Jensens survey of the old testament adam 122
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began reigning after Israel’s fall. Refer to outside
sources for a discussion of this question. What
view does Chart 45 represent?
13
1 and 2 Chronicles: Judah During
the Years of Monarchy
The two books of Chronicles focus
primarily on the religious foundations and
fortunes of Judah, the covenant people of
Jehovah, during the years of the kings. Their
content is solid history, but the selective
character of that content reveals a
thoroughgoing theological and spiritual
purpose in all the books’ pages. Of that
purpose Gleason Archer writes that the
books were
composed with a very de nite purpose
in mind, to give to the Jews of the
Second Commonwealth the true
spiritual foundations of their theocracy
as the covenant people of Jehovah.
This historian’s purpose is to show that
the true glory of the Hebrew nation
was found in its covenant relationship
to God, as safeguarded by the
prescribed forms of worship in the
temple and administered by the
divinely ordained priesthood under the
protection of the divinely authorized
dynasty of David. Always the emphasis
is upon that which is sound and valid
in Israel’s past as furnishing a reliable
basis for the task of reconstruction
which lay ahead. Great stress is placed
upon the rich heritage of Israel and its
unbroken
connection
with
the
patriarchal beginnings (hence the
prominence accorded to genealogical
lists).1
If the books of Chronicles were written
after the Babylonian Captivity was over, one
can see why the writer emphasized such
things as heritage, covenant, Temple,
dangers of apostasy, and Messianic hopes in
the Davidic line. For now that the Jews had
returned to their homeland under Ezra’s
leadership,
they
needed
every
encouragement and persuasion to rebuild
the theocracy that had collapsed over a
hundred years earlier. The books of
Chronicles are a “clear warning to the
people never again to forsake the temple
and the worship of the living God.”2
I. PREPARATION
FOR
STUDY
Review the general contents of 2 Samuel
and the two books of Kings, since much of
their reporting is duplicated in Chronicles.
(More than half of the content of Chronicles
is included in Genesis, 2 Samuel, and Kings.)
Despite the duplication, do not consider
your study of Chronicles as a repeat
exercise. Like all other books of the Bible, 1
and 2 Chronicles serve a distinct function in
