Holman Old Testament Commentary - 1st & 2nd Chronicles

Winfried Corduan, Max Anders

• Publisher: Holman Reference
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9780805494686
• eBook ISBN: 9781433674303
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

One in a series of twenty Old Testament verse-by-verse commentary books edited by Max Anders. Includes discussion starters, teaching plan, and more. Great for lay teachers and pastors alike.

1 Chronicles 1:1–54

The Roots of God's People:
From Adam to Jacob

I. INTRODUCTION

The Power of Discovering Your Roots

II. COMMENTARY

A verse-by-verse explanation of the chapter.

III. CONCLUSION

How to Fix Shoes

An overview of the principles and applications from the chapter.

IV. LIFE APPLICATION

A Reluctant Evangelist

Melding the chapter to life.

V. PRAYER

Tying the chapter to life with God.

VI. DEEPER DISCOVERIES

Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.

VII. TEACHING OUTLINE

Suggested step-by-step group study of the chapter.

VIII. ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

Zeroing the chapter in on daily life.

“Are you the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of
Eve?” the Beaver said. “We're some of them,” said Peter.

C. S. Lewis

The Israelites could trace their descent from Adam to Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes, by way of Seth, Noah, and Abraham. Just as they could look back on a great heritage, so we can look back on a heritage of God's grace in the lives of people who came before us. Just as they needed to live up to God's calling, so we need to pass the treasure of God's gospel on to the next generation.

The Roots of God's People:
From Adam to Jacob

I. INTRODUCTION

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The Power of Discovering Your Roots

In 1977 large television audiences watched a miniseries based on the book Roots by Alex Haley. This noted African-American author had traced back his ancestry and was now telling the story of his own family background. He began this family history with an African man named Kunta Kinte, who was enslaved and transported to the United States. Haley then followed the fortune of Kunta Kinte's descendants, his own forebears, up to the time of emancipation. It was a story of personal strength as well as human weakness, and it exposed much of the cruelty to which Africans were subjected as slaves in America.

Many analysts were surprised by the intensity with which people reacted to this program. African-Americans all over the country, reminded of how their ancestors had been abused, restated their grievances. Many white Americans once again confessed their guilt and sorrow over the events of the past.

People identify not only with their personal past, but also with the past of their ancestors. If their forefathers were treated badly, they still feel the offense, and if an earlier generation accomplished great things, they take pride in those deeds. How we think of ourselves is often influenced by how we think of our ancestors.

Genealogies can help us uncover the history of our people, and thus our own history. The first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles are primarily genealogies, and no one would deny that these are difficult passages to plow through. We read lengthy lists of names that appear as meaningless to us as they are hard to pronounce. But the purpose of these lists was obvious to the original readers of the book. When the people of God were trying to reestablish their identity as a nation during Ezra's time, they were hungry for information about who they were and what they had been through. What did it mean to be a Jew? The genealogies provided important knowledge to help cement their identity.

II. COMMENTARY

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The Roots of God's People: From Adam to Jacob

MAIN IDEA: The origin of the people of God begins with Adam and leads to Jacob (Israel). All human beings, including the Ishmaelites and Edomites who are more closely related to the Hebrews, branched off the same line.

Adam to Abraham (1:1–27)

SUPPORTING IDEA: As many nations developed from Adam, one line of descent would lead to Abraham, the father of God's chosen people.

1:1–3. We begin with Adam. Of course. But is this a fact worth noting? It certainly is a fact to anyone who knows anything about biblical history. The original readers of 1 Chronicles would have been aware of the fact that all humanity began with Adam. Even contemporary skeptics who give little credence to the Bible would recognize “Adam” as a figurative reference to the first human being. Everyone has heard that the human race started with Adam, so why state the obvious?

Nevertheless, in terms of the larger point that the chronicler was possibly making, there is significance in this first verse. All humanity had its start in Adam. It follows as a result that all human beings are united in their common origin. There is only one human race—that which began with Adam—and we are all equal in our descent from him. If this statement seems too obvious to need mentioning, let us focus on one contrasting account, just as an example of how people could believe something to the contrary.

