sages]] to have written both his own book (i. e., [[Ezra–Nehemiah]]) and Chronicles up to his own time, the latter having been finished by [[Nehemiah]].<ref name="BB15a"/> Later critics, skeptical of the long-maintained tradition, preferred to call the author "[[the Chronicler]]". However, many scholars maintain support for Ezra's authorship, not only based on centuries of work by Jewish historians, but also due to the consistency of language and speech patterns between Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah. Professor Emeritus Menahem Haran of the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] explains, "the overall unity of the Chronistic Work is … demonstrated by a common ideology, the uniformity of legal, cultic and historical conceptions and specific style, all of which reflect one opus."<ref>{{Cite web|date=2004-05-25|title=Menahem Haran |url=https://www.baslibrary.org/authors/menahem-haran|access-date=2020-11-05|website=The BAS Library |language=en}}</ref> | Jewish and Christian tradition identified this author as the 5th-century BC figure [[Ezra]], who gives his name to the [[Book of Ezra]]; Ezra is also believed by the [[Amoraim|Talmudic sages]] to have written both his own book (i. e., [[Ezra–Nehemiah]]) and Chronicles up to his own time, the latter having been finished by [[Nehemiah]].<ref name="BB15a"/> Later critics, skeptical of the long-maintained tradition, preferred to call the author "[[the Chronicler]]". However, many scholars {{citation needed|date=February 2026}} maintain support for Ezra's authorship, not only based on centuries of work by Jewish historians {{citation needed|date=February 2026}}, but also due to the consistency of language and speech patterns between Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah. Professor Emeritus Menahem Haran of the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] explains, "the overall unity of the Chronistic Work is … demonstrated by a common ideology, the uniformity of legal, cultic and historical conceptions and specific style, all of which reflect one opus."<ref>{{Cite web|date=2004-05-25|title=Menahem Haran |url=https://www.baslibrary.org/authors/menahem-haran|access-date=2020-11-05|website=The BAS Library |language=en}}</ref> | ||
One of the most striking, although inconclusive, features of Chronicles is that its closing sentence is repeated as the opening of Ezra–Nehemiah.{{sfn|McKenzie|2004|p=}} In antiquity, such repeated verses, like the "catch-lines" used by modern printers,<ref>[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/catchline#English catchline]</ref> often appeared at the end of a scroll to facilitate the reader's passing on to the correct second book-scroll after completing the first. This scribal device was employed in works that exceeded the scope of a single scroll and had to be continued on another scroll.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-08-24 |author=Menahem Haran |title=Explaining the Identical Lines at the End of Chronicles and the Beginning of Ezra |url= https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/2/3/6|access-date=2020-11-05|website=The BAS Library |language=en |quote=These repeated verses at the end of Chronicles are called "catch-lines." In ancient times, catch-lines were often placed at the end of a scroll to facilitate the reader's passing on to the correct second book-scroll after completing the first. This scribal device was employed in works that exceeded the scope of a single scroll and had to be continued on another scroll.}}</ref> | One of the most striking, although inconclusive, features of Chronicles is that its closing sentence is repeated as the opening of Ezra–Nehemiah.{{sfn|McKenzie|2004|p=}} In antiquity, such repeated verses, like the "catch-lines" used by modern printers,<ref>[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/catchline#English catchline]</ref> often appeared at the end of a scroll to facilitate the reader's passing on to the correct second book-scroll after completing the first. This scribal device was employed in works that exceeded the scope of a single scroll and had to be continued on another scroll.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-08-24 |author-first1=Menahem |author-last1=Haran |title=Explaining the Identical Lines at the End of Chronicles and the Beginning of Ezra |url= https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/2/3/6|access-date=2020-11-05|website=The BAS Library |language=en |quote=These repeated verses at the end of Chronicles are called "catch-lines." In ancient times, catch-lines were often placed at the end of a scroll to facilitate the reader's passing on to the correct second book-scroll after completing the first. This scribal device was employed in works that exceeded the scope of a single scroll and had to be continued on another scroll.}}</ref> | ||
The latter half of the 20th century, amid growing skepticism in academia regarding history in the Biblical tradition, saw a reappraisal of the authorship question. Though there is a general lack of corroborating evidence, many now regard it as improbable that the author of Chronicles was also the author of the narrative portions of Ezra–Nehemiah.{{sfn|Beentjes|2008|p=3}} These critics suggest that ''Chronicles'' was probably composed between 400 and 250 BC, with the period 350–300 BC the most likely.{{sfn|McKenzie|2004|p=}} This timeframe is achieved by estimates made based on genealogies appearing in the Greek [[Septuagint]]. This theory bases its premise on the latest person mentioned in Chronicles, Anani. Anani is an eighth-generation descendant of King [[Jehoiachin]] according to the [[Masoretic Text]]. This has persuaded many supporters of the Septuagint's reading to place Anani's likely date of birth a century later than what had been largely accepted for two millennia.{{sfn|Kalimi|2005|pp=61–64}} | The latter half of the 20th century, amid growing skepticism in academia regarding history in the Biblical tradition, saw a reappraisal of the authorship question. Though there is a general lack of corroborating evidence, many now regard it as improbable that the author of Chronicles was also the author of the narrative portions of Ezra–Nehemiah.{{sfn|Beentjes|2008|p=3}} These critics suggest that ''Chronicles'' was probably composed between 400 and 250 BC, with the period 350–300 BC the most likely.{{sfn|McKenzie|2004|p=}} This timeframe is achieved by estimates made based on genealogies appearing in the Greek [[Septuagint]]. This theory bases its premise on the latest person mentioned in Chronicles, Anani. Anani is an eighth-generation descendant of King [[Jehoiachin]] according to the [[Masoretic Text]]. This has persuaded many supporters of the Septuagint's reading to place Anani's likely date of birth a century later than what had been largely accepted for two millennia.{{sfn|Kalimi|2005|pp=61–64}} | ||
===Sources=== | ===Sources=== | ||
Much of the content of Chronicles is a repetition of material from other books of the Bible, from [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] to [[Books of Kings|Kings]], and so the usual scholarly view is that these books, or an early version of them, provided the author with the bulk of his material. It is, however, possible that the situation was rather more complex, and that books such as Genesis and [[Book of Samuel|Samuel]] should be regarded as contemporary with Chronicles, drawing on much of the same material, rather than a source for it. Despite much discussion of this issue, no agreement has been reached.{{sfn|Coggins|2003|p=283}} It is also likely that Chronicles preserved ancient heterodox traditions regarding Israel | Much of the content of Chronicles is a repetition of material from other books of the Bible, from [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] to [[Books of Kings|Kings]], and so the usual scholarly view is that these books, or an early version of them, provided the author with the bulk of his material. It is, however, possible that the situation was rather more complex, and that books such as Genesis and [[Book of Samuel|Samuel]] should be regarded as contemporary with Chronicles, drawing on much of the same material, rather than a source for it. Despite much discussion of this issue, no agreement has been reached.{{sfn|Coggins|2003|p=283}} It is also likely that Chronicles preserved ancient heterodox traditions regarding the history of Israel and Judah.<ref name="Frankel">{{Cite web |last=Frankel |first=David |date=April 8, 2015 |title=The Book of Chronicles and the Ephraimites that Never Went to Egypt |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-book-of-chronicles-and-the-ephraimites-that-never-went-to-egypt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207090032/https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-book-of-chronicles-and-the-ephraimites-that-never-went-to-egypt |archive-date=February 7, 2024 |website=TheTorah.com}}</ref> | ||
=== Genre === | === Genre === | ||