Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/62

lviii Chronicles. The wording of Matt. xxiii. 35, however, "From the blood of Abel the righteous (see Gen. iv. 10 f.) unto the blood of Zachariah (see 2 Chr. xxiv. 20 ff.)" suggests that as early as our Lord's day Chronicles was regarded as the last, just as Genesis was the first, book of the Hebrew Canon. It is probable, therefore, that Chronicles found its way into the Canon after Ezra-Nehemiah, the latter book being needed to represent the post-exilic period of the history, whereas Chronicles covered ground already occupied by the books of Samuel and Kings.

§ 10.

Text. The Hebrew (Masoretic) text in Chronicles is, on the whole, well preserved, although by no means free from textual errors (cp. 1 Chr. vi. 28). Many of these occur, as one would expect, in the lists of proper names. Olstead (in the American Journal of Semitic Languages, Oct. 1913) has given reasons for holding that occasionally the original text of Chronicles may have suffered from assimilation to the text of Samuel-Kings. Further, we note a few phrases and passages which seem to be scribal additions (see § 3, p. xxii). An interesting scribal omission of late date is noted on 2 Chr. xxviii. 20. In passages which are parallel to the older canonical books Chronicles has occasionally preserved a superior reading, e.g. 1 Chr. xx. 4, Heb. and LXX. "there arose war at Gezer" = 2 Sam. xxi. 18, "there was again war at Gob"; or again, 1 Chr. viii. 53, "Eshbaal" = 2 Sam. ii. 8 "Ishbosheth"; or cp. 1 Chr. xiv. 14, note on go not up.

Versions. (1) Greek Versions. What is commonly called the Septuagint (LXX.) of Chronicles is now recognised to be not the original LXX., but a later Greek translation, which most scholars (esp. Torrey, Ezra Studies) consider to be the rendering of Theodotion. [For criticism of the view that it is Theodotion's rendering see the article by Olstead mentioned above.] In the main this rendering is a close reproduction