Hinduism has a number of creation myths. In one of these myths, the human race is considered to be descended from the disintegrating body of Purusha, the ancient ancestors. But different people were produced from different parts of Purusha, with the highest caste of Hinduism, the Brahmins, stemming from his head and the lowest caste, the Shudras, arising from his feet. Thus in the very beginnings of the human race, the Indian mythology creates a distinction among people. But the biblical narrative never teaches anything other than that human beings have one common origin in Adam; the later divisions of people are caused by other reasons.

The people of God are united in their humanity with all others. Not even the Jews, God's chosen people, are anything but the descendants of Adam in their origin. Their subsequent “chosenness” is based on a call from God, not on a separate creation.

The list continues through the ancient ancestors, pursuing the line of Seth up to Noah. Abel, because of his unfortunate death, had no descendants, and the chronicler is not interested in the fallen race of Cain. But note that Cain's line in the biblical account of Genesis is just as much descended from Adam as Seth's was, and that the separation of Cain's line occurred because of Cain's sinful act. As this genealogy in Chronicles is basically a list of people and not events, we find here no mention of the stories associated with any of these people in Genesis.

1:4–7. The chronicler now gives us the line of descent from Noah. At this point the list branches out in three directions, one for each of the three sons of Noah. The writer starts with the branches that he will not pursue further—Japheth and Ham—and then picks up the thread of the line that continues toward his end goal—Shem.

This account parallels closely Genesis 10; however, Chronicles does not mention the geographic distribution of the various groups, so we do not get the same information of the repopulation of the world after the flood into three basic areas. In Genesis we see that the descendants of Japheth migrated primarily into what is now southeastern Europe and Turkey; the offspring of Ham located in northern Africa and in the land of Canaan; and the Semites became established in Mesopotamia. The latter are the group from whom the line continues to Abraham.

Japheth had seven sons, but we are given information about only two of them—Gomer and Javan—and then only the names of their sons. On the whole, we know that the Japhethites did not figure as prominently in the history of Israel as the Hamites or other Semites. The one nation in the Japhethite line that eventually had a serious impact on Israel was Persia.

1:8–16. A Bible student reading the list of the sons of Ham will run across a few familiar names. It is safe to say that the list emphasizes those descendants whose offspring turned into larger groups, sometimes even identified with geographic locations, many of which are important to the story of the Israelites. Among the names we might recognize are Cush, usually identified with Ethiopia; Canaan, whose name came to be synonymous with Israel's promised land; the Philistines, Israel's future enemy; and the ancient inhabitants of the land of Canaan, such as the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites.

A name we might not recognize is Mizraim. This is another name for Egypt, and Israel had a long and eventful relationship with this nation. The stage is set for future encounters with these people in history. The chronicler makes a special reference to the mighty Nimrod, whose prowess had become proverbial a long time before (Gen. 10:9).

1:17–27. Finally, the line of Shem leads us to Abraham, but not without a little exploration of a further side branch. Actually we get some o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Editorial Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Holman Old Testament Commentary Contributors
• Holman New Testament Commentary Contributors
• Holman Old Testament Commentary
• Introduction
• 1 Chronicles 1:1–54
• 1 Chronicles 2:1–4:23
• 1 Chronicles 4:24–5:26
• 1 Chronicles 6:1–9:44
• 1 Chronicles 10:1–14
• 1 Chronicles 11:1–12:40
• 1 Chronicles 13:1–16:43
• 1 Chronicles 17:1–20:8
• 1 Chronicles 21:1–22:19
• 1 Chronicles 23:1–29:30
• 2 Chronicles 1:1–17
• 2 Chronicles 2:1–5:1
• 2 Chronicles 5:2–7:22
• 2 Chronicles 8:1–9:31
• 2 Chronicles 10:1–12:16
• 2 Chronicles 13:1–16:14
• 2 Chronicles 17:1–21:3
• 2 Chronicles 21:4–22:12
• 2 Chronicles 23:1–24:27
• 2 Chronicles 25:1–28:27
• 2 Chronicles 29:1–32:33
• 2 Chronicles 33:1–35:27
• 2 Chronicles 36:1–23
• Glossary
• Bibliography