Who was the chronicler's audience? A hint from his genealogies

Journal of Biblical Literature

Volumn 122, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 229-245

  Levin, Yigal ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE AT CHATTANOOGA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61149329320     PISSN: 00219231     EISSN: 19343876     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3268444     Document Type: Article

References (107)

1. J. W. Kleinig, "Recent Research in Chronicles," CurBS 2 (1994): 43
2. One "revisionist" book that Dever does not deal with directly is I. Finkelstein and N. A. Silberman, The Bible Unearthed - Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts (New York: Free Press, 2001), which was apparently in press at about the same time. For a recent summary of these and other studies
3. see Z. Zevit, "Three Debates About Bible and Archaeology," Bib 83 (2002): 1-27
4. See also S. Japhet, "In Search of Ancient Israel: Revisionism at All Costs," in The Jewish Past Revisited: Reflections on Modern Jewish Historians (ed. D. N. Myers and D. B. Ruderman; Studies in Jewish Culture and Society; New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1998), 212-33, for one of the many critiques of this position
5. For a summary of the various arguments on the date, see H. G. M. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles (NCB; Grand Rapids/London: Eerdmans, 1982), 15-16
6. S. Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary (OTL; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993), 3-7
7. Kleinig, "Recent Research in Chronicles," 46-47
8. J. E. Dyck, The Theocratic Ideology of the Chronicler (Biblical Interpretation Series 33; Leiden/Boston/Cologne: Brill, 1998), 30-35
9. See A. C. Welch, The Work of the Chronicler: Its Purpose and Its Date (Schweich Lectures of the British Academy 1938; London: Oxford University Press, 1939), 157
10. S. Japhet, "The Supposed Common Authorship of Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemia Investigated Anew," VT 18 (1968): 330-71
11. H. G. M. Williamson, Israel in the Books of Chronicles (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 5-82, and many others
12. contra J. Blenkinsopp, Ezra-Nehemiah (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1988), 47-54
13. K. F. Pohlmann, "Zur Frage von Korrespondenzen und Divergenzen zwischen den Chronikbüchem und dem Ezra/Nehemia-Buch," in Congress Volume: Leuven 1989 (ed. J. A. Emerton; VTSup 43; Leiden: Brill, 1991), 314-30
14. A good example of the first approach is the now-classic M. D. Johnson, The Purpose of the Biblical Genealogies With Special Reference to the Genealogies of Jesus (SNTSMS 8; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969)
15. The classic study in the second methodology is R. R. Wilson, Genealogy and History in the Biblical World (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1977)
16. see, e.g., Y. Levin, "Understanding Biblical Genealogies," CurBS 9 (2001): 29-30, and references therein
17. Wilson, Genealogy and History, 19
18. L. Bohannan, "A Genealogical Charter," Africa 22 (1952): 301-15
19. Or as A. Demsky called it, "two-dimensional" genealogy ("The Genealogy of Gibeon [I Chronicles 9:35-44]: Biblical and Epigraphic Considerations," BASOR 202 [1971]: 17)
20. Y. Levin, "The Historical Geography of the Chronicler" (Ph.D. diss., Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 1999) (Hebrew with English abstract), 52-53
21. G. N. Knoppers, "'Great Among His Brothers,' but Who is He? Heterogeneity in the Composition of Judah?" Journal of Hebrew Scriptures [online] 3 (2001): 1.2 n. 3 (www.purl.org/jhs)
22. idem, "Intermarriage, Social Complexity, and Ethnic Diversity in the Genealogy of Judah," JBL 120 (2001): 15 n. 3
23. Johnson, Purpose of the Biblical Genealogies, 82
24. See F. Crüsemann, "Human Solidarity and Ethnic Identity: Israel's Self-Definition in the Genealogical System of Genesis," in Ethnicity and the Bible (ed. M. G. Brett; Biblical Interpretation Series 19; Leiden: Brill, 1996), 60
25. Levin, "Understanding Biblical Genealogies," 33-34
26. See also A. Malamat, "King Lists of the Old Babylonian Period and Biblical Genealogies," JAOS 88 (1968): 163-73
27. R. S. Hess "The Genealogies of Genesis 1-11 and Comparative Literature," Bib 70 (1989): 241-54
28. Levin, "Historical Geography of the Chronicler," 65
29. See also R. L. Braun, "1 Chronicles 1-9 and the Reconstruction of the History of Israel: Thoughts on the Use of Genealogical Data in Chronicles in the Reconstruction of the History of Israel," in The Chronicler as Historian (ed. M. Patrick Graham et al.; JSOTSup 238; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997), 98-101
30. B. Oded, "The Settlement of the Tribe of Reuben in Transjordania," in Studies in the History of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel (ed. A. Gilboa et al.; Haifa: Haifa University Press, 1970), 11-36 (Hebrew with English abstract)
