![]() One of the most striking, although inconclusive, features of Chronicles is that its closing sentence is repeated as the opening of Ezra–Nehemiah. Professor Emeritus Menahem Haran of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem explains, "the overall unity of the Chronistic Work is … demonstrated by a common ideology, the uniformity of legal, cultic and historical conceptions and specific style, all of which reflect one opus." ![]() However, many scholars maintain support for Ezra's authorship, not only based on centuries of work by Jewish historians, but also due to the consistency of language and speech patterns between Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah. Later critics, skeptical of the long-maintained tradition, preferred to call the author " the Chronicler". e., Ezra–Nehemiah) and Chronicles up to his own time, the latter having been finished by Nehemiah. Jewish and Christian tradition identified this author as the 5th-century BC figure Ezra, who gives his name to the Book of Ezra Ezra is also believed by the Talmudic sages to have written both his own book (i. He aimed to use the narratives in the Torah and former prophets to convey religious messages to his peers, the literary and political elite of Jerusalem in the time of the Achaemenid Empire. He was well-read, a skilled editor, and a sophisticated theologian. The writer was probably male, probably a Levite (temple priest), and probably from Jerusalem. The last events recorded in Chronicles take place in the reign of Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BC this sets the earliest possible date for this passage of the book.Ĭhronicles appears to be largely the work of a single individual. The Talmud considered Chronicles one book. Ball suggests that the division into two books introduced by the translators of the Septuagint "occurs in the most suitable place", namely with the conclusion of David's reign as king and the initiation of Solomon's reign. ![]() ![]() ġ Chronicles is divided into 29 chapters and 2 Chronicles into 36 chapters. Within this broad structure there are signs that the author has used various other devices to structure his work, notably through drawing parallels between David and Solomon (the first becomes king, establishes the worship of Israel's God in Jerusalem, and fights the wars that will enable the Temple to be built, then Solomon becomes king, builds and dedicates the Temple, and reaps the benefits of prosperity and peace). the narrative of the divided kingdom, focusing on the Kingdom of Judah, in the remainder of 2 Chronicles.the reigns of David and Solomon (constituting the remainder of 1 Chronicles, and chapters 1–9 of 2 Chronicles) and.the genealogies in chapters 1–9 of 1 Chronicles.Originally a single work, Chronicles was divided into two in the Septuagint, a Greek translation produced in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. Greek translation: Paralipomenon 9,27-10,11 in Codex Sinaiticus In the two final verses, identical to the opening verses of the Book of Ezra, the Persian king Cyrus the Great conquers the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and authorises the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem and the return of the exiles. The final chapter covers briefly the reigns of the last four kings, until Judah is destroyed and the people taken into exile in Babylon. The next long section concerns David's son Solomon, and the final part is concerned with the Kingdom of Judah, with occasional references to the northern Kingdom of Israel (2 Chronicles 10–36). The bulk of the remainder of 1 Chronicles, after a brief account of Saul in chapter 10, is concerned with the reign of David. The Chronicles narrative begins with Adam, Seth and Enosh, and the story is then carried forward, almost entirely through genealogical lists, down to the founding of the United Kingdom of Israel in the "introductory chapters", 1 Chronicles 1–9. Rehoboam and Jeroboam I, 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld
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