Omitted and Remaining Matters: On the Names Given to the Book of Chronicles in Antiquity

(Proquest Information and Learning: Foreign text omitted). The seventh book [of the Writings] is Dabreiamin, that is "Words of the days," which we are able to call more specifically a chronicle (...) of all divine history; this book is entitled among us Paralipomenon One and Two.1 -Jerome, from the Preface to his translation of Samuel-Kings.2 Like many other works stemming from the ancient Near East, the book known to us as Chronicles was originally untitled and anonymously authored. The purpose of this short study will be to explore the varied nomenclature given to this book by early Jewish and Christian interpreters. The different titles attributed to the text provide fascinating glimpses into how antique translators and commentators construed the nature, genre, and import of this work. That at least some of these titles were retained and perpetuated for much longer periods of time than scholars have previously thought indicates the influence of the early interpreters upon later generations. In brief, the present discussion is a contribution to the hermeneutical history of one biblical book. In what follows, special attention will be devoted to the works of patristic writers, because their comments on the titles of Chronicles are not well known. I. The Name of Chronicles in Rabbinic Literature In the Hebrew (rabbinic) tradition, cited by Jerome, the work is called "the book of the events (literally: words) of the days" (...).3 It is uncertain when the text acquired this title. The book also carries this title in the earliest witnesses to the Peshitta.4 In ascribing the name (...) to Chronicles, the early interpreters may have been influenced by biblical tradition itself. The authors of Kings regularly cite lost works entitled "the book of the events of the days of the kings of Israel" (...) e.g., 1 Kgs 14:19; 15:31; 16:5, 14, 20, 27; 22:39; 2 Kgs 1:18; 10:34; 13:8, 12; 14:15, 28; 15:11, 15, 21, 31) and "the book of the events of the days of the kings of Judah" (...) e.g., I Kgs 14:29; 15:7, 23; 22:46; 2 Kgs 8:23; 12:20; 14:18; 15:6, 36; 16:19; 20:20; 21:17, 25; 23:28; 24:5). Similar names appear in Esth 10:2, "the book of the events of the days of the kings of Media and Persia" (...), and in Esth 6:1, "the book of the records, the events of the days" (...). There is no scholarly agreement about the nature of such lost works. Some think of royal annals, the official records of a given king's reign.5 Others think of literary compositions or surveys that may have been based, in part, on official records or annals.6 Indebted to the work of the authors of Kings, the authors of Chronicles also refer to written sources dealing with the monarchy. The text sometimes speaks of "the book of the kings of Judah and Israel" (...) (...) 2 Chr 16:11; 25:26; 28:26; 32:32) and of "the book of the kings of Israel and Judah" (...) 1 Chr 9:1; 2 Chr 27:7; 35:27; 36:8).7 In only one case is reference made to "the book of the kings of Israel" (2 Chr 20:34). In no instance is there a reference made to "the book of the kings of Judah."8 Interestingly enough, the references in Chronicles to "the book of the kings of Israel and Judah" and to "the book of the kings of Judah and Israel" are all found in discussions of southern kings or of Judah and Benjamin. As such, they are probably formulaic adaptations of the source citations found in Kings.9 Judging by the context in which the expressions are used, one may assume that readers are being referred to (otherwise lost) written records pertaining to the southern monarchy. Nevertheless, the contrast in phraseology with Kings is important. The book of Chronicles contains no instance of the collocation that later became its name, (...). Hence, if later interpreters drew the title from earlier biblical tradition, they drew it from works other than Chronicles itself.10 Aside from cited works whose titles resemble that given to the book of Chronicles, there are works that refer to its precise name. …