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What is Chronicles?
        CHRON'ICLES
     In its general signification, this term denotes a chronological history, or an account of facts and events in the order of time. The thirteenth and fourteenth books of the Old Testament, which among the ancient Jews formed only one book, are called the First and Second Book of Chronicles, and are in some sense supplemental to the two books of Kings, which precede them, with this difference -that the Chronicles are written from the sacerdotal point of view and present chiefly the fortunes of Jewish worship, while, the Kings are written from the prophetic view of the history of the theocracy. They appear to have been compiled from the national diaries or journals, and the constant Jewish tradition, which internal evidence supports, is that they were written by Ezra. These voluminous diaries are referred to frequently under different names, 1 Kgs 14:19; 1 Chr 27:24; Esth 2:23, but are not to be confounded with the abstract which constitutes the books to which this article refers. The principal object of the author of these books was to point out, from the public records, the state of the different families before the Captivity and the distribution of the lands among them, that each tribe might, as far as possible, obtain the ancient inheritance of its fathers at its return. So that this portion of the Old Testament may be considered as an epitome of all the sacred history, but more especially of that from the origin of the Jewish nation to their return from the first captivity, embracing a period of nearly 3500 years. The first book traces the rise and propagation of the children of Israel from Adam, together with a circumstantial account of the reign and transactions of David; the second continues the narrative, and relates the progress and dissolution of the kingdom of Judaea (apart from Israel) to the year of the return of the people from Babylon. Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles should be read and compared together, as they relate substantially the same histories, though with different degrees of particularity and with different means of information, so that the whole contains but one history; and what is obscure or defective in one part may be explained or supplied in another.


Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'chronicles' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
bible-history.com - Schaff's

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