Book of Chronicles 1&2

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Been reading the bible every day as this is one of my new year resolutions.

Now, I have got to the Books of the Chronicles. I have decided to bypass them after having looked through the 2 books as for a start I cannot pronounce most of the names!

Am I wrong to bypass these 2 books? It’s just name after name after name! So hard to read!

Plus it is listing what has happened in previous books.

Anyone else skipped these 2 books?
 
ajecphotos said:
Been reading the bible every day as this is one of my new year resolutions.

Now, I have got to the Books of the Chronicles. I have decided to bypass them after having looked through the 2 books as for a start I cannot pronounce most of the names!

Am I wrong to bypass these 2 books? It’s just name after name after name! So hard to read!

Plus it is listing what has happened in previous books.

Anyone else skipped these 2 books?
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The Bible study I went to did not require the reading of these two books. (From Genesis to Acts). The creator of the series said you could if you want to, but most people do not have the time. He did say it was sufficient to just read the assigned readings for each week’s lesson, which did not include Chronicles. I suppose for historical reasons it could be very helpful to read, but not necessary.

And, in the other required readings we had, it was just those that were helpful to get the complete overview of salvation history.
 
Yes, the Bible Study I attended skipped those too. The primary focus was :
Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges,1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah,
1 Maccabees, Luke, and Acts.
Our leader suggested we read others, if interested, or if we had the time, but they weren’t necessary to the plan, that we were working from, to gain an understanding of salvation history.
Some of the ones that fascinated me in the OT were Ruth, Jeremiah, Tobit, Ester, and Sirach.
I wish you good reading!
👍
 
ajecphotos said:
Am I wrong to bypass these 2 books? It’s just name after name after name! So hard to read!
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Start at 1 Chronicles 9 (or 10, if you’re really impatient) – where it goes into narration, rather than genealogy – before giving up on 1 Chronicles.
Plus it is listing what has happened in previous books.
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There are distinct details in Chronicles that add to “what has happened in previous books.”

Give 1 and 2 Chronicles a chance, before you just dismiss them out of hand… 😉
 
Every thing that follows is my opinion and i am not a scholar. However I do think it is true.

Chronicles is worth reading because it has a different voice from Kings. Plus the history is a little different. Kings (to me) sounds as though it were written very near the beginning of the exile and very strongly condemns the people and declares that it is because of their sin that has cast them away from the Holy Land into Babylon and destroyed Samaria. Whereas Chronicles has a more post-exilic voice (again my opinion) and while it does not gloss the things the people did it does however have a more hopeful tone. Also it largely ignores the Northern Kingdom altogether which is largely why I think it was composed by a scribe after the exile by a people who were no longer concerned with the Samaritans and did not consider them to be part of the chosen people any longer. It also has a stronger voice on the redemption of the people that God has not forgotten them and will restore them even though they have been taken into exile.

I am in no way saying that either book is inaccurate, but as often happen with history the voice changes depending on the circumstance of the author.

So if you want to skip the names that is up to you, but you really should not skip the books because they are really interesting look into the mind of the people at the time they were written.

God Bless
 
But doesnt those 2 books summarize what has gone on in the books before them?
 
ajecphotos said:
Been reading the bible every day as this is one of my new year resolutions.

Now, I have got to the Books of the Chronicles. I have decided to bypass them after having looked through the 2 books as for a start I cannot pronounce most of the names!

Am I wrong to bypass these 2 books? It’s just name after name after name! So hard to read!

Plus it is listing what has happened in previous books.

Anyone else skipped these 2 books?
Click to expand...
For many years I was agnostic. I believed in God but didn’t like the one in the OT and didn’t know what to make of the cryptic Jesus. When life took such turns as to make me think I may have miscalculated, I turned to the Bible again.

For me, the major deterrent to Bible reading was…the Bible made me feel stupid. :confused: I couldn’t ‘catch on’ like in other subjects. So, now determined, I set about finding tools to help in my quest.

One of my favorites was buying CDs of the Bible by Alexander Scourby. It was amazing for me to listen to him while I read along underlining what did ‘connect’. There’s just something about that method that works for me - like I’m not ‘alone’ in the struggle. I also have a 5x8 purse-sized Bible and take the CD player to doctor appointments, car repairs, etc. The names roll off Scourby’s tongue like he grew up with those folks. 🙂

I just found a website that has free Bible files with Scourby reading, if anyone would be interested. It’ll save me batteries when listening at home! (Required a free download of QuickTime, but now I’m good to go.)

hilltopbaptistnewport.net/ListenToTheKingJamesBible.html

The other thing I do when beginning the ‘hefty’ books is look for outlines so generously provided by others. For Chronicle 1-2, Bible Study Tools has detailed outlines.

biblestudytools.com/1-chronicles/

biblestudytools.com/2-chronicles/

For me, today, it is much more beneficial to look for a ‘way in’ rather than justifying a ‘way out’ like I used to do. Even a basic familiarity with tough parts has helped me make connections further down the road. As I increased my willingness, Grace increased my Thirst. Yummers! 🙂
 
You could just skip to 1 Chroncles 9: 17 and go from there. ?
😉
 
Jeanne1184 said:
For many years I was agnostic. I believed in God but didn’t like the one in the OT and didn’t know what to make of the cryptic Jesus. When life took such turns as to make me think I may have miscalculated, I turned to the Bible again.

