Reshaping of Ancient Israelite History in Chronicles, The

The Reshaping of Ancient Israelite History in Chronicles. By Isaac Kalimi. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2005, 473 pp., $48.50.

This book is of particular significance for members of a society whose doctrinal basis is that "[t]he Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs." The Chronicler used as his main source for his history writings that were canonized as prophetic history. Kalimi examines the Chronicler's sources, instructive for the history of the biblical text, in order to "identify and define the literary and historiographical forms and techniques by which the author of Chronicles . .. shaped the texts that he took from Samuel-Kings" (p. 2). He examines the use of various devices used in recounting the history of the Davidic kingdom and their uniqueness in biblical historiography. The Samuel-Kings accounts were "not simply canonical for the Chronicler, who did not treat them as immutable, sealed books that one could only strive to explain and comprehend in their given form" (p. 7). These books served as material for the Chronicler as a historian, who created a new work from existing historiographical materials.

Kalimi has organized his study so as to treat the historiographical emendations first and the literary ones last, with features closely related to both types considered between them. The final chapter gives consideration to modifications introduced by the Chronicler that generated a disharmony with other texts, both within his own work as well as other biblical books. Kalimi categorizes and systematizes the methods of the Chronicler, providing a comprehensive analysis that is helpful in providing a methodological context for individual examples, as well as a comprehensive sense of the historiographical techniques employed in the composition.

Chronicles is arguably one of the most helpful texts in understanding the methods of an ancient historian, because the largest portions of his sources are preserved for us. Even so, at many points the actual procedure of the Chronicler remains a matter of interpretive debate, since his actual text often cannot be known and his own thinking in relation to what he considered a descriptive history must be inferred. An example is the Chronicler declaring that Huram gave Solomon twenty cities, which Solomon rebuilt and resettled with Israelite people (2 Chr 8:2). The source of the Chronicler states the opposite ( 1 Kgs 9:11-13): Solomon gave Huram cities. Kalimi classifies this as an example of removing internal contradictions in Samuel-Kings (pp. 40-42). Kings declares that God had promised Solomon wealth and honor like no other previous king (1 Kgs 3:13); the Chronicler extends this to be true for all kings after Solomon (2 Chr 1:12). The Chronicler also would have regarded it as wrong for Israelite cities to be handed over to foreign rule. According to Kalimi, the Chronicler "touched up" (quotation marks Kalimi's) the narrative in the early historiography to make it say exactly the opposite. However, neither the Kings text nor its interpretation by the Chronicler is self-evident.

The text in Kings is ambiguous on the circumstances of this mercantile activity; the connecting adverb TK is asyndetic (1 Kgs 9:11). Solomon had not reneged on his contract; the territorial allotment was a part of other commercial dealings. If the Chronicler had found this to be an internal contradiction, he could have simply omitted this episode. He does omit the fact that Huram gave Solomon one hundred twenty talents of gold (v. 14), which surely would have admirably suited his purpose. For these reasons there is legitimate question as to how the Chronicler interpreted his text, weighing what for him would have been the historical probability of his source. Throughout, the Chronicler views the relationship between Solomon and Huram as one of superior and subordinate (2 Chr 2:14). That Solomon should have given territory to Huram, and that Huram might have expressed dissatisfaction, would have been improbable to the Chronicler. His statement that Solomon resettled the cities with Israelites is unique in biblical literature. His depiction of such resettlement as part of routine peacetime activity was likely conditioned by his own historical experience. In this respect the Chronicler was not different or less objective than any historian; sources can only be interpreted according to the author's own experience and perceptions.

Kalimi's work is particularly helpful in demonstrating the importance of literary methods used by the Chronicler: "Many of the changes that the Chronicler made in the early sources that he used can be explained, not by a particular opinion or outlook that he may have held, but by the literary technique that he decided to apply" (p. 406). These include many examples of chiastic structures (pp. 215-31), presentation of textual components in an order that is the reverse of another literary context (pp. 232-74), various types of repetition (pp. 275-94), inclusio (pp. 295-324), lines of contrast between the deeds or fate of two characters (pp. 325-49), simile (pp. 350-55), key words (pp. 356-61), use of numbers to mark a decisive component (pp. 362-68), and various ways of moving between general and specific (pp. 369-80). Recognizing such techniques has significant implications for evaluation of sources. For instance, the Chronicler lists David's first four sons as children of Bathsheba, with Solomon being the fourth ( 1 Chr 3:5-8). Samuel-Kings knows of only two sons of Bathsheba. Kalimi shows that this is a numerical literary pattern of three-four, in which the fourth element is made most significant. It is unlikely the Chronicler knows of a separate tradition of the sons of David, or that the phrase "four by Bath-shua, daughter of Ammiel" was a late interpolation. The Chronicler simply wanted to stress the significance of Solomon, the chosen successor to David.