Unit 9
The Chronicler and the Deuteronomist

Learning Objectives

After completing Unit 9 you should be able to

1. Discuss the differences between The Primary History and The Secondary History in the Hebrew Bible.
2. List the sources used by the Chronicler and the author of Ezra-Nehemiah and discuss what their use implies about ancient historiography.
3. Discuss the authorship of Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah.
4. Describe the purpose and theology of Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah and the way that they attempt to connect the institutions and practices of their own time to the earlier history of Israel.
5. Critically assess the accuracy of ancient “historical” compositions such as the books of Chronicles, Kings and Samuel.
6. Describe how the Chronicler adjusts and revises the theology and historical views of the Deuteronomist.
7. Compare parallel passages in the “historical” texts of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Introduction

In this unit we enter the era of early Judaism. This may seem to be a strange thing to say, since the entire Hebrew Bible lays the foundation for Judaism and the texts we are investigating are its final books. However, scholars commonly make an important distinction between Israelite religion and Judaism. Strictly speaking, Judaism is said to begin only after the return of the exiled Judahites to the former kingdom of Judah in the 400s BCE. The religious thought and practices of the people of Israel and Judah before that time are called “Israelite religion.” What is the reason for this distinction? The religious thought and practice of those who returned from the Babylonian Exile (i.e., Judaism) was different enough from the religion of the pre-exilic period (i.e., Israelite religion) that most scholars have given each tradition a distinctive name.

The most influential new religious emphases were introduced into the land of Judah (which in these post-exilic times was called “Judea” or “Yehud”) by Ezra, who is often called the “second founder of Judaism.” Ezra’s emphases on the Torah, strict monotheism, endogamy and the renewal of the ancient covenant are the most important new trends. There is some disagreement over just how new these hallmarks of early Judaism really were. Some scholars see early Judaism as a continuation of the ideas and practices established in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Others understand early Judaism as a radical departure from the religion of Israel and Judah. For the latter scholars:

1. the Torah was a newly-compiled document, a constitution of sorts, that reflected the hopes, fears and needs of the new community that had recently returned to Judah.
2. monotheism was new as well; Israelite religion was henotheistic (i.e., worshipped one national deity exclusively but did not deny the existence of other gods).
3. the limitation of marriages to those between members of the Jewish community (endogamy) was now systematically enforced.
4. covenant renewal was not really a renewal but rather a pretext either for introducing new customs, ideas and practices or for making the practices of a single group the norm for the whole nation.

In this unit we will go beyond our usual approach of concentrating on one or more books as we work our way through the Hebrew Bible. We will use the skills we are learning in the course to compare Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, some of the last books of the Hebrew Scriptures to be written, with earlier books that we have already studied. Thus, this unit provides us with the opportunity to reflect for ourselves on how the early post-exilic Jewish community saw itself and the way that community’s early thinkers connected the institutions, thought and practices of their own time with those of their predecessors in Israel and Judah.

The fact that Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah discuss some of the same historical events portrayed in the Deuteronomistic History allows us to contrast earlier and later forms of the religion of the people of Israel. When we compare the portrayal of events in these books and the Deuteronomistic History, we may identify differences in cultural attitudes, religious convictions and historical narration. The nature of these differences suggests that these works do not disagree only over “what really happened.” The differences reflect divergent theologies and political ideologies as well.

We will investigate the differences between Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, on the one hand, and the Deuteronomistic History, on the other, and do some independent critical reflection on the meaning of these differences. This work will take us beyond the discussions found in the textbook to the challenge of critically comparing parallel texts using our own critical and analytical skills.