essentia1ly free from the obscuring influences liable to gather round tho most scrupulous historian who lives in or very near to the times and events ho would describe. Again, the more numerous and abundant the contem- poro.neoue or original sources of information to the hand of the writer of a new shape of history, the more certain would it appear that he must have had some individual or specml object in his mind in writing. Now, if there were none other conceivable, this might have been accepted as sufficient- that Judah should have its written national history to itself, since in itself the succession and vitality of empire now manifestly lay, and since promise and prophecy marked it as the line in which the Messiah was to come. Meantime, to the five-sixths of the whole work occupied almost exclusively with the history of Judah, it was quite natural nevertheless to prefix the general and complete genealogies of the whole people, e.s well as the earliest genealogies of all. Somewhat closer examination, however, of the contents of the work seems abundantly sufficient to indicate additional and very probable explanations of the -writing of it. The theocratic tone is uniformly and much more distinctly audible from beginning to end. Great attention is visibly paid through the whole course of the history to matters of sacerdotal interest, and to matters of an ecclesiastical character generally, and to temple worship. The religious place, privileges, duties of the nation are redeemed to view prominently, and this without the slightest appearance of priestly design and priestly ambition, as has nevertheless been unscrupulously asserted (so De Wette, in his 'Einleitung,' § 190). On the contrary, the exact appearance of what is written is that which might be expected, in the language of such teachers as would make a wise use, and would help others to make a wise use, of the suffering, discipline, and punishment through which, for neglect of those very things, they had been caused to pass. Any historian who belonged himself to the nation, an.d who wrote subsequenUy to the return from the Captivity, whether he were, priest, Levite, or prophet. would surely wish to encourage and restore the spirit of the people. But to this very end he would write also with the desire to reform, would point repeatedly to the causes which had brought the nation to disgrace and ruin, would take every opportunity of holding up to memory the warnings and rebukes and neglected hortatory matter which had been once and again addressed to the decadent nation, and would lay stres9 upon those religious observances which would be strength and safety to the nation in the future. Moreover, with the temple rebuilt, nothing less could be expected than that its services and all its officers and their " courses" should be dwelt upon at considerable length. Now, these are the indications which the work presents. It looks like the charter of the reconstruction of a. shattered kingdom on its proper historical basis-that basis one pre-eminently of an ecclesiastical character or type. There is, indeed, one general pervading aspect belonging to Chronicles, which might well justify the character of ru,pplemental which has xiv INTRODUCTION ·ro been given to it. It may be said to be supplemental, not as to detnils and historical events, but as to restoring the balance of the ecclesiastical by the side of the prophetic.a.I or even political, and bringing to view the Church, which was the real framework of that state. Such seems to be the impression constantly made ; and it is an impression not unfreqnently caused as much by the remarkable omissions (as, for instance, of some of David's greatest offences and sins as an individual, yet non-ecclesiastical in their essence) of the history as by what is present and emphatically recorded. Once more, the satisfactory resettlement, not only of all the force of the civil service, and service of the temple already alluded to, but also of the returned people and families according to the old and time-honoured territorial arrangements, must have often asked e. ready reference to some compendious authority. It may be true enough that the old documents and archives relating in the most authoritative manner to the subject were neither destroyed nor at this time even temporarily lost or mislaid, else how could the materials of the present work have been obtained with sufficient certainty and commanded sufficient confidence ? But the occasions that would arise for referring to such documents must have now been frequent as compared with the generations before the Captivity. And a. propor- tionate need hence sprang up for a. work of easy reference. And, ,further- more, let it be granted that the Chronicles compilation was not completed till after the greater part by far of the returned families had already located themselves as best they could, and the servants and officers of the temple had become reinstated in due course and succession ; yet a com- pendious work, to which reference could easily be made by appointed anthorities, would be of amazing value for preventing strife, affording satisfaction, and proving title in time to come. This is provided manifestly by this book, and it is provided with all the help of the authority which wonld flow from family genealogies of oldest time, and from territorial arrangements of originally Divine appointment. •
§ 7. THE HISTORICAL C~DIBILITY OF TBJ!l WORK'.. The historical credibility of Chronicles and the trustworthiness of the writer have been strenuously attacked. De Wette, in two works (the ' Beitrage ' and ' Einleitung '), has made himself the leader of these attacks. And though, indeed, he has gone far to leave nothing for others to say in the same direction, yet Gramberg and Gesenius have been among his followen, and Theodore Parker, in his translation of the 'Einleitung,' has in some respects even outdone him. These, on the one side, have met with able responders in Dahler, Movers, Keil, Davidson, and Bishop Hervey. The general charges of De Wette are two in number. (1) That the compiler, in an unscrupulous indulgence of strong Levitical prejudices, designedly misleads, writing up everything belonging to Judah that looked in the ecclesiastical direction, and writing down everything belo11ging to 'THE FIR8'r BOOK OF 'fllE ClllW:::HCLES. xv