Africa and Africans in the Books of Chronicles

Currents in Theology and Mission, August, 2004 by Ralph W. Klein

The Chronicler solves this theological problem and turns the African Neco into a type of prophet. Neco warns Josiah that God had commanded him to hurry toward Mesopotamia and that Josiah should therefore cease from opposing Neco or he would be destroyed (2 Chr 35:21). Josiah tried to disguise himself during the battle (a detail not mentioned in Kings), a trick that did not help him any more than it helped Ahab, who had tried the same strategy in another ill-fated battle (1 Kgs 22:30). The Chronicler notes: "Josiah did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but joined battle in the plain of Megiddo" (2 Chr 35:22). Josiah was therefore struck by archers and taken to Jerusalem where he died. Neco, like Huram and the queen of Sheba before him, acknowledges the God of Israel, who sent him on a military campaign. Josiah gets his just reward for disobeying an oracle of Yahweh, delivered by Neco, and his death no longer raises questions about Yahweh's reliability. A few verses later Neco deposes Josiah's son Jehoahaz and replaces him with his brother Eliakim, whose name he changes to Jehoiakim (2 Chr 36:3-4).

Trade with Africa

The Egyptians were neighbors of Israel, (26) and therefore the two nations were of economic importance to each another. Both Chronicles and Kings record international trade that involved both Israel and Egypt in the time of Solomon (2 Chr 1:16-17, 9:28//1 Kgs 10:28-29). (27) We are told in these passages that Solomon imported horses from Egypt and Cilicia. (28) The royal traders of Solomon seem also to have been involved in ancient wheeling and dealing. They imported chariots and horses from Egypt and traded them on to the Neo-Hittite and Aramean kingdoms to their north and northeast. (29) Solomon seems to have included chariots in Israel's military arsenal, whereas his father David hamstrung chariot horses that he captured in war (1 Chr 18:4//2 Sam 8:4).

Conclusion

Naturally we would like to know more about the relationship of Israel to Africa and Africans in the fourth century B.C.E. But the Chronicler does show that these neighbors were no strangers to one another, that genealogically at least their territories were related to one another (through Canaan the son of Ham), that God could use an Egyptian as his agent of judgment (Shishak) or as his mouthpiece (Neco), and that Egypt and Israel were economically dependent on one another (Solomon's trading with Egypt). The kingdoms that befriended Solomon--Tyre and Sheba--both had African connections.

The Chronicler needed information about Africa and Africans to tell his story about Israel completely. As Pete Pero has demonstrated many times, no one can tell the story of Lutheranism credibly either without including Africans and African Americans in the account.

1. At the time of the Chronicler there was a Jewish military colony at Elephantine in Egypt, and many documents have been preserved from this colony that show interaction with Egyptians and with the authorities in Jerusalem. For general background on the question discussed in this article, see Edwin M. Yamauchi, Africa and the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), and Peter T. Nash, Reading Race, Reading the Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003).