Category: History - Religious
To expound Chronicles in a series which has dealt with Samuel, Kings, Ezra, and Nehemiah is to glean scattered ears from a field already harvested. Sections common to Chronicles with the older histories have therefore been treated as briefly as is consistent with preserving th...
To expound Chronicles in a series which has dealt with Samuel, Kings, Ezra, and Nehemiah is to glean scattered ears from a field already harvested. Sections common to Chronicles...
3. Chapter I. Date And Authorship.Chronicles is a curious literary torso. A comparison with Ezra and Nehemiah shows that the three originally formed a single whole. They are written in the same peculiar late Heb...
4. Chapter II. Historical Setting.In the previous chapter it has been necessary to deal with the chronicler as the author of the whole work of which Chronicles is only a part, and to go over again ground already...
5. Chapter III. Sources And Mode Of Composition.Our impressions as to the sources of Chronicles are derived from the general character of its contents, from a comparison with other books of the Old Testament, and from the act...
6. Chapter IV. The Importance of Chronicles.Before attempting to expound in detail the religious significance of Chronicles, we may conclude our introduction by a brief general statement of the leading features which rend...
7. Chapter I. Names. 1 Chron. i-ix.The first nine chapters of Chronicles form, with a few slight exceptions, a continuous list of names. It is the largest extant collection of Hebrew names. Hence these chapters m...
8. Chapter II. Heredity. 1 Chron. i.-ix.It has been said that Religion is the great discoverer of truth, while Science follows her slowly and after a long interval. Heredity, so much discussed just now, is sometimes t...
9. Chapter III. Statistics.Statistics play an important part in Chronicles and in the Old Testament generally. To begin with, there are the genealogies and other lists of names, such as the lists of David...
10. Chapter IV. Family Traditions. 1 Chron. i. 10, 19, 46; ii. 3, 7, 34; iv.Chronicles is a miniature Old Testament, and may have been meant as a handbook for ordinary people, who had no access to the whole library of sacred writings. It contains nothin...
11. ii. 55 there is a town Jabez also belonging to Judah, we may suppose thatthe chronicler had reasons for assigning Jabez to that tribe; but he has neither given these reasons, nor indicated how Jabez was connected therewith. The paragraph runs as foll...
12. Chapter V. The Jewish Community In The Time Of The Chronicler.We have already referred to the light thrown by Chronicles on this subject. Besides the direct information given in Ezra and Nehemiah, and sometimes in Chronicles itself, the ch...
13. Chapter VI. Teaching By Anachronism. 1 Chron. ix. (cf. xv., xvi.,Teaching by anachronism is a very common and effective form of religious instruction; and Chronicles, as the best Scriptural example of this method, affords a good opportunity f...
14. Chapter I. Teaching By Types.A more serious charge has been brought against Chronicles than that dealt with in the last chapter. Besides anachronisms, additions, and alterations, the chronicler has made omi...
15. Chapter II. David—I. His Tribe And Dynasty.King and kingdom were so bound up in ancient life that an ideal for the one implied an ideal for the other; all distinction and glory possessed by either was shared by both. The...
16. Chapter III. David—II. His Personal History.In order to understand why the chronicler entirely recasts the graphic and candid history of David given in the book of Samuel, we have to consider the place that David had come...
17. Chapter IV. David—III. His Official Dignity.In estimating the personal character of David, we have seen that one element of it was his ideal kingship. Apart from his personality, his name is significant for Old Testament...
18. Chapter V. Solomon.The chronicler’s history of Solomon is constructed on the same principles as that of David, and for similar reasons. The builder of the first Temple commanded the grateful rever...
19. Chapter VI. Solomon (continued).When we turn to consider the spiritual significance of this ideal picture of the history and character of Solomon, we are confronted by a difficulty that attends the exposition...
20. Chapter VII. The Wicked Kings. 2 Chron. xxviii., etc.The type of the wicked king is not worked out with any fulness in Chronicles. There are wicked kings, but no one is raised to the “bad eminence” of an evil counterpart to David;...
21. Chapter VIII. The Priests.The Israelite priesthood must be held to include the Levites. Their functions and status differed from those of the house of Aaron in degree, and not in kind. They formed a here...
22. Chapter IX. The Prophets.One remarkable feature of Chronicles as compared with the book of Kings is the greater interest shown by the former in the prophets of Judah. The chronicler, by confining his at...
23. Chapter X. Satan. 1 Chron. xxi.-xxii. 1.“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempteth no man: but each man is tempted when he is drawn away by hi...
24. xxvii. In this last account the men of war are divided into twelve coursesof twenty-four thousand each, making a total of two hundred and eighty-eight thousand; in the book of Samuel Israel numbers eight hundred thousand, and Judah five hundred thousa...
25. Chapter XI. Conclusion.In dealing with the various subjects of this book, we have reserved for separate treatment their relation to the Messianic hopes of the Jews and to the realisation of these hope...
26. Chapter I. The Last Prayer Of David. 1 Chron. xxix. 10-19.In order to do justice to the chronicler’s method of presenting us with a number of very similar illustrations of the same principle, we have in the previous book grouped much o...
27. Chapter II. Rehoboam And Abijah: The Importance Of Ritual. 2 Chron.The transition from Solomon to Rehoboam brings to light a serious drawback of the chronicler’s principle of selection. In the history of Solomon we read of nothing but wealth, s...
28. Chapter III. Asa: Divine Retribution. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.Abijah, dying, as far as we can gather from Chronicles, in the odour of sanctity, was succeeded by his son Asa. The chronicler’s history of Asa is much fuller than that which is...
29. Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.Asa was succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat, and his reign began even more auspiciously(367) than that of Asa. The new king had apparently taken warning from the misfortunes of Asa...
30. xvii. Here, as at Jericho, the captain of Israel is chiefly concerned toprovide musicians to lead his army. When David was arranging for the musical services before the Ark, he took counsel with his captains. In this unique military expedition there...
31. Chapter V. Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah: The Consequences of a ForeignThe accession of Jehoram is one of the instances in which a wicked son succeeded to a conspicuously pious father, but in this case there is no difficulty in explaining the pheno...
32. Chapter VI. Joash and Amaziah. 2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.For Chronicles, as for the book of Kings, the main interest of the reign of Joash is the repairing of the Temple; but the later narrative introduces modifications which give a s...
33. Chapter VII. Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz.(408) 2 Chron. xxvi.-xxviii.After the assassination of Amaziah, all the people of Judah took his son Uzziah, a lad of sixteen, called in the book of Kings Azariah, and made him king. The chronicler borrows...
34. Chapter VIII. Hezekiah: The Religious Value Of Music. 2 Chron.The bent of the chroniclers mind is well illustrated by the proportion of space assigned to ritual by him and by the book of Kings respectively. In the latter a few lines only a...
35. Chapter IX. Manasseh: Repentance And Forgiveness. 2 Chron. xxxiii.In telling the melancholy story of the wickedness of Manasseh in the first period of his reign, the chronicler reproduces the book of Kings, with one or two omissions and other...
36. Chapter X. The Last Kings Of Judah. 2 Chron. xxxiv.-xxxvi.Whatever influence Manasseh’s reformation exercised over his people generally, the taint of idolatry was not removed from his own family. His son Amon succeeded him at the age o...