books which were written after the Exile. The author was certainly
contemporary with Zerubbabel, details of whose family history are given
(1 Chronicles 3:19).
The time of the composition being determined, the question of the
authorship may be more easily decided. According to Jewish tradition,
which was universally received down to the middle of the seventeenth
century, Ezra was regarded as the author of the Chronicles. There are
many points of resemblance and of contact between the Chronicles and the
Book of Ezra which seem to confirm this opinion. The conclusion of the
one and the beginning of the other are almost identical in expression. In
their spirit and characteristics they are the same, showing thus also an
identity of authorship.
In their general scope and design these books are not so much historical as
didactic. The principal aim of the writer appears to be to present moral
and religious truth. He does not give prominence to political occurences, as
is done in Samuel and Kings, but to ecclesiastical institutions. “The
genealogies, so uninteresting to most modern readers, were really an
important part of the public records of the Hebrew state. They were the
basis on which not only the land was distributed and held, but the public
services of the temple were arranged and conducted, the Levites and their
descendants alone, as is well known, being entitled and first fruits set apart
for that purpose.” The “Chronicles” are an epitome of the sacred history
from the days of Adam down to the return from Babylonian Exile, a period
of about 3,500 years. The writer gathers up “the threads of the old
national life broken by the Captivity.”
The sources whence the chronicler compiled his work were public records,
registers, and genealogical tables belonging to the Jews. These are referred
to in the course of the book (1 Chronicles 27:24; 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29;
12:15; 13:22; 20:34; 24:27; 26:22; 32:32; 33:18, 19; 27:7; 35:25). There are
in Chronicles, and the books of Samuel and Kings, forty parallels, often
verbal, proving that the writer both knew and used these records (1
Chronicles 17:18; comp. 2 Samuel 7:18-20; 1 Chronicles 19; comp. 2
Samuel 10, etc.).
As compared with Samuel and Kings, the Book of Chronicles omits many
particulars there recorded (2 Samuel 6:20-23; 9; 11; 14-19, etc.), and
includes many things peculiar to itself (1 Chronicles 12; 22; 23-26; 27; 28;