I AND II CHRONICLES: INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STRUCTURE

Below is a highly edited version of a chapter in my unpublished book The Structure of Scripture. If you wish me to send you the complete chapter as an email attachment, just contact me at elmerphd21@hotmail.com.

There is little doubt that I and II Chronicles should be considered as a unity from every perspective since its division into two books only began with the Septuagint. This assumption is strengthened by the occurrence of several key words and phrases appearing a symbolically significant number of times within the whole work. A starting approach is to compare the make-up of Chronicles with its parallel stories in Samuel-Kings. The scope of these two works is given in Fig. I with the common material underlined, information omitted (wholly or substantially) in Chronicles shown in italics, and bold print used for material present in Chronicles but missing in Samuel-Kings.

Figure 1: Comparison of Chronicles with Samuel-Kings

Genealogies (I Chron. 1-9)

IA. Samuel (I Sam. 1-7)

IIA. Saul's Reign (I Sam. 8-21:9)

IIIA. David Hides from Saul (I Sam. 21:10-30; 31; II Sam. 1)

IVA. David the King (II Sam. 2-5; 6-12)

IIIB. David Hides from Absalom (II Sam. 13-20)

IIB. Echoes of Saul's Reign (II Sam. 21-24)

IB. Solomon (I Kings 1-10; 11)

IIC. Minor Kings (I Kings 12-16:28)

IIIC. Elijah and Ahab (I Kings 16:29-21:29; 22)

IVB. Elisha Inherits the Mantle (II Kings 1-2)

IIID. Elisha and Ahab's Family (II Kings 3-10)

IID. Minor Kings (II Kings 11-17)

Hezekiah (II Chron. 29-31)

IC. Last Kings (II Kings 18-25)

As a first approximation, one might think that I-II Chronicles merely consists of the second chiasm in Samuel-Kings since it starts and ends roughly where that portion of the structure begins. However, there is obviously much additional material in the Chronicles (i.e., almost exclusive concentration on the Southern Kingdom) as well as significant deletions (i.e., little interest in the Elijah-Elisha cycles). It is obvious at this point that the structure of the Chronicles, assuming one exists, will be quite different in shape from that of Sam-Kings.

The literature on I and II Chronicles shows a fair degree of consistency regarding the major division points. The most common breakdown is: 

Genealogies (I Chronicles 1-9)

            David (I Chronicles 10-29)

            Solomon (II Chronicles 1-9)

            Kings of Judah (II Chronicles 10-36)

The present proposal for component sections of I-II Chronicles results from division of the Genealogy section and Kings of Judah section above into two literary units each and organizing them as shown below:

Figure 2: Structure of I and II Chronicles

 I. The Patriarchs (I Chronicles 1:1-2:2)

II. The Twelve Tribes (I Chronicles 2:3-9:44)

III. David (I Chronicles 10:1-29:22)

                                    III'. Solomon (I Chronicles 29:23-II Chronicles 9:31)

II'. The Divided Kingdom (II Chronicles 10:1-36:21)

I'. Return from Exile (II Chronicles 36:22-23)

 The pictured relationships between these six major section of Chronicles are briefly defended below with implications of the general form of the book to its overarching theme(s). In addition, each of the six sections in Figure 2 is found to possess its own literary symmetry, often even extending down to the next level of organization.

To begin with, the pairing of David's and Solomon's reigns seems inevitable for obvious reasons. The main justification comes from the recitation of Judah's kings in I Chronicles 3:10-16 with a description of their reigns in Section II'. All six references to “unfaithfulness” to God in Chronicles appear in these two sections. In addition, both sections end with strong indications that the people's exile from the land, caused by their unfaithfulness to God, will eventually be reversed.

 Chronicles begins in Section I with the selection of Israel from all the people of the earth for possession of the Promised Land; it ends in Section I' with God's chosen people poised to reoccupy that same land for the purpose of restoring the Temple.

In a way, these two sections parallel sections III and III', respectively, in that these center units deal with the founding of a dynasty and building God's Temple.