31. For evidence of members of the tribe living in the north, see A. Malamat, "Ummatum in Old Babylonian Texts and its Ugaritic and Biblical Counterparts," UF 11 ( 1979): 536
32. W. Rudolph, Chronikbücher (HAT 21; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1955), 68
33. Japhet, I & II Chronicles, 174
34. Y. Levin, "The Territories of Ephraim and Manasseh According to Chronicles," in Judea and Samaria Research Studies: Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting 1993 (ed. Z. H. Erlich and Y. Eshel; Kedumim/Ariel: College of Judea and Samaria Research Institute, 1994), 55-64 (Hebrew with English abstract)
35. See Z. Kallai, "The Settlement Traditions of Ephraim: A Historiographical Study," ZDPV 102 (1986): 68-74
36. D. Edelman, "Saul's Journey through Mt. Ephraim and Samuel's Ramah (1 Sam. 9:4-5; 10:2-5)," ZDPV 104 (1988): 44-58
37. eadem, "The Asherite Genealogy in 1 Chronicles 7:30-40," BR 33 (1988): 13-23
38. N. Na'aman, "Sources and Redaction in the Chronicler's Genealogies of Asher and Ephraim," JSOT 49 (1991): 99-111
39. A. Demsky, "The Genealogy of Asher (1 Chron. 7:30-40)," in Abraham Malamat Volume (ed. S. Ahitub et al.; ErIsr 24; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1993), 68-73 (Hebrew with English abstract)
40. Y. Levin and A. Faust, "The Ties Between the Tribes Asher and Benjamin," in Judea and Samaria Research Studies: Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting 1997 (ed. Y. Eshel; Kedumim/Ariel: College of Judea and Samaria Research Institute, 1998), 225-31 (Hebrew with English abstract) and references therein
41. Knoppers, "Great Among His Brothers," 1.1
42. See T. Willi, "Late Persian Judaism and its Conception of an Integral Israel According to Chronicles: Some Observations on Form and Function of the Genealogy of Judah in 1 Chronicles 2.34.23," in Second Temple Studies 2: Temple Community in the Persian Period (ed. T. C. Eskenazi and K. H. Richards; JSOTSup 175; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), 152-53
43. M. Oeming, Das wahre Israel: Die "genealogische Vorhalle" 1 Chronik 1-9 (BWANT 128; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1990)
44. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 46-47
45. M. Kartveit, Motive und Schichten der Landtheologie in I Chronik 1-9 (ConBOT 28; Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1989), 166-67
46. There actually seem to be several discrepancies in this arrangement; see S. Japhet, The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles and its Place in Biblical Thought (trans. from the original 1977 Hebrew edition by A. Barber; BEATAJ 9; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1997), 352-55
47. Levin, "Historical Geography of the Chronicler," 69-71, and references there
48. Dyck, Theocratic Ideology of the Chronicler, 129
49. P. R. Ackroyd, Israel Under Babylon and Persia (London: Oxford University Press, 1970), 162-90, 210-46, 294-305
50. idem, The Chronicler in His Age (JSOTSup 101; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991), 358-59
51. J. Blenkinsopp, "Temple and Society in Achaemenid Judah," in Second Temple Studies 1: Persian Period (ed. P. R. Davies; JSOTSup 117; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991), 50-51
52. J. Weinberg, The Citizen-Temple Community (JSOTSup 151; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992) is the English translation of the older works referred to by Blenkinsopp
53. See R. A. Horsley, "Empire, Temple and Community - but no Bourgeoisie! A Response to Blenkinsopp and Petersen," in Second Temple Studies 1, ed. Davies, 163-74
54. This was already realized by A. C. Welch, Post-Exilic Judaism (Baird Lecture for 1934; Edinburgh/London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1935), 65-66
55. For more recent studies, see H. M. Barstad, The Myth of the Empty Land (Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, 1996)
56. O. Lipschits, The History of the Benjamin Region Under Babylonian Rule," Tel Aviv 26 (1999): 155-90
57. For a summary of recent research and of the sundry opinions on the subject, see P. R. Bedford, Temple Restoration in Early Achaemenid Judah (JSJSup 65; Leiden/Boston/Cologne: Brill, 2001), 1-39
58. See Japhet, Ideology of the Book of Chronicles, 325-34
59. For a discussion of the term "Israel" and its meaning in Chronicles, see Williamson, Israel in the Books of Chronicles, 87-131
60. Willi, "Late Persian Judaism and its Conception of an Integral Israel." For the Chronicler's concept of territory, see Kartveit, Motive und Schichten
61. See, e.g., A. O. Mojola, "The 'Tribes' of Israel? A Bible Translator's Dilemma," JSOT 81 (1998): 15-29
62. R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions (2d ed.; London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1965), 20
63. L. E. Stager, "The Archaeology of the Family in Ancient Israel," BASOR 260 (1985): 1-35
64. H. Reviv, Society in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah (in Hebrew; Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1993), 47
65. S. Bendor, The Social Structure of Ancient Israel: The Institution of the Family (Beit 'Ab) from the Settlement to the End of the Monarchy (Jerusalem: Simor, 1996), 98-107
