Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/15

Rh that such a procedure was legitimate for him, that is simply due to the difficulty we have in being anything except the children of our own age.

The earliest historical records of Israel were not attempts to write a continuous history of the people, but popular tales and songs commemorating such deeds of the people or its heroes as had made a profound impression on the popular imagination. An excellent example is the famous Song of Deborah in Judges v. Records of this type were long transmitted orally, but eventually were gathered together into written collections, such as the Book of Jashar, referred to by the canonical writers (see Jos. x. 13, 2 Sam. i. 18). As national history lengthened out and State records accumulated in connection with palace and temple, the idea would finally arise of combining these with the popular memories so as to form a connected historical narrative. But the motive which prompted the formation of such accounts was not scientific interest nor even perhaps curiosity to ascertain the exact course of events, but the desire to interest, to instruct, and above all to edify contemporary thought and life. Broadly, we may distinguish two types of ancient historical writing; first, the descriptive narrative in which events were recorded on account of their intense human interest, and, secondly, the didactic, where the older descriptive tales and any other available material were selected, related, and built into a unity in such fashion as might best serve to bring out the religious, moral, or political lessons which they seem to teach or which the writer was anxious to impress upon his generation. The books of Samuel-Kings and of Chronicles both belong to the didactic type. Thus, they contain many stories (e.g. the details of Jehu's revolution in Kings) which teach no special lesson but are recorded for their