CHRISTOLOGY

Interest is the true bond of society, but the brotherhood of love. How to produce and secure such brotherhood remains the difficulty for the statesmen of the world. But Jesus, who first gave clear utterance to this great social law, also furnished the sufficient motive for giving effect to it within His own Kingdom. His love to them inspires His disciples to love one another (Jn 13" 15'*), and also to love all men after the example of the Divine 'phUanthropy' (Mt 5'^- ||; cf. Tit 3S Ro 5«). And so the faith in Christ which in the ethical sphere blossoms into obedience to God, fills the social sphere with the bloom and fragrance of a universal love to man. Thus once more we are brought back to Him who is at once the object of Christian faith and its 'leader and per-tecter' (He 12^). And whether we think of Christianity as revealed or reaUzed, as a historical manifestation of the Divine or a present human experience, we may justly say that it is all comprehended in Jesus Christ Himself. J. C. Lambert.

CHRISTOLOGY.— See Person of Christ.

CHRONICLES, I. AND II.— 1 . Position in Canon.—

It is quite clear from linguistic and other considerations that Chron.-Ezr.-Neh. originally formed one book. As the first part of this large work dealt with a period which was already covered by Samuel and Kings, it was omitted, to begin with, in the formation of the Canon; while the latter part of the book, dealing with the ecclesiastical life of Jerusalem after the Exile, was granted a place. Only as the Uturgical and ritual interest became more and more strong was it seen that Chron. contained matter of special importance from that point of view. Hence the book was included in the Canon after Ezr. and Neb., which had originally formed its second and concluding portion. In the English Bible, which follows the LXX, the original order has been restored, but Chron. is the last book in the Hebrew canon. Its Hebrew name is Dibhre HayyUmim, i.e. 'the Annals.' The LXX entitled it the Paraieipomena, or 'things left out,' a reference to the fact that Chron. contains much not found in the earUer narratives of Samuel and Kings. Our word 'Chronicles' is the Anglicized form of Chronicon, the name given to the book by Jerome in translating Dibhre Hayyamim.

2. Aim. — The key to the understanding and estima-tion of Chron. lies in a clear grasp of its aim. It is not history, as we understand the term, but history rewritten from a late standpoint, with the intention of carrying back into a remote past the origin of customs which the writer considered to be vital tor true faith. He is concerned with the history of Judah, and that history interests him only in so far as it has special reference to the worship and institutions of the second Temple. This determines his choice of matter, and the treatment of such facts as he selects. The Northern Kingdom, politically so much more important than the kingdom of Judah, hardly comes within his range of view, and is referred to only when the narrative absolutely necessitates it.

3. Contents. — With this clue the contents of the book are easily grouped.

(i) 1 Oh 1-9, Adam to the death of Saul. These chapters are filled mainly with genealogical tables, but even in these the ecclesiastical interest is supreme. Judah and Levi have the greatest space given to them (23-42» 6).

(ii) 1 Ch 10-29, from the death of Saul to the acces-sion of Solomon.

(iii) 2 Ch 1-9, the reign of Solomon.

(iv) 2 Ch 10-36, from the division of the kingdom down to the fall of Jerusalem, and the restoration edict of Cyrus.

The material is most carefully chosen, with the object of bringing out the importance of Judah, the greatness of the line of David, the reUgious value of Jerusalem,

CHRONICLES, I. AND II.

and the position of the Levites. A comparison of the narrative in Chron. with the earlier narratives of Samuel and Kings will do more than anything else to convince the reader of the pragmatism of the Chronicler.

(a) Omissions in Chronicles. — The whole career of Samuel; the reign of Saul, except its close; the struggle David had to estabUsh himself on the throne; the story of Uriah and Bathsheba; the story of Amnon and Tamar; Absalom's rebellion and David's flight; the characteristically Oriental intrigues attending Solomon's accession; his alliances with foreign women and his idolatries in later life; his struggle against disaffection and rebellion; practically the entire history of the Northern Kingdom; — all these sections are omitted, with the view of suppressing what might be held to be discreditable to the religious heroes.

(6) The additions to the narrative show how the Chronicler's thoughts ran. He gives, as we should have expected, full statistical lists (1 Ch 12) ; he describes at length matters that have to do with the gradual elevation of the sanctuary at Jerusalem (1 Ch 13. 15. 16); he details the ordering of the Temple ministry and the genealogies of its members (1 Ch 22-29). There is a large class of additions connected with ritual, and especially with musical matters, a fact which has led to the suggestion that the writer was perhaps one of the musicians (2 Ch 6"- " 7<- '■ « 13'-i2 IT'- ' 20"- »)• He so handles historical events as to make them bear out his particular theory of the working of Providence. To love God is to be blessed ; to sin against God is im-mediately to feel the pressure of His hand ; the reUgious meaning of particular events is pointed out to the wrong-doers by prophets of the Lord (1 Ch 10"- ", 2 Ch 122 133-21 151-15 167-12 20" 21i"- «-"). In 2 Ch 8" the removal of the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Solomon had married, from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, is said to have been occasioned by the house of David having become too holy because of the coming of the ark. The compiler of Kings assigns no such reason for the removal to the new house (1 K 3' 7' 9^). It was a stumbling-block to the later writer that so bad a king as Manasseh should have enjoyed so long a reign, and so he is described as latterly a penitent, although Kings has no thought of any such change (cf. 2 Ch 33"-" with 2 K 21 and Jer 15<).

(c) Alterations have been made in the narrative with the view of removing what seemed offensive to the later age. Kings distinctly says that Asa and Jehosha-phat did not abolish the high places, although they did what was right in the sight of the Lord (1 K 15" 22"). Such a conjunction of well-doing with idolatry is incredible to the Chronicler, so he says that the high places were abolished by these kings (2 Ch 1# 17^). He finds it necessary to change several narratives in the interests of the Levites, who were not assigned so important a place in matters of ritual under the monarchy as in the days when he was writing (cf . 1 Ch 13. IS with 2 S 6; 2 Ch 5' with 1 K 8'). According to the original account (2 K 11), Jehoiada was assisted in his rebellion against Athaliah by the foreign bodyguard. In 2 Ch 23 the bodyguard is replaced by the Levites. The rule of the second Temple did not allow aliens to approach so near to the sacred things.

Occasionally there is a misunderstanding of the older narrative. 1 K 22<' tells how Jehoshaphat built ' Tar-shish-ships,' i.e. large sea-going vessels such as were used by the Phoenicians for their trade on the Medi-terranean, for the South Arabian gold trade. The Chronicler thinks that 'Tarshish-ships' means 'ships to go to Tarshish' (2 Ch 20").

4. Historicity. — It is thus evident that Chron. is not to be considered as history, in the sense in which we now use the word. The events of the time with which the writer deals have been treated in a particular religious interest. Some tacts have been stated not simply as

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