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