Who wrote the book of 1 Chronicles? Who was the author of 1 Chronicles?

It is not known who wrote the Chronicles, but this is of little consequence, seeing that it does not touch the question of their inspiration, which is strongly marked by the peculiar character of their contents. It is thought that they were written by Ezra, and it will be seen that the end of 2 Chronicles agrees with the beginning of Ezra. The learned say that there are also internal resemblances which make it very probable that they are by the same writer. This has been objected to on the ground of the genealogy in 1 Chr. 3:1-24: it is contended that the number of generations after Zerubbabel in 1 Chr. 3:19 is so large that the writer must have lived in the days of Alexander the Great, and therefore could not have been contemporary with Ezra. But there is a break in the genealogy in the middle of 1 Chr. 3:21: "the sons of Hananiah; Pelatiah, and Jesaiah" closes one list; and what follows is a separate list, and may have run parallel with the other.

First Chron. 3:19ff; 9:1-2 and 2 Chron. 36:22-23 make it clear that the two books were only written or completed after the Babylonian captivity. As the last verses of 2 Chronicles and the first few verses of the book of Ezra are nearly identical and as the book of Ezra is the historical sequence of Chronicles the Jewish scholars who wrote the Talmud named Ezra as author of the Chronicles. The detailed genealogies at the beginning (chap. 1-9) would also endorse Ezra's authorship. The genealogies were of great importance for the Jews after the exile (compare Ezra 2:62).

As in most of the OT writings the name of the author is however not mentioned. The priestly character of these books goes well with Ezra who was a priest as well (Ezra 7:1-5.11). The time of writing would have been around 450 to 400 BC.

That Chronicles is a gathering up of fragments that remain I long ago noticed, besides its Judah and Davidical character as contrasted with Israel - very likely by Ezra, a priest or by a Levite. They take up the remnant that returned, but go back as far as possible to its connection with their original history.

Ezra has been mentioned as the possible author of Chronicles, which, however, cannot be proven. Nothing whatever is known of the instrument who was used to write these historical books. From the prominence which is given to the history and organization of the Levitic priesthood and the deep interest shown in the minor officials of the temple, especially the singers, it has been surmised that the author may have been a Levite. Beyond this nothing definite can be said. The author used by the Spirit of God must remain unknown to man, but he is known to God. In the books are mentioned repeatedly other books and histories to which the author of Chronicles refers. These include the following: a book of the kings of Israel and Judah , (2 Chron. 27:7; 35:27; 36:8); a book of the kings of Judah and Israel (2 Chron. 16:11; 25:26; 28:26; 32:32); a book of the kings of Israel (2 Chron. 24:27); a commentary of the books of Kings (2 Chron. 24:27); a history of the prophets Samuel, Nathan and Gad (1 Chron. 29:29); a history of the prophets Nathan, Abijah, the Shilonite, and Iddo (2 Chron. 9:29); a history of the prophets, Shemaiah and Iddo (2 Chron. 12:15); a history of the prophet Jehu (2 Chron. 20:34); a commentary of the prophet Iddo (2 Chron. 13:22); Isaiah's history of Uzziah (2 Chron. 26:22); a history of the prophet Isaiah (2 Chron. 32:32) and a history of the prophet of Manasseh's day (2 Chron. 33:19). It will be seen that there are just twelve sources mentioned. It will be seen that the first four are historical and the remaining eight are prophetic. While some of these references must have been books and histories now unknown to us, the main references are to the preceding books of the kings and to the first part of the prophet Isaiah.

The date of Chronicles is fixed by the first book. 1 Chron. 6:15 shows that the book was written after the captivity. We find also the names of the descendants of Zerubbabel given in 1 Chron. 3:19-24. Inasmuch as Zerubbabel was one of the leaders of the exile, who returned from the captivity, and his descendants are given, Chronicles must have been written some time after the return from Babylon . The diction of the books of Chronicles also bears witness to this. The Hebrew is substantially the same which is employed in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, which were written immediately after the captivity. It is mixed with Aramaeisms, which marks the corruption of the pure Hebrew by the Chaldaean language which the captives learned in Babylon . The pure Hebrew had been lost in Babylon . Even the orthography bears witness to it as every Hebrew scholar knows.

These books constitute but one book in the Hebrew; called by the Jews "words or acts of the days," i.e. journals or diaries, rendered chronicon by Jerome and with us chronicles from the Latin Vulgate. The title by the Septuagint Paraleipomenon, "things omitted," is a most objectionable one. The special design of these books is manifestly of God and as worthy of its Divine Author as any other portion of Holy Writ. The close of the Babylon captivity is indicated more than once, and moreover is regarded as a past historical fact (1 Chron. 6: l5). The closing verses (2 Chron. 36:22-23) constitute the opening words of the book of Ezra, in which the history contained in the Chronicles is continued. Ezra therefore may safely be regarded as the writer and compiler of the Chronicles, and the time at or during the restoration to Palestine. In the Hebrew canon these books stand last in order. The books of Chronicles cover the same ground and time as the books of Kings, while having a special character of their own. The first nine chapters contain divine genealogical records from Adam, and which enabled the returned remnants from the Captivity to verify their various Jewish claims.

