The Theology of the Chronicler

A Human Tabernacle

Paul views Israel’s temple as an essentially human structure, fulfilled in believers on earth as they worship the God of heaven. Yet Paul’s theology isn’t an NT innovation; it’s deeply rooted in the Hebrew Bible, particularly in the book of Chronicles.

Introduction

Chronicles is few people’s favourite book. The index to Walter Moberley’s ‘Old Testament Theology’ contains over 600 OT references, only two of which come from the book of Chronicles, and neither of them has anything to do with its genealogical material. Yet the text of I Chr. 1–9 is a remarkable composition, rich with symbolic and theological import. Below, I’ll try to explain why I think so.

First of all, let’s think about the general content and method of I Chr. 1–9. The text begins its account of Israel’s history with Adam, which seems a logical enough place to begin. From there, it descends the line of promise. Its method is to (progressively) peel away the line’s offshoots and hence zoom in on the people of God.

Initially, the Chronicler takes us from Adam down to Noah. At that point, the line of promise divides into three distributaries, headed up by Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The Chronicler deals with Japheth and Ham’s descendants (in summary fashion). He then takes up his main focus—Shem’s line, the chosen line.

Next, the Chronicler takes us from Shem down to Abraham, whose descendants form a large pool of possible inheritors of Abraham’s promise—the sons of Isaac, the sons of Ishmael, and the sons of Keturah. As before, the Chronicler peels away the offshoots (the sons of Ishmael and Keturah) and zooms in on Isaac’s.

And so things continue.

Israel

We thus come to the twelve sons of Jacob (2.1), which the Chronicler lists and then loops through one at a time. First we have Judah’s family tree,……

…then Reuben’s,…

…and so on until, in ch. 9, the Chronicler’s genealogies conclude with the words ‘And so all Israel was genealogised’ (or, for those who prefer verbs which actually exist in the English language, ‘enrolled’).

The flow of chs. 1–9 is thus carefully crafted; it recounts the work of the God of heaven in the history of the earth. From a tangled mass of people, God chooses out a single line/branch, and in chs. 2–8 that line comes into bloom and fills the promised land with Abraham’s descendants. As such, the threat which underlies chs. 2–8, and which marks an end of each tribal genealogy, is clear: exile (see I Chr. 5.26, 6.15, 9.1, etc.). Exile leaves the land desolate of Abraham’s seed and hands it back to the beasts/nations to become wild and unkempt (Isa. 5, Dan. 7).

Genealogies as History

While, therefore, the text of I Chr. 1–9 is historical and genealogical, it is not merely historical and/or genealogical. The Chronicler charts out the course of history in a highly patterned way. By way of illustration, recall the flow of events outlined below. From Adam, we descend to Noah, at which point we take up the history of one of three tributaries (Shem’s), all of which leads us down to Abraham and opens out into a pool of 19 possible inheritors of Abraham’s promise.

In ch. 2, a similarly shaped course of history unfolds within Judah’s line. From Judah, we descend to Hezron, at which point we take up the history of one of three tributaries (Ram’s as opposed to Caleb and Jerahmeel’s: 2.9, 10, 25, 42), all of which which leads us down to David and a pool of 19 possible inheritors of the promise (ultimately to be taken forward by Solomon’s line: 3.10ff.).

These parallels are no coincidence. The Chronicler even counts David’s sons for us in order to make sure we haven’t missed them. (‘These were born to David in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, four by Bath-Shua’, etc.).

What has been writ large on the stage of world history is recapitulated within the line of Judah. The command to be fruitful and fill the land is handed down from Adam to Noah to Abraham (Gen. 1.28, 9.1, 17.2, etc.) (in the last case in the form of a promise). In Egypt, Israel becomes fruitful (Gen. 47.27, Exod. 1.7), and, in I Chr. 2–8, they fill the promised land.

More on the Twelve Tribes

Just as the Chronicler’s account of Adam and Judah’s descendants is highly patterned, so too is his account of Israel’s tribes. Each tribal genealogy/family-tree is introduced with the words ‘the sons of X’ where X is a tribal head. The text of chs. 2–8 thus has a clearly defined structure and shape. And, importantly, what gives it its structure is its quirks. Judah’s genealogy is set out in two distinct phases, and Asher’s genealogy runs straight into Benjamin’s without the standard introduction (‘The sons of Benjamin’), and these quirks cause the text’s genealogies to adopt a twelve-fold structure (which symbolically represents all Israel).

Needless to say, that structure is significant. One thing it brings out is the centrality of the Levites in Israel. The twelve tribes are (symbolically) gathered around the Levites, who are themselves gathered around the ark, charged with its ministry. Israel’s community revolves around the worship of God and depends on it for its very life.

Also important to note is the Levites’ ‘heavenly orientation’. While the twelve tribes’ genealogies *descend* from their patriarchal head, the description of the Levites’ priesthood begins in the present day (6.33ff.) and ascend upwards to Levi. In figurative terms, then, the Levites represent Israel before their God in heaven. By way of illustration, one might consider the work of the high priest. Just as the high priest enters God’s presence with six tribes on his left shoulder and six on his right, so the Chronicler’s Levites minister at the Tabernacle, with six tribes on their left and six on their right (6.31).

