# 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

|Reference | Contents |
|--|--|
|1 Chronicles 1-9 | Geneaology |
|1 Chronicles 10-||