Ezra (help) covers a period of about eighty years, and records the doings, the work and the worship of the Judah remnants who returned to Jerusalem from the Chaldean exile. The distinguished ecclesiastical historian and ready scribe whose name is attached to this book has ever been highly venerated amongst the Jews, and is generally regarded as the inspired editor and compiler of the Old Testament. When, where, and by whom this book was written are questions easily answered — after the return from the Babylon captivity, in Palestine, and by Ezra. The change from the first to the third person, as in chaps. 7, 10, in nowise affects the authorship; John the Apostle habitually does so in his Gospel. Similar instances might be adduced from Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, and elsewhere. Yet Professor Smith (in his Lectures on the Old Testament in the Jewish Church, page 321) says, "One asks for proof that any Hebrew ever wrote of himself in the third person." Is human learning to be trusted in the things of God? What is man in presence of these Divine and imperishable records? The books of Ezra and Nehemiah anciently formed but one work; they are still spoken of by Roman Catholic writers as the 1st and 2nd books of Esdras. There are two portions of this book written in the Syriac or Aramean language — that spoken in Babylon and Assyria — viz., Ezra 4:8 to 6:18; and Ezra 7:12-26.

It is touching to see that the Chronicles were written in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. At that time it was less necessary to tell all the sins of the people than to say, His mercy endures for ever. A basis is laid for all in Christ's death, and by His resurrection all are sure mercies to be displayed at His coming and kingdom.

That there is a purpose in the book of Chronicles, now divided into two, distinct from that which runs through the preceding books of Kings, is unquestionable. No "And" connects their beginning, as before. But the Septuagintal title of Παραλειπόμενα, "Things deficient or omitted," fails to describe it adequately. A great deal is repeated though not without characteristic differences, while very much is fresh with notable omissions of a markedly homogeneous kind. The introductory genealogy from man's existence on the earth ought to have shut out the notion of a mere supplement, and prepared for a special design of God; Who here points out, in the midst of general ruin, His sovereign mercy and blessing bound up with the house of David and the tribe of Judah, whatever His chastenings because of their sins. They were a spiritual retrospect, like Deuteronomy, which also is not in continuity with its predecessors, though to the believer undoubtedly of Moses, as the Chronicles in all probability of Ezra, both admitting of a little inspired addition to complete them. But there is no such ground to insist on Ezra here, as on Moses there, who claims the book with unusual precision; so that one must accept this, or treat it as a fraudulent romance and risk the consequence both now and before the judgment-seat of Christ.

So the change from kings in Edom to heads of tribes comes from David's conquest of Edom. And the name of Hadad, who fled to Egypt, is found in the name of the last king. But the exact time is learned from 1 Kings 8:2. Much, no doubt, as we now have it, is worked up by a later hand; still we have much of the authors, and yet it must be before the glorious time of the kingdom was over, and no better termination than "the glory of the Lord filled the house" would be found, so that we may hold for certain that the work was completed in the first third of Solomon's rule. He favours thus Judah, but was a Levite, as the author of the "Book of Covenants" certainly was not. His object in this time of rest was to take a survey of history in its whole compass, bringing it down, however, always to Israel as the central object, following constantly that line of genealogy, but going up to the origin of all history like the Grecians after their conquests over the Persians. But then he goes back to the origin of the various heads of the four ages, Mosaic, Patriarchal, Noachic, and Adamic: so it is a book of origins. This refers to the expression, "These are the generations" (Toledoth) of such a one as Noah, and then, as in Genesis 5:1 "these are the generations of man" (Adam). But the picture (Schilderung) rises up boldly yet beyond all that, seeking to declare (erklaren) or expound the origin even of all that is visible in a history of the creation (Gen. 1 and 2:1-3); yet this only to be treated as an introduction to the proper work which begins at chapter 5: I. It might give us still oftener the title "These are the generations" (origins), even afterwards as to the tribal genealogies of Israel, if the most of these parts of the work were not at present lost.

In 1 Chronicles the inspired historian — probably Ezra — portrays David not as the man (1 Sam.), nor as the king (2 Sam.), but especially in those circumstances where he stands out pre-eminently as the type of the Lord in the early period of the millennium; hence the grave faults of David, as his adultery, etc., are omitted. Grace and glory shine throughout, and David is everywhere, and made everything of.

But whoever the inspired penman may have been, he evidently wrote with a different purpose in view from that of the author of the Chronicles, who was probably Ezra, the priest. Two names, Akkub and Talmon, found in 1 Chron. 9:17-18, and mentioned in Neh. 12:25-26, as being porters "in the days of Nehemiah, and of Ezra the priest," and Zerubbabel's name, with that of others, in 1 Chron. 3:19, prove the writer lived and wrote after the restoration. The fact of the close of Chronicles and opening of Ezra overlapping, indicates one common author — as Luke and the Acts. Both 1 Chron. 29:7 and Ezra 2:69 mention the Persian coin daric (as "dram" should be translated). "The high priest's genealogy is given in the descending line, ending with the captivity, in 1 Chron. 6:1-15; in Ezra 7:1-5, in the ascending line from Ezra himself to Aaron, abridged by the omission of many links, as the writer had in Chronicles already given a complete register." (Fausset.) So if a prophet (Jeremiah) wrote the Kings, and a priest (Ezra) the Chronicles, it would readily account for the ministry of the prophets being so prominent in the former book, and that of the priests and Levites in the latter. It might furnish the key, too, as to the meaning of the marked differences in many portions of the two records.