II Chronicles 3:1 specifically identifies Solomon's building work as a continuation of his father's. As Williamson says, “[The] selection of material for the reigns of David and Solomon is largely governed by its relevance to the theme of temple building.” Thus, there is a great similarity between I Chronicles 22 and II Chronicles 2 with their mention of resident aliens as stone cutters, the help of the Tyrians, and the use of artisans skilled in working gold, silver, bronze and iron. There is also a progression from the general to the particular in the way the six sections of the book are arranged. All of God's people are the subject of the outer sections I and I' (see especially II Chronicles 36:23: “Whoever is among you of all his people”); sections II and II' deal, as we have seen, more specifically with those in or around the province of Yehud; and the two center sections focus on two particular individuals, David and Solomon, chosen by God for special tasks.

It should also be noted that the above structure fits with a three-fold division in which sections I-II give an abbreviated history of Israel, III-III' describe the reigns of Israel's first three kings, and II'-I' treat the remaining kings.

Section III' is of special interest in that this major segment of Chronicles is the only one with a structure that closely parallels that of its analogous Sam-Kings section. The latter is shown below with the Chronicler's additions in bold and omissions in italics.

Figure 3: The Structure of I Kings 1-11 (I Chron. 29:22b-II Chron. 9:31)

Ia. Transition of Power (I Kings 1-2) (I Chron. 29:22b-II Chron. 1:1)

2a. Solomon: Wisdom and Foolishness (I Kings 3) (II Chron. 1:2-13)

3a. Prosperous Kingdom (I Kings 4) (II Chron. 1:14-17)

4. The Temple (I Kings 5-9:22) (II Chron. 2:1-8:10)

a. construction (I Kings 5:1-7:51) (II Chron. 2:1-5:1)

b. feast and sacrifices (I Kings 8:1-11) (II Chron. 5:2-14)

c. Solomon's prayer (I Kings 8:12-61) (II Chron. 6)

c'. Divine Confirmation (II Chron. 7:1-3)

b'. feast and sacrifices (I Kings 8:62-66) (II Chron. 7:4-10)

a'. construction (I Kings 9:1-22) (II Chron. 7:11-8:10)

3b. Prosperous Kingdom (I Kings 9:23-28) (II Chron. 8:11-18)

2b. Solomon: Wisdom and Foolishness (I Kings 10:1-11:13) (II Chron. 9:1-28)

1b. Transition of Power (I Kings 11:14-43) (II Chron. 9:29-31)

As seen above, there are two subtle changes in the Chronicles accounts. In the first place, those incidents revealing Solomon's flawed nature are not present in units 2a and 2b. These omissions alone, however, have no effect on the structure of the literary unit as a whole since complete symmetry is still preserved. Secondly, the short incident at II Chronicles 7:1-3, in which divine fire answers Solomon's prayer, has no parallel in Sam-Kings. Since this passage ends with a reference to Yahweh's “steadfast love” as does Unit 4c, it appears obvious that the two are meant to stand in a parallel relationship to one another, as portrayed above. The resulting symmetrical pattern no longer centers on Solomon's prayer alone, but gives equal attention (in 4c') to the audience of this prayer, Yahweh himself. This finding might appear to run counter to Pratt's contention that the Chronicler gave Solomon's prayer a more prominent role than in the book of Kings. However, another way of looking at this shift of emphasis is that the Chronicler “was anxious to show God's positive response to the prayer...” (Richard Pratt, Jr.)

Since there is less of a discrete center to this new structure, more attention is naturally drawn to the first and last units of the overall chiasm. The Chronicler strengthened the parallels between the two by referencing the annals of the prophet Nathan in both. Here we observe an interesting phenomenon. Units 1a and 1b in the I Kings account are filled with intrigue and rival forces for the throne. These negative factors are totally missing from the greatly truncated parallels in Chronicles so as to concentrate on the blessings that Yahweh gave to Solomon and emphasize the identical span of his reign to that of his father: forty years.

Interestingly, most 6^th century AD manuscripts of the Syriac Bible have a major division at II Chronicles 6:1, emphasizing the two-part nature of Section IV as outlined in Fig. 3.