Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Chronicles as a Work of Reception
2. The Significance of Chronicles’ History
3. Chronicles’ Jostling for Authority Within the Canon
4. The Scope and Organization of this Commentary
Part I: The Genealogies
1. Chapter 1: The Genealogies
  1. David’s Genealogy and the Christian Messiah
  2. David’s Genealogy and the Jewish Messiah
  3. David as the Seventh Son of Jesse
  4. Solomon’s Place in the Davidic Line
  5. Reuben’s Genealogy
  6. The Ephraimites’ Early Exodus
  7. Jabez
  8. The Genealogies – Inside or Outside of History?
Part II: The Reign of David
1. Chapter 2: David’s Reign from Election to Dynastic Promise
  1. David’s Election
  2. David’s Transfer of the Ark in Chronicles
  3. David’s Psalm of Thanksgiving
  4. God’s Dynastic Promise and David’s Response
2. Chapter 3: David’s Reign from the Census to the Selection of the Temple Site
  1. Satan and the Census
  2. The Destroying Angel
  3. David’s Altar as the Site of the Temple and Mount Moriah
  4. Fire From Heaven
3. Chapter 4: David’s Reign from His Preparations for the Temple to His Death
  1. David’s Disqualification as Temple Builder
  2. David and the Temple Musicians
  3. David’s Advice to Solomon
  4. David’s Blessing of God
  5. David’s Death
Part III: The Reigns of Solomon and the Kings of Judah
1. Chapter 5: The Reigns of Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, and Asa
  1. Solomon
  2. Rehoboam
  3. Abijah
  4. Asa
  5. Asa’s demotion of the queen mother, Maacah
2. Chapter 6: The Reigns of Jehoshaphat, Joash, Uzziah, and Ahaz
  1. Jehoshaphat
  2. Joash
  3. Uzziah
  4. Ahaz
3. Chapter 7: The Reigns of Hezekiah, Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah
  1. Hezekiah
  2. Manasseh (See Chapter Eight)
  3. Josiah
  4. Jehoiakim
  5. Zedekiah
4. Chapter 8: The Reign of Manasseh
  1. Manasseh in Chronicles and Kings
  2. Chronicles’ Manasseh in the Septuagint
  3. Qumran’s Prayer of Manasseh
  4. Josephus’s Manasseh
  5. Manasseh in The Ascension of Isaiah and 2 Baruch
  6. Chronicles’ Manasseh in Early Rabbinic Literature
  7. The Early Church Fathers’ Reception of Chronicles’ Manasseh
  8. “The Prayer of Manasseh”
  9. Later Reception of Chronicles’ Manasseh in Jewish Interpretation
  10. Later Reception of Chronicles’ Manasseh in Christian Interpretation
Coda A
Coda B
Glossary of Names and Terms
Abbreviations
Bibliography
1. Early Jewish Writings
2. Other Rabbinic Works
3. Pseudepigrapha and Anonymous Works
4. Early Christian Writings
5. Primary and Secondary Sources
Author Index
Scriptural Index
Subject Index
End User License Agreement

List of Illustrations

Chapter 01
1. Figure 1.1 Illuminated (gold lettering on blue) ADAM in Hebrew at the beginning of Chronicles. From a Hebrew Bible of 1448 or 1449, the “Duke of Sussex’s Italian Bible” (British Library Add MS 15251, f 313v).
2. Figure 1.2 David anointed by Samuel with six brothers looking on. Top: Wall painting (tempera over plaster) in the Dura‐Europos synagogue, Syria, third century, CE.. Bottom: From an illuminated manuscript, the “Winchester Psalter,” England, twelfth century (British Library Cotton MS Nero C IV, f 7r).
Chapter 02
1. Figure 2.1 David dancing before the ark. Terra‐cotta relief, Rome, c.1660–1665.
2. Figure 2.2 David dancing before the ark (2 Sm 6).
Chapter 03
1. Figure 3.1 The destroying angel over Jerusalem. Top: David’s numbering of the people punished by the plague (2 Sm 24) by Otto Elliger. Bottom: David praying the plague is stayed (1 Chronicles 21) by Isaac Taylor, Jr.
2. Figure 3.2 The destroying angel appearing to David (1 Chr 21) from The Christian's Complete Family Bible (“Fowler’s Family Bible”).
3. Figure 3.3 King David purchasing the threshing floor (2 Sm 24) by William Hole.
4. Figure 3.4 David in penitence. A miniature by Flemish artist Gerard Horenbout from an illuminated manuscript, the “Sforza Hours,” Milan, Ghent, and Brussels (British Library Add MS 34294, f 212v).
5. Figure 3.5 David’s sacrifice in the field of Araunah (2 Sm 24 and 1 Chr 21). Top left: From an ivory panel, the front cover of a twelfth‐century psalter from Jerusalem, the “Melisende Psalter.” Top right: From Christoph Weigel’s Biblia Ectypa. Bottom: After a design by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld.
Chapter 04
1. Figure 4.1 “All our days on earth are like a shadow and there is no hope” (1 Chr 29:15). Sundial affixed to St. Mary’s Basilica in Krakow, Poland. Mid‐twentieth century.
Chapter 05
1. Figure 5.1 Miraculous fire consuming Solomon’s sacrifice (2 Chr 7).
2. Figure 5.2 Solomon’s sacrifice (1 Kgs 8) with fire from heaven (2 Chr 7).
3. Figure 5.3 Solomon’s sacrifice with fire from heaven. Top: Illustration of 1 Kings 8 by Jan Luyken. Bottom: Solomon dedicates the temple to the Lord.
Chapter 08
1. Figure 8.1 The martyrdom of Isaiah. From an illuminated manuscript, La Bible historiale complétée, France, 1357(British Library Royal 17 E VII, Part 2, f 36v).

Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentaries

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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: French, Blaire A., author.
Title: Chronicles through the centuries / by Blaire A. French.
Description: Hoboken : Wiley, 2016. | Series: Wiley Blackwell Bible commentaries | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031602 (print) | LCCN 2016033473 (ebook) | ISBN 9781118690086 (cloth) | ISBN 9781118690062 (pdf) | ISBN 9781118690079 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Chronicles–Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Classification: LCC BS1345.52 .F74 2016 (print) | LCC BS1345.52 (ebook) | DDC 222/.606–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031602

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Cover image: William Blake, ‘Satan going forth from the presence of the Lord, and Job’s charity’, from the Book of Job, 1825. © Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge / The Bridgeman Art Library.

Acknowledgments

I should like to express my gratitude first and foremost to Calum Carmichael, whose encouragement and guidance sustained me throughout this project. I also thank Martien Halvorson‐Taylor, whose love of the Hebrew Bible inspired my own. Under her expert direction as my thesis advisor at the University of Virginia, I developed the arguments presented in this work. Judith Kovacs, who is an editor of this series and by chance a former teacher and now close friend, provided invaluable insights all along the way. John Sawyer and David Gunn, also editors of this series, meticulously edited my manuscript, and David Gunn assisted in selecting the artwork. At Wiley Blackwell, I thank Felicity Marsh for her skillful and careful copy editing, Vimali Joseph for her able assistance at the final stages of production, and Rebecca Harkin, who oversaw this book from inception to publication. Lastly, thanks go to my husband, James Ceaser, who painstakingly commented on every page, sentence, comma, and period.