Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear James,

> So the mechanism for the additional parts in the Chronicler's history would
> have to be oral tradition which was presumably handed down by word of mouth
> within the priesthood???


HH: The mechanism would not necessarily be oral tradition. The NIV 
Study Bible adds:

In his recounting of history long past the Chronicler relied on many 
written sources. About half his work was taken from Samuel and Kings; 
he also drew on the Pentateuch, Judges, Ruth, Psalms, Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, Lamentations and Zechariah (though he used texts of these 
books that varied somewhat from those that have been preserved in the 
later standardized Hebrew texts). And there are frequent references 
to still other sources: "the book of the kings of Israel" (9:1; 2Ch 
20:34; cf. 2Ch 33:18), "the book of the annals of King David" 
(27:24), "the book of the kings of Judah and Israel" or ". . . of 
Israel and Judah" (2Ch 16:11; 25:26; 27:7; 28:26; 32:32; 35:27; 
36:8), "the annotations on the book of the kings" (2Ch 24:27). It is 
unclear whether these all refer to the same source or to different 
sources, and what their relationship is to Samuel and Kings or to the 
royal annals referred to in Kings. In addition, the author cites a 
number of prophetic writings: those of "Samuel the seer" (29:29), 
"Nathan the prophet" (29:29; 2Ch 9:29), "Gad the seer" (29:29), 
"Ahijah the Shilonite" (2Ch 9:29), "Iddo the seer" (2Ch 9:29; 12:15; 
13:22), "Shemaiah the prophet" (2Ch 12:15), "the prophet Isaiah" (2Ch 
26:22), "the seers" (2Ch 33:19). All these he used, often with only 
minor changes, to tell his own story of the past. He did not invent, 
but he did select, arrange and integrate his sources to compose a 
narrative "sermon" for postexilic Israel as she struggled to reorient 
herself as the people of God in a new situation.

                                        Yours,
                                        Harold Holmyard