42 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
|
+++
|
|||
|
|
title = "1 Chronicles 3:1–24"
|
|||
|
|
date = "2023-09-04"
|
|||
|
|
+++
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/1Chronicles3.1-24)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The descendants of Judah have been listed, up to the generation of David, more
|
|||
|
|
or less. Now the focus zooms in on the line of the kings. First, David's sons
|
|||
|
|
are listed, arranged by their birthplace and their mothers. Bath-shua's (that
|
|||
|
|
is, Bathsheba) sons are not listed in birth order, as Solomon is the second of
|
|||
|
|
her son's mentioned in 2 Samuel (and the only one named). Her first died due to
|
|||
|
|
the judgement on David's sin concerning her husband Uriah. Most of David's
|
|||
|
|
children are not mentioned elsewhere, but the ones that are don't have
|
|||
|
|
well-known stories for good reasons.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
From here, brothers and sisters are not mentioned as the genealogy follows
|
|||
|
|
direct descent from Solomon to Josiah. After Josiah, the kingdom of Judah does
|
|||
|
|
not pass cleanly from father to son because of foreign influence, from both
|
|||
|
|
Egypt and Babylon. A king would be deposed and his brother set up in his place,
|
|||
|
|
or his uncle in some cases. Eventually Judah is fully conquered and the royal
|
|||
|
|
family is taken captive while Jeconiah (a.k.a. Jehoiachin in 2 Kings) was king.
|
|||
|
|
This genealogy establishes that Zerubbabel is in the line of David. This
|
|||
|
|
Zerubbabel was the leader of the exiles who returned to rebuild Jerusalem.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There seems to be some debate about whether the families listed in verses 21 to
|
|||
|
|
24 are desendend from each other or are other Davidic families contemporary
|
|||
|
|
with Zerubbabel. The impetus for this view is an early date for the text, close
|
|||
|
|
to the time of Zerubbabel's life. This seems too much like _eisegesis_ to me,
|
|||
|
|
imposing a meaning onto the text, when what we want to be doing is _exegesis_,
|
|||
|
|
extracting meaning out of the text. This text lists the sons of a father, picks
|
|||
|
|
one of those sons and names his sons, over and over. I believe there is still
|
|||
|
|
enough time between the return of the exiles and the reconstruction of the
|
|||
|
|
temple and the proposed date of the compilation of Ezra-Nehemiah (they were
|
|||
|
|
originally one book) for the author of 1 Chronicles to know about 6 generations
|
|||
|
|
after Zerubbabel and also be Ezra himself. The Chronicler wasn't necessarily
|
|||
|
|
Ezra either, but that is the tradition.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* * *
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Your words are true forever.
|