Tradition and Transformation in the Book of Chronicles

This monograph contributes to a better understanding of the Book of Chronicles. The past forty years have seen a complete transformation in the study of the Book of Chronicles. The former domination of Chronicles by parallel texts in the Books of Samuel and Kings made way for studying the historical, sociological, literary, theological, and ideological aspects of Chronicles in their own right. This book/document is now increasingly recognized as being of major interest to the Second Temple Period.
Reading the book of Chronicles, it appears that the Chronicler is constantly transforming Israel's tradition(s) into a new theological and ideological system. In this study, attention is, therefore, paid both to specific texts, such as 1 Chronicles 17; 21; 2 Chronicles 20; 26, and to particular central themes, such as the special function of Jerusalem, and the peculiar way of how the Chronicler presents prophets, war narratives, and genealogies.

Pancratius C. Beentjes, Ph.D (1981) in Theology, Amsterdam, is Professor of Old Testament Exegesis and Hebrew at Tilburg University. He has published extensively on the Book of Chronicles and the Book of Ben Sira (Hebrew Text edition, Brill 1997; Collected Essays, Peeters 2006).

"[This] collection of essays [...] contains stimulating studies which are characterized by sound jugdment and illuminating observations on style and structure of the narratives or parts of the book (Chronicles). The same applies to the cases of innerbiblical exegesis." Bibliotheca Orientalis 69, 5/6 (2012), p. 600.

"This is a very rich volume, which I would say is indispensable for those who specialize in historical-critical studies of Chronicles and in the reconstruction of the intellectual discourse of the community in which this book emerged. It consistently exhibits careful readings and thoughtful analyses. It contains an abundance of proposals, readings, and critiques of commonly accepted positions worthy of much consideration." Ehud Ben Zvi, Biblical Interpretation, 19 (2011)