1 and 2 Chronicles. Vol. 2, 2 Chronicles 10-36: Guilt and Atonement

Abstract

I 2 Chronicles. Vol. 1, 1 Chronicles 1-2 Chronicles 9: Israel's Place Among Nations, by William Johnstone. JSOTSup 253. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997. Pp. 411. N.P. 1 2 Chronicles. Vol. 2, 2 Chronicles 10-36: Guilt Atonement, by William Johnstone. JSOTSup 254. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997. Pp. 300. N.P. Given explosion of academic study of biblical text, classical critical philological commentaries have tended to become scribal affairs. Unless commentator is extremely diligent, contemporary scholarship, rather than biblical text itself, becomes main dialogue partner for commentator-and reader of commentary. The length of commentaries grows, yet biblical text itself becomes a more distant voice, submerged beneath cacophony of contemporary discussions. William Johnstone seeks to avoid this dilemma is his 700 plus page commentary on 1 2 Chronicles by selectively engaging contemporary scholarship essentially forgoing a scholarly apparatus as he presents his reading of Chronicles to his audience. Yet his intent is not to present a postmodern exercise in ideology of reading; Johnstone seeks to write the inductive description of material in work itself, written with as few preconceptions as possible about what theme or themes may turn out to (vol. 1, p. 377). He methodically utilizes a concordance to trace use of language within Chronicles rest of Hebrew Bible, especially Leviticus, to construct message of text, while comparing Chronicles to its Vorlage in Samuel-Kings. Johnstone helpfully summarizes his basic reading of Chronicles in introductions to each volume (vol. 1, pp. 9-23; vol. 2, pp. 9-20). The bulk of commentary develops general hypothesis that historiographic genre of Chronicles masks its deeper function as a theological work related to midrash, written for the edification of community (vol. 1, p. 23). According to Johnstone, in 1 Chronicles 1-9, Chronicler spells out universal of God humanity, how Israel finds its place amidst nations in response to breakdown of this relationship. 1 Chronicles 10-2 Chronicles 9 presents Israel attempting to achieve its ideal amidst nations, sacramentally representing sovereignty of God amidst nations through Davidic dynasty. Yet even here, failure is seen on horizon. As a consequence, 2 Chronicles 10-36 engages exilic situation of Chronicler's original audience to understand Israel's failure and to look beyond it to conditions for eventual recognition of God's sovereignty on earth, which will solve problem of relationship betwen God human with which work began (vol. 2, p. 11). The Chronicler thus subordinates Jerusalemite royal tradition to levitical theology of Temple its rites in anticipation of eschatological fulfillment of God's sacramental sovereignty exercised over all creation. Despite Johnstone's claim to investigate inductively Chronicles with minimal presuppositions, his reading operates with a very strong, conservative, questionable MT bias. Indeed, he produces a commentary on MT of Chronicles, confusing it with its textual predecessors. Johnstone consistently works with MT paragraphing as significant to his interpretation; textual criticism in work is basically nonexistent-the MT as textus receptus is judged to be historically superior. More seriously, he rejects Qumran textual evidence for Vorlage of Chronicles in his redactional comments, arguing that the reader is presented with two given texts-Samuel-Kings C-and these two texts will endure as received texts for interpretation. …