Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/65



GENEALOGIES.

The historical narrative of the books of Chronicles commences in ch. x. with the record of the defeat and death of King Saul on Mt Gilboa.

The first nine chapters are occupied almost entirely by a series of genealogical lists. Starting from the primeval age, the line is traced from Adam to the origin of Israel, showing its place among the nations of the ancient world. Attention is then confined to the descendants of Israel, amongst whom the genealogies of Judah (particularly, the line of David), of Levi, and of Benjamin, are given prominence. Finally the ancestry of Saul, and a list of inhabitants of Jerusalem is recorded.

The modern reader is inclined to regard these statistics as the least important section of the book, but the fact that the bare lists of names are so foreign to our taste should serve at least as a valuable warning of the difference between our outlook and that of the Chronicler. It is in the highest degree important to understand the motives which caused the Chronicler to give these lists of names as the fitting introduction to the history, since the same motives operate throughout the book and determine the standpoint from which the entire history is considered.

(1) In the first place the genealogies were not recorded by the Chronicler simply for the archaeological interest they possess. They served a most practical purpose, in that they helped to determine for the Jewish community of the Chronicler's time what families were of proper Levitical descent and might claim a share in the privileges pertaining thereto, and—on a wider scale—what families might justly be considered to be the pure blood of Israel. How serious the consequences entailed by the absence of a name from such lists might be is well illustrated by Ezra ii. 61—63 (= Neh. vii. 63—65), "the children of Habaiah, the children of Hakkoz sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they deemed polluted and put away from the priesthood." On the other