Understanding Religion - The Book of Second Chronicles (an Exoteric Summary)

Second Chronicles (an Exoteric Summary)

This blog entry is just an "Exoteric" summary of the Book of Second Chronicles (I may throw in some "Esoteric" ideas)

"Exoteric" means "understood by the general populous" compared to "Esoteric" which means "understood by a small group".

The notes for this blog on the book of Second Chronicles have been taken from "The Bible Project," you can listen for yourself here: "The Bible Project First & Second Chronicles"

The version of the Bible I'm reading is called "The Companion Bible" here is a 47 page PDF on the Book of Second Chronicles from the "Companion Bible” - https://www.companionbiblecondensed.com/OT/2Chronicles.pdf

THE BOOK OF SECOND CHRONICLES

Fourteenth Book of the Bible / Fourteenth Book of the Old Testament / The Last Book in the Traditional Jewish Order of the Bible (Concludes the "History" part of the Old Testament)

Chapters: 36

Verses: 822

Name: The book is a written account of events, thus the name "Chronicles", source: https://www.definitions.net/definition/chronicle

The Book of Chronicles was split into two in the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) due to scroll length. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_Chronicles

The Book of Chronicles was written around 400 B.C. ?

The Book of Second Chronicles

The Book of Chronicles summarizes all of the Jewish scripture. 

The first word in Chronicles is "Adam", the first character at the beginning of the story. 

The book of Chronicles was written by somebody several hundred years after the Israelites returned from the Babylonian exile. 

The author of Chronicles reshapes the story of David and Solomon to provide a message of hope for the future.

First Chronicles Summary

Chapters 1 through 9 focuses on Genealogy, summarizing the storyline behind the Old Testament, by naming all the key characters.

The point is to emphasize two key lineages. 

The first lineage is the Messianic Kings all the way to King David, whom the Messianic promise was given.

The second lineage is the Priesthood who lived in the Temple.

One of the two main themes is the hope of a Messiah coming to build a new Temple, which is rooted in these ancient genealogies. 

Chapters 10 to 29 focus on the story of David, but leaves out the negative events that happened to David.

First Chronicles presents new material about David, that does not appear in the book of Samuel, portraying David in a very positive light.

Chapters 22 to 29 focus on David's preparation for the new Temple.

First Chronicles Chapter 17 is a reminder of God's Covenant Promise; here the author of Chronicles points out that David nor Solomon nor any of the other Kings were the Messianic King - The Messianic King will be like David

Second Chronicles

Chapters 1 to 36

Second Chronicles focuses on the Kings that lived in Jerusalem.

Left out from Second Chronicles is the story about the Kings from Northern Israel, focusing only on the line from David. 

Second Chronicles presents new material on these Kings from David's line, highlighting the Kings that were obedient to God. 

The obedience of these Kings leads to success and God's blessing. 

Second Chronicles also features new stories about Kings that were not faithful to God, who didn't follow the Torah and led Israelites to worship idols.

These disobedient Kings face horrible consequences leading up to Israel's exile. 

Character Studies

This is so later generations of Israelites can learn from their family history, so they become faithful to God and the Torah.

Second Chronicles ends with Cyrus, who tells the Israelites they can go back home, return from exile and rebuild the city and the temple

The last verse of the book - "Whoever there is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him and let him go up" (Ending with an incomplete sentence?)

Second Chronicles Summary

The First and Second Book of Chronicles are stories about the past, that provide a hope for the future.

First Chronicles is about the coming Messiah

Second Chronicles is about the future of the Temple.

These are Prophetic Hopes

Chronicles is the final book of the Jewish scriptures encouraging God's people to look back in order to move forward.

The past is the source of hope for the future, a story in search of an ending.