The only serious objection to their authorship by Ezra is the fact (above noticed) that certain geneal- ogies (e. g. of Zerabbabel (1 Chron. iii, 19-24 ; comp. that of the high-priests, Neh. xii, 11) are continued much later than his time ; but these few verses may have been inserted by a later hand, without affecting his general authorship, just as the notice of the death of Moses (Deut. xxxiv) must liave been added to the Pentateuch by another hand than his own. See Cak- ON (of Scripture).
y . Sccpe and Method,— -Th^ books of Chronicles, as compared with those of Kings, are more didactic than historical. The historical tendency is subordinated to the (Mdadic. Indeed, the purely historic form appears to be preserved only in so far as it presented an appro- priate medium for those religious and moral observa- tions which the author specially aimed to adduce. Samuel and Kings are more occupied with the relation of poUHcal occurrences, while the Chronicles furnish detailed accounts of ecclesiastical institutions. Thus 1 Chron. xvii, 11-14, compared with 2 Sam. viii, 12-16, manifests more distinctly the Messianic character of the promises made to David (see Pye, Script. Testimo- ny^ 1, 171). So, too, in the genealogical table, while no place is given to some of the tribes, as Dan and Asher, that of Judah in the line of David is traced down to the writer's own time (1 Chron. i, 1-27 ; ii, 1, 3-15; iii), beyond any other historical notice of the O. T., and connecting with the genealogy of Christ (Matt. i). See Genealoot.
The ftlan of these books, of which the book of Ezra is a continuation, forming one work, immediately be- comes apparent if we consider it as the compilation of Elzra, or some one nearly contemporary with him. One of the greatest difficulties connected with the Captivity and the return must have been the main- tenance of that genealogical distribution of the lands which yet was a vital point of the Jewish economy. Ac6ordingly it appears to have been one to which both Ezra and Nehemiah gave their earnest attention, as David, Hezekiah, and other kings had done before them. Another difficulty intimately connected with this was the maintenance of the Temple services at Jerusalem. This could only be effected by the resi- dence of the priests and Levites in Jemsalem in the order of their courses ; and this residence was only practicable in case of the payment of the appointed tithes, first-ftTiits, and other offerings. As soon as theM ceased the priests and Levites were obliged to
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disperse to their own villages to obtain a liveliliood, and the Temple services were neglected. But then, again, the registers of the Levitical genealogies were necessary in order that it might be known who were entitled to such and such allowances, as porters, as singers, as priests, and so on, because all these offices went by families; and, again, the payment of the tithes, first-fruits, etc., was dependent upon the differ- ent families of Israel being established each in his in- heritance. Obviously, therefore, one of the most pressing wants of the Jewish community after their return from Babylon would be trusty genealogical records, and if there were any such in e^tence, the arrangement and publication of them would be one of the greatest services a person in Ezra's situation could confer. But ftirther, not only had Zerubbabel (Ezra iii, V, vi), and after him Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra ii, viii ; Neh. vii, viii), labored most earnestly in the teeth of immense difficulties to restore the Temple and the public worship of God there to the condition it had been in under the kings of Judah, but it appears clear- ly from their policy, and fh>m the language of the contemporary prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, that they had it much at heart to reinfuse something of national life* and spirit into the bosom of the people, and to make them feel that they were still the inherit- ors of God*s covenanted mercies, and that the Captiv- ity bad only temporarily interrupted, not dried up, the stream of God's fiivor to their nation. Now nothing could more effectually aid these pious and patriotic designs than setting before the people a compendious history of the kingdom of David, which should em- brace a frill account of its prosperity, should trace the sins which led to its overthrow, but should carry the thread through the period of the Captivity, and con- tinue it, as it were,' unbroken on the other side ; and those passages in their former history would be espe- cially important which exhibited their greatest and best kings as engaged in building or restoring the Temple, in reforming all corruptions in religion, and zealously regulating the services of the house of God. As regards the kingdom of Israel or Samaria, seeing it had utterly and hopelessly passed away, and that the existing inhabitants were among the bitterest *' ad- versaries of Judah and Benjamin," it would naturally engage very little of the compiler's attention. These considerations explain exactly the design of that his- torical work whidi consists of the two books of Chron- icles and the book of Ezra. For, after having in the first eight chapters given the genealogical divisions and settlements of Uie various tribes, the compiler marks distinctly his own age and his own purpose by informing us, in ch. ix, 1, of the disturbance of those settlements by the Babylonish Captivity, and, in the following verses, of the partial restoration of them at the return from Babylon (2-24) ; and that this list re- fers to the families who had returned from Babylon is clear, not only from the context, but from its reinser- tbn, Neh. xi, 3-22, with additional matter evidently extracted from the public archives, and. relating to times subsequent to the return frx>m Babylon, extend- ing to Neh. xii, 27, where Nehemiah's narrative Is again resumed in continuance with Neh. xi, 2. Hav- ing thus shown the re-establishment of the returned fiimllies, each in their own inheritance according to the houses of their fathers, the compiler proceeds to the other part of his plan, which is to give a continu- ous histor}' of the kingdom of Judah from David to his own times, introduced by the closing scene of Saul's life (ch. x), which introduction is itself prefaced by a genealogy of the house of Saul (ix, 85-44), extracted from the genealogical tables drawn up in the reign of king Hezekiah, as is at once manifest by counting the thirteen or fourteen generations, from Jonathan to the sons of Azel inclusive, exactly corresponding to the fourteen from David to Hezekiah inclusive. This part of the plan extends tnym 1 Chron. ix, 85, to the end of