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The Books of Chronicles

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The Books of Chronicles p EI He E to: fiEC. AP81B8c; 1 THEOLQQIGii BS A17 .H36 V.7 HANDBOOKS FOR BIBLE CLASSES, EDITED UY REV. MARCUS DODS, D.D., AND y REV. ALEXANDER WHYTE, M.A. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. rRIN'TCD nv MORRISON AND GIUR, FOR T. & T. CLARK, EDINEURGH. LONDON, .... HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. DUBLIN ROBERTSON AND CO. NEW YORK, . , . SCKIBNER AND WELFOKD. THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES BY JAMES G. "Murphy, ll.d. t.c.d. PROFESSOR OF HEBREW, BELFAST. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 'And these are ancient things.'— i Chron. iv. 22. ' We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, v^^hat work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old.' —Ps. XLiv, i. THSOLOGIOAL THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES, INTRODUCTION. Or the nine books included in the Kethubim or Hagiographa, the following are regarded as historical : Esther, Daniel, Chronicles, and Ezra and Nehemiah. The second of these is partly historical and partly prophetical, and belongs to the period of the captivity. The first is a monograph, standing by itself, and referring to a singular instance of the protection vouchsafed by Divine Providence to the Jews of the dispersion under the Persian Empire. The other three form really and designedly a continuous history from the beginning of time, and more fully from the accession of David to the adminis- tration of Nehemiah. The books of Chronicles are the only proper antecedent to the history of the times after the captivity. The Occasion. —The books of Ezra and Nehemiah contain a narra- tive of events occurring after the return of the Jews from the exile of seventy years ; the former having for its central event the rebuilding of the temple, the latter the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem. The grand difference in the condition of this people after the captivity was this, that the civil and religious affairs of the nation were no longer governed by a common principle, or as we should say, that the state and the church were no longer the counterparts of one common poHty. The ministers of religion still continued to acknow- ledge the supremacy of God and profess obedience to His law. But the rulers of the state had become subject to the paramount authority of a foreign and heathen power. It is true that a descendant of David was for some years the civil head of the community. ]3ut this was a short-lived and evanescent shadow of the kingdom that was to have no end. Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, was the leader of the returning colony. But we read of no descendant of his holding sway over Judah. It is true that the posterity of Judah continued to be a nation having a civil polity in certain respects pecuhar to itself. But in other respects it was modified and controlled by the arbitrary will of an external power. Hence we have Ezra, a priest and a A THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES. The Occasion. scribe, by the favour of the sovereign possessing the influence and performing the part of a governor. After him Nehemiah, son of Hachahah, whom Eusebius and Jerome naturally conclude to be of the tribe of Judah, though not of the royal Hne, acts in the administration of civil affairs simply as the depilty and representative of the Persian monarch. In accordance with this, Josephus -{Ant. xi. 4, 8) states that 'they made use of a form of government that was aristocratical, but mixed with an oligarchy ; for the high priests were at the head of affairs, until the posterity of the Asmoneans set up a kingly government.' In the intervening period here noticed the civil ruler was controlled in all important matters by the supreme authority of the foreign potentate. Hence it is plain that the government, so far as it could be the theme of an inspired record, was of necessity sacerdotal, Levitical, or ecclesiastical ; while the civil department was virtually under the control of the Persian monarchy, the second of the four great world-powers symbolized in the dream of Nebuchad- nezzar. This state of things forced upon the Jewish mind some rude con- ception of the distinction between church and state. The Davidic sovereignty became henceforth in their thoughts more a spiritual than a secular kingdom. And the books of Ezra and Nehemiah depict the sacerdotal, or more exactly the spiritual, polity of the nation as alone accordant with the principles of the ancient economy. Tiie state of things recorded in these books is therefore in so far out of harmony with the theocratic system of the period before the captivity. The thread of narrative, recounting the ancient unity of church and state under the heavenly King, was broken off at the end of the Second Book of Kings. A new condition of things came in before the history was resumed ; and Ezra and Nehemiah want the proper connection with the antecedent history of the people of God. Hence the necessity of the books of Chronicles. Recapitulating the history of man before the times of David, they present the higher aspect of that kingdom, which took its origin from his family, had the promise of a perpetual duration, and was to culminate in the Messiah. The history of David and his line is therefore traced to the exclusion of that of the ten tribes, which became, by their apostasy, strangers to the covenant of promise, and with constant reference to the loftier destiny of his throne as the kingdom of God that cannot be moved. Hence the religious, not the civil, under- INTRODUCTION. The Special Difference of the Work. takings of its kings are dwelt upon with special attention. And the narrative is carried on beyond the burning of the temple and beyond the hfe of Jehoiachin to the proclamation of Cyrus, authorizing and inviting the banished people to return to Jerusalem, and rebuild the temple and the city. This furnishes the fitting link, to which may be attached the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, containing the history of the remnant who returned on this invitation, until it vanishes in the inert and obscure interval between the Old and the New Testament. The Special Difference of the Work. —The distinguishing character- istics of the books of Chronicles may be gathered from these facts. The work is really one, and is manifestly due to one compiler. It is called in the Masoretic recension Dibre hayyamim, Acts of the Days, freely rendered Chrotiicoii by Jerome, which has come to us in our Chronicles through the Latin Vulgate. This means a record of the leading incidents of the times somewhat in the form of annals. It is designated by the Septuagint Paralcipo)ne7ia^ things left aside or unnoticed. This marks a second peculiarity of the book. It fur- nishes a supplement to the former series of historical books, bringing to light many interesting particulars which were there omitted. But neither of these comes up to the leading characteristic of the book. Its main scope is to raise into conspicuous prominence the religious and eternal aspect of the kingdom of God, as contradistinguished from the civil and temporal form of government under which the people of God were then constrained to live, and so to exhibit such a view of the former course of events as would fitly introduce the state of things presented in the narrative of Ezra and Nehemiah. The state paramount in this period of the affairs of the chosen people was the second heathen monarchy. The kingdom of God had then no visible reahty, unless in the sacerdotal or ecclesiastical department. It remained in the background during the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman monarchies, and only comes into conspicuous power and progress when the last of these kingdoms is about to decline and fall. Civil government under these mundane powers is a part of the general scheme of Providence, and hence has a primary place in a universal history of the world. But in a record of the common- wealth of grace and salvation, it can come in only for incidental notice. Hence it is plain that the main topic of the present course of history is determined not by the personal leanings of the writers, THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES. Time of Composition— The Author. as has been frequently asserted, but by the real situation of affairs. The civil administration had ceased to be sacred at its fountain- head ; the ecclesiastical alone belonged to the sphere of sacred things. The writers are conscious of this fact, and write and speak accordingly. And the author of Chronicles devises and composes a summary of ancient things adapted to the new situation. Time of Composition. — It follows from the above considerations, that the composition of Chronicles was coeval with that of Ezra. This alone brings out the reason for its existence. It presents that aspect of former sacred things, of which Ezra and Nehemiah are the legitimate continuation. It points out this higher aspect as having an undoubted existence, and forming the perpetual element in the ancient economy. It accounts for the peculiar character of these books, and links them by a continuous chain with the beginning of things. Many circumstances corroborate this obvious conclusion. The close of the book, which records the proclamation of Cyrus, permitting the Jews to return, is the opening passage of Ezra. How this actually happened may be at present hid from our view. But it goes to prove the inseparable connection of the books in point of time. And at several antecedent points the book alludes to the end of the captivity.
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