1 & 2 Chronicles Overview

Introduction - 1 & 2 Chronicles

• SO LITTLE TO REMEMBER 2 Passages is usually the limit for what is remembered as uniquely from the Chronicles: 1) 2 Chronicles 7:14 "if my people who are called..." and 2) 2 Chronicles 20:21 "singers...went out before the army"

• A BIBLE READER'S CHALLLENGE. The First 9 chapters of 1 Chronicles are geneaology with sparse historical details sprinkled in.

• PETE AND REPEAT? Isn't most of of thise already covered in 1 Samuel to 2 kings? There is precedence for this in the Bible: a) Creation has at least 2 accounts (Genesis 1 & Genesis 2) b) There are 4 Gospels of the life of Jesus and c) Parables are repeated in different gospels to communicate different messages. In Luke 15 the parable of the Lost sheep is a message to the sinner to be saved and in Matthew 15 it appears as a message to the backslider.

  • Chronicles emphasis the priestly elemments of the narratives found in Samuel and Kings: the priesthood, temple worship and purity
  • COMPARE The RETURNING OF THE ARK TO JERUSALEM: 2 Samuel 6:1-23 (a personal and political celebration, david danced) & 1 Chronicles 13, 15-16 (priestly procedure and order, "1Ch 15:13 For because ye (the priests) did it not at the first, the LORD our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order.")

• A CATEGORY ERROR. The Hebrew canon consists of 24 books.

  • (5 books) THE TORAH: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
  • (4 books) THE PROPHETS - FORMER: Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings
  • (4 books) THE PROPHETS - LATTER: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel (the "3") followed by 1 book of "the 12" (minor prophets)
  • (11 books) THE WRITINGS - Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther, Daniel, Ezra–Nehemiah and 1&2 Chronicles (Ketuvim)
  • How does Chronicles being in the writings change interpretation? Samuel & Kings being books of "spokespersons of God" empahsize the foibles of the the kings as a deterant warrning. Chronicles emphasizes the good as a call to RETURN. Samuel & Kings were penned sometime before the babylonian captivity, whereas Chronicles is written near its end or after it has ended.

Chronicles sit as the very last books of the the Hebrew canon: "The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up" [to Jerusalem].

SIMPLE OUTLINE