66. J. Blenkinsopp, "The Family in First Temple Israel," in Families in Ancient Israel (ed. L. G. Perdue et al.; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997), 49-57
67. A. Faust, "The Rural Community in Ancient Israel During Iron Age II," BASOR 317 (2000): 29-32
68. Bendor, Social Structure of Ancient Israel, 108-15
69. Demsky, "Genealogy of Gibeon," 18, 23
70. For a similar assessment of the Transjordanian kingdoms of the Iron Age, see Ø. LaBianca, "Salient Features of Iron Age Tribal Kingdoms," in Ancient Amnion (ed. B. MacDonald and R. W. Younker; SHCANE 42; Leiden/ Boston/Cologne: Brill, 1999), 19-23
71. Weinberg, Citizen-Temple Community, 49-61
72. H. G. Kippenberg, Religion und Klassenbildung im antiken Judäa: Eine religions-soziologische Studie zum Verhältnis von Tradition und gesellschaften Entwicklung (2d ed.; SUNT 14; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1989), 25-28
73. See also P. R. Ackroyd, Exile and Restoration: A Study of Hebrew Thought of the Sixth Century B.C. (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1968), 31-38
74. idem, Israel Under Babylon and Persia, 19-34
75. D. L. Smith, The Religion of the Landless: The Social Context of the Babylonian Exile (Bloomington, IN: Meyer Stone, 1989), 92-120
76. Bedford, Temple Restoration in Early Achaemenid Judah, 41-83
77. See O. Lipschits, "Nebuchadrezzar's Policy in 'Hattu-Land' and the Fate of the Kingdom of Judah," UF 30 (1998): 473-76
78. For various descriptions of Persian-period Yehud and its society, based mainly on these very sources, see F. M. Cross, "A Reconstruction of the Judean Restoration," JBL 94 (1975): 4-18
79. E. Stem, "The Persian Empire and the Political and Social History of Palestine in the Persian Period," in The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 1, The Persian Period (ed. W. D. Davies and L. Finkelstein; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 70-87
80. Ackroyd, Israel Under Babylon and Persia
81. idem, Chronicler in His Age
82. Blenkinsopp, "Temple and Society in Achaemenid Judah"
83. D. L. Smith, "The Politics of Ezra: Sociological Indicators of Postexilic Judaean Society," in Second Temple Studies 1, ed. Davies, 73-97
84. C. E. Carter, "The Province of Yehud in the Post-Exilic Period: Soundings in Site Distribution and Demography," in Second Temple Studies 2, ed. Eskenazi and Richards, 106-45
85. Z. Kallai, "Judah and the Boundaries of Jewish Settlement under Persian Rule," in Biblical Historiography and Historical Geography: Collection of Studies (BEATAJ 14; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1998), 63-91
86. Smith, "Politics of Ezra," 96
87. For a synopsis of the debate on the dates of Ezra and Nehemiah, see A. Demsky, "Who Came First, Ezra or Nehemiah? The Synchronistic Approach," HUCA 65 (1994): 1-19
88. Levin, "Territories of Ephraim and Manasseh"
89. idem, "The Burial Place of Joab son of Zeruiah, Chief of David's Hosts," in Judea and Samaria Studies: Proceedings of the Fourth Conference (ed. Y. Eshel and Z. H. Ehrlich; Ariel: College of Judea and Samaria Research Institute, 1995), 53-58 (Hebrew with English abstract)
90. idem, "Historical Geography of the Chronicler," 80-83, 91-92, 127-46, 159, 304-5
91. G. E. Wright, Shechem: The Biography of a Biblical City (London: Duckworth, 1965), 166-67
92. See, e.g., Levin, "Burial Place of Joab Son of Zeruiah," 56-57
93. So, e.g., Japhet, I & II Chronicles, 138
94. See J. Weinberg, "Das Wesen und die funkionelle Bestimmung der Listen in I Chr 1-9," ZAW 93 (1981): 113
95. Welch, Post-Exilic Judaism, 157; Welch was apparently also the first to dissociate the Chronicler from the author of Ezra-Nehemiah (pp. 186-87). One might add that Welch considered the first six chapters of Ezra to be part of the Chronicler's work, and argued for a rather early - even sixth-century-date for that work (pp. 241-12), which we do not accept. Welch also believed that the genealogies in 1 Chr 1-9 were not a part of that original work
96. see Post-Exilic Judaism, 185-86
97. idem, Work of the Chronicler, 1
98. o
99. R. Zadok, "On the Reliability of the Genealogical and Prosopographical Lists of the Israelites in the Old Testament," Tel Aviv 25 (1998): 228
100. Knoppers, "'Great Among His Brothers,' but Who is He?"
101. idem, "Intermarriage, Social Complexity, and Ethnic Diversity in the Genealogy of Judah," 15-30
102. Levin, "Historical Geography of the Chronicler," 129
103. K. H. Richards, "Introduction: The Persian Period: Coming of Age," in Second Temple Studies 2, ed. Eskenazi and Richards, 13
104. For the little we do know, see Stem, "Persian Empire and the Political and Social History of Palestine," 70-87
105. D. Barag, "The Effects of the Tennes Rebellion on Palestine," BASOR 183 (1966): 6-12
106. J. W. Betlyon, "The Provincial Government of Persian Period Judea and the Yehud Coins," JBL 105 (1986): 633-42
107. see also E. M. Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990), and the many references there