1 Chronicles 1-9

Who wants to reread exactly what they just read all over again? Only different! Chronicles is essentially a repeat of Kings, only from a different perspective. Remember our discussion on the message of Kings? Well, Chronicles has a similar message of hope. But while Kings ended during the grim future of Babylonian exile, Chronicles was written during the post-exilic era, after the Persians had allowed the Israelites to return home.

The unnamed author, usually dubbed the Chronicler (doesn't that sound like an awesome villain from the '60s Batman tv show?), seems to take material from several of the already written, now biblical, texts available to him. He takes this multitude of sources and attempts to combine them into a singular, coherent narrative.*

The Chronicler begins, essentially, with the story thus far. It's nearly as condensed as my own version. Chronicles 1-9 recount the genealogies of, well, lots of people. It specifically goes from Adam, to Noah, to Israel, down to David, legitimizing his kingship and his line of descendants as rulers. But the Chronicler also lays out the multitude of descendants of Noah's sons, Ham, Shem, and Cush, that make up all the nationalities of the ancient Middle East. In case you were wondering, descendants from Shem are Semitic people, which include the line of Israel. Hence, bigotry against Hebrews (Jews) is called anti-Semitism. Actually, Semites include a much wider spectrum of peoples, but Jews seem to be singled out.

The Chronicler seems to have gathered these genealogies from previous books, such as Genesis, and streamlined them into a more coherent succession to serve his purpose. While the vast majority of this section is lists of descendants, there are little blurbs about certain individuals scattered throughout. It's here we find the brief "Prayer of Jabez" that was capitalized on. The whole verse is only 2 verses long, yet it was exploited for books, videos, and a slew of merchandise! As for me, I plan to make my fortune off of exploiting 2 Kings 18:27.**

This section ends with the Chronicler reiterating 2 Kings' message that God exiled Judah to Babylon because of its unfaithfulness. He then includes genealogies of some of the people that have now returned from exile back to Judah. Next up: Back to Saul!



*This would, obviously, bring into question the claim of divine dictation, the notion that God deliberately and distinctly dictated every single word of the Bible to the given authors. When examined critically, though, this notion doesn't hold. The many variations, alterations, and discrepancies throughout the Bible would imply a forgetful or schizophrenic singular author.

This doesn't mean that God was wholly absent from the compilation of his Book. God certainly could have divinely nudged authors in a certain direction. This would actually seem likely considering the coherence of underlying themes written over the expanse of such a long period of time.

This may seem unsettling, for some of you may have been raised to believe in divine dictation, as I was. Certainly, divine dictation would demand the fullest attention to a pastor preaching scripture, for it is the literal, exact words of the Lord, inerrant in everything. Conceding to the craftsmanship of human authorship, though, doesn't make the Bible any less true. Like I said before, God easily could have had a hand in the compilation of these texts. For me, understanding the human aspect makes the Bible far more approachable, especially when one considers the circumstances of its composition and emphasizes with the target audience of the period.

CIE. Context Is Everything. Without it, people can just excise willy nilly any message they want from the Bible. And they do. Just look at all the televangelists out there.

**"But the Rabshakeh said to them, 'Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the people sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?'"