Far more can and should be said about the layout of the Chronicler’s tribes. Particularly important to note given our present purposes, however, are three inter-related properties which they possess.

Property #1: The Chroniclers’ tribes needn’t be thought of as two groups of six. Since Judah’s clans are covered in two separate passes, they can equally well be thought of as a group of five and a group of six. True, that may seem a rather trivial observation in and of itself, but it will turn out to be a significant detail.

Property #2: The Chroniclers’ tribes are ‘coupled together’ at Jerusalem. As we have noted, the text of chs. 2–8 is highly geographical in nature; it covers Israel territory by territory and describes the way the tribes ‘fill up’ the land. Consequently, in ch. 4, Jabez prays about the expansion of his territory, and people are said to father not only sons and daughters, but cities (e.g., Hur fathers Bethlehem, Ashur fathers Tekoa, Maresha fathers Hebron, which goes on to have sons, etc.). Central to all these events is the conquest of Jerusalem: in the 33rd generation of world history, David establishes his throne in Jerusalem, where he reigns for 33 years, followed by his descendants (3.10ff.). And, significantly, a branch of the Benjaminites settle opposite them in Jerusalem. (‘These were the heads of houses, clan by clan, chief men; these lived in Jerusalem’: 8.28).

The Chronicler’s tribes thus have a distinctly chiastic structure. They end where they begin, interlocked.

Property #3: The aforementioned property of the Chronicler’s tribes is underscored by a fifty-fold headcount which serves to connect Judah and Benjamin’s Jerusalem-based lines. Here’s how.

The Chronicler accompanies the line of promise with explicit headcounts—‘Judah had five sons in all’, ‘the sons of Zerah, five in all’, etc.—, which he doesn’t do because he’s doubtful of his readers’ ability to count. (Consider, by way of analogy, how the ages of Seth’s descendants are recorded in the book of Genesis, while those of Cain’s descendants aren’t: Gen. 4–5.) Such numbers deserve to be added up. And, when we oblige them, they yield a total of 53, which reduces to 50 once we consider three important divine interventions in Judah’s history, namely the deaths of Er, Onan, and Achan. (Particular individuals are not infrequently excluded from the Bible’s headcounts. For instance, Matthew excludes certain kings from his count of 14, and, more relevantly, Jacob’s list of descendants excludes Er and Onan from its headcounts of 66 and 70 [Gen. 46.12, 15]. It does not, therefore, seem inappropriate to exclude Er, Onan, and Achan from our headcount of 53. All three men were slain at the Lord’s word and hence excised from Judah’s number.)

Of course, in and of itself, the headcounts of 53 and 50 associated with Judah’s Jerusalem-bound line may not seem very noteworthy, but, curiously, the Jerusalem-bound branch of Benjamin’s genealogy contains exactly 53 names,…

…and these 53 names yield a headcount of 50, since three of them turn out to be alternative names for people who’ve already been mentioned (as many commentaries on Chronicles recognise).

To sum up, then, in the paragraphs above, we’ve considered three distinct properties of the Chronicler’s tribes: i] they form a group of five and a group of six, ii] they form a ‘wrap-around’ (insofar as they begin and end in the same place), and iii] their first and last genealogies are built around a fifty-fold headcount.

These properties, I claim, are inter-related, and are highly significant. By way of demonstration, keep their numbers in mind and read through Exodus 26’s description of the cover of the Tabernacle.

Just as the Tabernacle’s curtains consist of a group of five and a group of six, so too do the Chronicler’s tribes. Just as the two sets of curtains are to be coupled together, so the two groups of tribes couple together at Jerusalem. And, just as the outermost curtains are to be fitted with fifty loops, so the outermost genealogies of the Chronicler’s tribes are connected by means of a fifty-fold headcount. The parallels are hard to miss, and we have a reason to expect them to exist, since, like the curtains, the Chronicler’s tribes are ‘wrapped around’ the Levites, by which token they cover the ark and Tabernacle (6.31ff.).

Furthermore, Exodus 26 describes the curtains with a curiously human turn of phrase. Just as the Benjaminites are said to live ‘opposite their brothers’ in Jerusalem, so the loops for the curtains are to be lined up with one another (literally) ‘each woman opposite her sister’ (אִשָּׁה אֶל־אֲחֹתָהּ). The Chroniclers’ layout of Israel’s tribes thus embodies a remarkable pattern—one which is: a] tightly defined by literary markers, and b] heavily reliant on the specific quirks/oddities of the Chronicler’s text (e.g., the combination of Asher and Benjamin’s genealogies, the inclusion of particular headcounts in Judah’s genealogy, etc.). Furthermore, it is a pattern which carries a serious amount of theological freight and might just have been noticed by, say, a Torah-saturated Benjaminite tent-maker who spent a considerable amount of time in Jerusalem.

Final Thoughts

Israel’s temple is described as a structure of immense value, both to man and to God, and yet it finds its ultimate fulfilment in a human structure, since the most valuable things in our world are people. Worship is a human activity, offered by humans to their Maker, and it rises to its highest form when carried out in a community united by a single purpose and object of devotion. Appropriately, then, the New Testament sees the fulfilment of the Temple in fundamentally human terms—i.e., in the person of Jesus Christ and those who worship him—, which it does not do in opposition to the Hebrew Bible, but in accord with its deep-seated structure and symbolism.