Books of Chronicles - Authorship and Composition

Authorship and Composition

For over a century biblical scholars believed that Chronicles and the narrative portions of Ezra-Nehemiah came from the same author, but many scholars now believe this to be improbable.

The last events in Chronicles take place in the reign of Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BCE; this sets an earliest possible date for the book. Martin Noth was of the opinion that it dated from the 3rd century BCE, and Gary Knoppers, while acknowledging that Chronicles theoretically could be written anywhere between 500 and 250 BCE, tends to see it as probably dating between 325 and 275 BCE.

In its general scope and design, Chronicles is not so much historical as didactic. The principal aim of the writer appears to be to present moral and religious truth. He does not give prominence to political occurrences, as is done in the books of Samuel and Kings, but to religious institutions, such as the details of the temple service. The genealogies were an important part of the public records of the Hebrew state. They were the basis on which the land was distributed and held, and by which the public services of the temple were arranged and conducted. The Chronicles are an epitome of the sacred history from the days of Adam down to the return from Babylonian exile, a period of about 3,500 years. The writer gathers up the threads of the old national life broken by the captivity.

The chronicler compiled his work from public records, registers, and genealogical tables belonging to the Jews. These are referred to in the course of the book (1 Chr. 27:24; 29:29; 2 Chr. 9:29; 12:15; 13:22; 20:34; 24:27; 26:22; 32:32; 33:18, 19; 27:7; 35:25). For example, the text of the Chronicles, and the texts found in the books of Samuel and Kings exhibit forty parallels.

Additionally, though the Chronicler's principal source is the Deuteronomistic History, coming primarily, as stated above, from the books of 2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings and other public records and sources (see above), the Chronicler also uses other biblical sources, particularly from the Pentateuch, as redacted and put together by P (the Priestly Source). One example is the Chronicler's use of genealogies in 1 Chronicles 1-9, which seem to come directly from the Pentateuch and possibly, as well, from Joshua and other books. There are in the Chronicles also many quotations from the Book of Psalms and occasional references from the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The Chronicler appears to use other works that we no longer possess from the Deuteronomistic historians. A typical example can be found in 2 Chronicles 9:29 and references the work Acts of Solomon and, additionally, several unknown prophets, such as Ahijah the Shilonite and the seer Ido. And there are several non-biblical historically and archaeologically attested details that can only be found in Chronicles, including the account of the Egyptian Shistak's campaign in the late 10th century BCE (2 Chronicles 12:2–4), and Hezekiah's preparing and safeguarding Jerusalem's water supply prior to the Assyrian attack in the late 8th century BCE (2 Chronicles 32:2-4).

As compared with Samuel and Kings, the Book of Chronicles omits many particulars there recorded and includes many things not found in the other two documents. Often the Chronicles paint a somewhat more positive picture of the same events. This corresponds to their time of composition: Samuel and Kings were probably completed during the exile, at a time when the history of the newly wiped out Hebrew kingdoms was still fresh in the minds of the writers. The Chronicles, on the other hand, were written much later, after the restoration of the Jewish community in Palestine, at a time when the kingdoms were beginning to be regarded as the nostalgic past, something to be at least partially imitated, not something to be avoided. Scholars continue to debate over which history is more reliable: Chronicles or Samuel-Kings.

Twenty whole chapters of the Chronicles, and twenty-four parts of chapters, are occupied with matters not found elsewhere. It also records many people and events in fuller detail, as the list of David's heroes (1 Chr. 12:1–37), the removal of the Ark of the Covenant from Kirjath-jearim to Mount Zion (1 Chr. 13; 15:2–24; 16:4–43; comp. 2 Sam. 6), Uzziah's tzaraas (commonly translated as "leprosy") and its cause (2 Chr. 26:16–21; comp. 2 Kings 15:5), etc. In addition, some of the Chronicler’s additions consist of speeches by key figures, such as David (1 Chr. 29:10–19), or other pronouncements, such as Hezekiah’s Passover letter (2 Chr. 30:6–9).

It has also been observed that another peculiarity of the book is that it substitutes more modern and more common expressions for those that had then become unusual or obsolete. This is seen particularly in the substitution of modern names of places, such as were in use in the writer's day, for the old names; thus Gezer (1 Chr. 20:4) is used instead of Gob (2 Sam. 21:18), etc.

The Book of Chronicles is alluded to, though not directly quoted, in the New Testament (Hebrews 5:4; Matthew 12:42; 23:35; Luke 1:5; 11:31, 51).