In 1-2 Chronicles, there are a number of prophetic voices that proclaim Yhwh’s curse upon the king or Israel/Judah, usually foretelling the exile. Only 2 Chr 21:11-20 depicts the curse as being in written form, and only in this passage is the king explicitly cursed with illness. This curse story is also the only story of Elijah in Chronicles. I…[Read more]

It is well-recognized that Chronicles and Ezekiel have opposing views on the suitability of Levites for service in the Jerusalem temple cult. Ezek 44 contains a diatribe against the Levites, while the entire book of Chronicles is an encomium to them. In this paper I focus specifically on 2 Chr 29:34, where the Levites are described as being “more…[Read more]

The motif of the endangered infant is found across a wide variety of eastern Mediterranean cultures (e.g., Sargon of Agade, Cyrus, Moses, Jesus). The story of Joash’s rescue by Jehoshabeath in 2 Chr 22:10-12 (= 2 Kgs 11:1-3) is an abbreviated version of the motif. In this paper, I explore the gendered dynamics of the story as it is retold in C…[Read more]

Entry in one-volume commentary

When we turn to a study of ancient Hebrew narrative, most readers prefer the engaging and artful narratives of Samuel and Kings to the seemingly plodding and pedantic narrative of Chronicles. Recently, however, Chronicles has enjoyed a minor surge of interest. As plodding and pedantic as Chronicles may be, perhaps as boring as Chronicles may be,…[Read more]

In this essay I will discuss the development of the genre of historiography in the Persian
period. In order to do so, I will first outline my understanding of historiography
as a genre, an understanding grounding in the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. I
will then use two approaches, which I will synthesize in order to make a third.

In this article I will intentionally be bringing together Chronicles and Ben Sira. Their relationship will be problematized, and I will be looking for possibilities of using Ben Sira (whose date and context are more easily determined) for furthering our understanding of the genre and context of Chronicles. It will be argued that the Chronicler…[Read more]

The very fi rst work of “history” penned in the Western tradition begins its fi rst
paragraph with setting the context of the work as the confl ict between Greek
and Persian. Herodotus of Halicarnassus, an Ionian Greek from the fringes
of the Persian Empire, constructed his historie as an account of the formation
of Greek identity in rel…[Read more]

Exactly what the title says.

A response to essays in the volume in which it appears.

With the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great in 539 B.C.E. and
the later conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, the axis of power in the ancient
eastern Mediterranean shifted dramatically away from Babylon-to-
Memphis to Persia. Persian military might based on cavalry, Persian ideology
of kingship, Persian political organization, Persian cult and…[Read more]

In this paper I argue that many aspects of the distinctive vocabulary and themes of 1-2 Chronicles reflect Achaemenid ideology as seen in the Testament of Darius. The doctrine of immediate retribution, the motif of seeking-and-finding, the use of the words maʿal and hitḥazzeq, the motif of the deity choosing the king, and other features are d…[Read more]

The accession of Solomon in Chronicles seems to be very different from his accession in
Kings. On a purely literary level, it is an interesting exercise to try to discover how the
Chronicler constructed his version of the beginning of Solomon’s reign. On a larger scale,
we can see this episode as emblematic for how Chronicles was c…[Read more]

In this paper, I situate myself as a reader reading from the former temperance colony of Saskatoon. Taking as my starting point John Kessler’s heuristic device of a Persian-period “charter group” (2006), I ask how my situation in Saskatoon affects how I read the book of Haggai, and how my reading of Haggai affects my understanding of Saskatoon. I…[Read more]

This note explores whether the influence of the Old Persian creation formula as well as its underlying theology can be seen in biblical texts. The particular focus is on Zech 12:1–8 and Isa 42:5–6. While both of these texts use creation language found elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible corpus, the particular content and structure of these texts hav…[Read more]

The recently-excavated garden at Ramat Rahel in the Persian province of Yehud is analyzed as a paradeisos. The visions of the biblical book of Zechariah are set in the paradeisos at Ramat Rahel, with implications for ideology and date.

A discussion of the various accounts of the death of Josiah in the biblical books of Kings and Chronicles. The category of irony is used to describe the version in 2 Chronicles 35.