Prehistory – the very early stories of our beginning with God
The history of the Patriarchs
Abraham
Isaac and Jacob
Joseph
Moses and the Exodus story
The story of the Judges and the Kings
The retelling of the history in 1st and 2nd Chronicles
"King David"
1 and 2 Kings
The Book of Kings is organized in a cyclical pattern, similar to that of the Book of Judges. While the first eleven chapters tell various traditional stories of Solomon, from 1 Kings 12 and onward, the stories are organized according to a strict outlined history of the kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Remember as well, they are told from an explicitly theological perspective.
I. Structure
A notice of accession to the throne, along with the length of the reign – based on the reign of the king in the opposite kingdom.
II. A theological assessment of the king’s reign
For the Kings of Israel, that is the kings in the breakaway Northern Kingdom, this assessment is always negative. This is one of the places that allow us to hear the explicit theological perspective from which the text is written. The only place to worship God is in Jerusalem – thus any worship that happened in the Northern Kingdom was wrong and thus all kings are assessed as bad.
The Kings of the Southern Kingdom were seen both positively and negatively. If they were assessed as positive, they are compared in a favorable manner to King David.
III. Various stories about the kings.
The content varies but often has to do with the problem of setting up shrines, idols or high places to worship pagan gods. This then, adds to their negative assessment.
IV. A closing rhetorical question
The wording goes like this…”The rest of the acts of _____, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?”
"A depection of Solomon's Temple"
Dates that are important to remember
721 BCE – the fall of the Northern Kingdom
586 BCE – the fall of the Southern Kingdom and the exile to Babylon
1 and 2 Chronicles
In the Hebrew Bible, 1 and 2 Chronicles are called “The Events of the Days.” The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles were written after the exile and in Jerusalem probably in about the 4th century BCE.
Because the world changed for Israel after the exile, the priestly leaders felt the need for an updated version of Israel’s history. Scholars believe that one of the reasons they rewrote the history was to explain the proper role of the kings over Israel in the past now that they were gone and to emphasize the temple for religious worship.
Chronicles often follows the books of Samuel and Kings word for word through whole chapters. However, we get a sense of its distinctive message when we compare the many places where it either leaves out or adds in material. For example, the entire story of David and Bathheba and the revolt of his son Absalom is not mentioned. For the Chronicler, David was a holy and dedicated leader who followed Yahweh faithfully.
InJoy,
Suzy
