CHAPTER 1
Here it is – Chronicles.
The two Books of Chronicles are books people only read if they’re trying
to read the entire Bible. They are a new historical bit, but not nearly as
interesting as the ones I just got through.
The Jewish Bible puts these books at the end. Yeah, I can see why they’d do that. Richard Elliot Friedman indicates in “Who
Wrote the Bible” that they were compiled by the P author from the Torah. Interesting, though the footnotes here say
something different.
At any rate, as boring as these books are, they are never
more boring than they are in the early chapters. These are entirely devoted to a list of
begottings. Even worse, it just covers
the begottings of a bunch of people we already heard about. You get nine full chapters of mind-numbing
boredom. Some names are famous, but most
are utterly forgettable. It’s a
nightmare.
Chapter 1 is going over the big guys from Genesis. You go from Adam to Abraham and then beyond
him to Jacob.
CHAPTER 2
OK, now for the second bunch of begots. This starts with the 12 children of Jacob,
and the next several chapters will take us through the 12 tribes. This one goes through Judah.
One thing I know.
These lists of begots later comes in handy in trying to answer a riddle
from the New Testament. Two of the
gospels begin with a list of ancestry of Jesus, but they don’t agree
fully. From David to Jesus, one version
has more names than the other. Did one
cut names out or did the other pad names in?
The former. Because you can compare
the list of begots with Chronicles and see what was left out. The guy who cut names out was going for a
pattern. Every X-number of generations,
he wanted a really big name to appear, and he needed to cut some out to make it
fit perfectly.
I don’t know if the solution to the David-to-Jesus riddle is
in this chapter. Probably not, but I
don’t really want to pay close enough attention to find out. Boring stuff, people, boring stuff.
CHAPTER 3
This is a short chapter that just goes over the descendents
of David. He had six sons during the
war. After it, he had four sons to
Bathsheba, and nine sons to other wives, and then we’re told that doesn’t
include sons from concubines.
Oh, and the lineage goes all the way to the fall of the
southern kingdom – and beyond. You get 10 generations of descendents after the
fall. The footnote says that assuming 25
years per generation, this means that Chronicles were written around 405
BC. So that goes against what I read in
“Who Wrote the Bible” but the footnote has a good point.
CHAPTER 4
We go back to the tribe of Judah. (Technically, we never left, as David was
part of the tribe, but now we’re back in the mainstream of it).
Then we shift to the tribe of Simeon. There isn’t much more to say about it – but
the Chronicler goes on for 43 verses somehow.
CHAPTER 5
Now we get the tribes to the east of the river: Reuben, Gad,
and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Then we
move on to the House of Levi.
The closest to interesting it gets comes when we learn that
the half-tribe of Manasseh prostituted themselves to foreign gods. I think the writer is talking of the entire
northern kingdom, but he puts it in his discussion of this half-tribe.
CHAPTER 6
We get more Levi. Blink and you’ll miss the name drop of Samuel. We’re told there is a section of Levi devoted
just to singing songs in the Temple.
CHAPTER 7
Now we move onto Issachar.
We’re told that during the time of David, they had 22,600 men capable of
military duty. I don’t recall quite seeing that for previous tribes. (It did
say in Chapter 5 that there were 44,760 men of the 2.5 eastern tribes, but it
wasn’t time stamped like this one is).
Then we’re told Issachar has 36,000 military men. So I guess that’s after having 22,600
We then get Benjamin, and they have 61,434 men divided into
there different clans. This is supposed
to be the smallest tribe, though. And
it’s not time stamped. Eh, when
confusing numbers are the most interesting part of the chapter, that tells you
how dull things are.
Oh, then we get Dan, Naphtali, the rest of Manasseh,
Ephraim, and Asher. Not much info on any
of them – but boy I’m not complaining! Asher has 26,000 fit for military
service, just a fraction of Benjamin.
CHAPTER 8
More Benjamin. I’m
not sure why we went back to them – but I have one idea. In the midst of this,
we get a Saul name-drop. Most of
Chronicles I is on David, so you got to mention his father-in-law.
CHAPTER 9
Now we get the residents of Jerusalem. Duly noted. Finally, we get to the House of Saul itself,
setting us up for the next chapter, which gets us out of the dullness of
begottings.
Click here for the middle part of Chronicles I: Chapters 10 to 19.
Click here for the middle part of Chronicles I: Chapters 10 to 19.
At any rate, as boring as these books are, they are never more boring than they are in the early chapters. These are entirely devoted to a list of begottings. Even worse, it just covers the begottings of a bunch of people we already heard about. You get nine full chapters of mind-numbing boredom. Some names are famous, but most are utterly forgettable. It’s a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteIndeed; though there are a few nuggets to be mined in the early chapters. The most famous of these is probably Jabez. 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 (NKJV):
"Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, 'Because I bore him in pain' [Jabez sounds like the Hebrew for pain]. And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, 'Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!' So God granted him what he requested."
So among the pages and pages of genealogy, you get Jabez, who gets two whole verses to himself; not too bad for someone we hadn't heard about until now. We know that he was named by his mother; that's unusual. Could be that dad wasn't around; or, perhaps, dad just wasn't much of a dad. Compare with Genesis 35:16-18 (GNT):
"Jacob and his family left Bethel, and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, the time came for Rachel to have her baby, and she was having difficult labor. When her labor pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, 'Don't be afraid, Rachel; it's another boy.' But [Rachel] was dying, and as she breathed her last, she named her son Benoni [this name in Hebrew means 'son of my sorrow'], but his father named him Benjamin [this name in Hebrew means 'son who will be fortunate']."
We also get Jabez's prayer, which was turned into a bit of a cottage industry at the turn of this century.
Some other nuggets in the early chapter of this book give us a bit of women's lib. Consider 1 Chronicles 7:24 (GNT):
"Ephraim had a daughter named Sheerah. She built the towns of Upper and Lower Beth Horon, and Uzzen Sheerah."
So we see that town building wasn't exclusively a male domain. For something somewhat bigger, let's go back to Genesis 36:40-43 (NIV):
"These were the chiefs descended from Esau, by name, according to their clans and regions:
Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, Magdiel and Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlements in the land they occupied.
This is the family line of Esau, the father of the Edomites."
This section is repeated in 1 Chronicles 1:51-54 (NIV):
"The chiefs of Edom were:
Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, Magdiel and Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom."
Why did I bold Timna? Because Timna, one of the chiefs of Edom, was a female; almost definitely the female named in 1 Chronicles 1:38-39:
"The sons of Seir:
Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer and Dishan.
The sons of Lotan:
Hori and Homam. Timna was Lotan’s sister."
Peace and Love,
Jimbo
You actually have interesting and valuable commentary .... on Chronicles? Jeepers, that's weird.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteI think.
8-)
Peace and Love,
Jimbo