of sacred history" (Prologus in Libros Regum, ed. Vallarsi, ix. 458). The use of the phrase is also suggested by a similar expression (lit. "the book of the Acts of the Days of . . .") found some twenty times in Kings, and commonly rendered "the book of the chronicles of . . ." e.g. 1 Kin. xiv. 19. On the whole. Chronicles is a satisfactory title[1].
Division. The division of Chronicles into two books (as in the English Versions) probably originated in the Septuagint (LXX.); the MSS. a and b both mark the division. It entered the E.V. through the Latin Vulgate. On the other hand, Rabbinical evidence (Talmud, Baba Bathra 15a; and the Masōrah) and the Christian Fathers testify that among the Hebrews the book was undivided: so Origen (apud Eus. Hist. Eccl. vi. 25, 2) and Jerome (Domnioni et Rogatiano).
Position in Canon. In the English Version Chronicles stands next after Kings, the Historical Books being grouped together. This arrangement was derived from the Septuagint through the Latin Vulgate. The order of the Hebrew Bible is different. There the books are arranged in three sections, of which the first contains the Books of the Pentateuch, the second includes the Historical Books from Joshua to Kings, while the third (Heb. "Kĕthūbhīm") contains Chronicles. The books of this third section seem to have been the last to receive Canonical Authority among the Jews. Kings thus appears to have been taken into the Canon before Chronicles.
In the Hebrew Bible the "Kĕthūbhīm" (Hagiographa) are usually arranged thus:—first the Poetical Books (Psalms, Proverbs, Job), next the Five Rolls or Megillōth (Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther), and lastly the three books Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles. This is the usual Hebrew tradition, though it is surprising to find Ezra (which begins with the closing verses of Chronicles) put before
- ↑ It is, however, open to the objection that an inexperienced reader may make the mistake of supposing that these references in Kings to "the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel [Judah]" are references to the canonical Chronicles.