For me, the major deterrent to Bible reading was…the Bible made me feel stupid. :confused: I couldn’t ‘catch on’ like in other subjects. So, now determined, I set about finding tools to help in my quest.

One of my favorites was buying CDs of the Bible by Alexander Scourby. It was amazing for me to listen to him while I read along underlining what did ‘connect’. There’s just something about that method that works for me - like I’m not ‘alone’ in the struggle. I also have a 5x8 purse-sized Bible and take the CD player to doctor appointments, car repairs, etc. The names roll off Scourby’s tongue like he grew up with those folks. 🙂

I just found a website that has free Bible files with Scourby reading, if anyone would be interested. It’ll save me batteries when listening at home! (Required a free download of QuickTime, but now I’m good to go.)

hilltopbaptistnewport.net/ListenToTheKingJamesBible.html

The other thing I do when beginning the ‘hefty’ books is look for outlines so generously provided by others. For Chronicle 1-2, Bible Study Tools has detailed outlines.

biblestudytools.com/1-chronicles/

biblestudytools.com/2-chronicles/

For me, today, it is much more beneficial to look for a ‘way in’ rather than justifying a ‘way out’ like I used to do. Even a basic familiarity with tough parts has helped me make connections further down the road. As I increased my willingness, Grace increased my Thirst. Yummers! 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks but thats the KJV. Wouldnt that be a lot different to a Catholic version?
 
ajecphotos said:
Thanks but thats the KJV. Wouldnt that be a lot different to a Catholic version?
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Beautiful prose. I don’t know how everything compares (besides the number of books), but I often compare the KJV to the NAB just to see how something sounds there. But only one verse or passage at a time.
 
ajecphotos said:
But doesnt those 2 books summarize what has gone on in the books before them?
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. In a certain sense the books do summarize in that they are the chronicles of the people from Adam to the time of the writing of the book, however they do not serve as summary of the books of Scripture up to that point rather the summation at the beginning of the book is more the intro style the author chose to use in the writing of his book. I have never thought that there was a direct correlation between the books that came before and the current books of the OT especially considering that after the exile and especially in the prophetic books it was sometimes the case that the writing of the books overlapped. So it is very difficult to take each book as they are ordered in our Bible as being sequential in time as pertaining to their writing, for example the oldest book in Scripture is Job not Genesis.

So I think it is better to take each book as what it is, a book, bound together in a collection of books each with a common theme but each as a stand alone work, excepting of course the books we know were primarily written by one author such as the Pentateuch.

So by all means read Chronicles and enjoy it because it is a great book and a wonderful history, but don’t be too fussed about the when and where as it relates to the other books because it is a stand alone work.

God Bless
 
ajecphotos said:
Thanks but thats the KJV. Wouldnt that be a lot different to a Catholic version?
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The best Bible I’ve found is the Companion Bible Auth. Version of 1611 (enlarged-type edition cuz it’s normal type, but makes the size of the Bible larger, 8.5 x 11. I have no idea what ‘regular type’ would look like cuz ‘enlarged’ is normal-size.)

Anyway, what’s great about it is all the in-page notes as well as about 200 pages of appendices that are helpful. If you want to try it, here’s a link of it online:

companionbiblecondensed.com/

The online version at that site does not show the “Appendixes” but they can be printed from the stie below. Even though I have the text, I like having the appendices separate for ease of use.

levendwater.org/companion/index_companion.html

The way I decided on the KJV was in finding the website of the Interlinear “Hebrew/Greek Bible” program. It’s a wonderful tool that can do word and phrase searches, as well as look-ups by Strong’s #. (It has a couple of drawbacks but I didn’t see them until my ‘Questioner’ got stronger). Strong’s defs are also right there under the word. Under the “View” button, the Hebrew can be switched to read from left-to-right…much easier ;).

Interlinear Scripture Analyzer (ISA) scripture4all.org/

For me, the old KJV most closely matches the Hebrew/Greek and that’s important, to me. However, any time I want to view other ‘takes’ on a passage, I just go to Bible Hub (a site I also use to view multiple commentaries).

It took me a while to realize that just ‘reading the Bible’ wasn’t going to take me where I wanted to go. Relying on my own understanding is what drove me from the Bible in the first place. I became invested in the Journey and the desire to Know grew.

There may be CDs available of the Catholic Bible version of your preference, if you try that method and it appeals to you. I began where I was comfortable but wasn’t afraid to explore when the urge to do so occurred.

I also bought the *loose-leaf * KJV Bible (they make others) so that I could insert notes/commentaries within the chapters. I’m hoping to start a women’s Bible study group and wanted to have notes handy.

There’s also a KJV Subject Bible I recently saw on TCT that sounds great - the verses on a subject are written out under the subject title. Just sounds good to me cuz ‘flipping’ can get tedious . The $150 price tag, however, does not sound so good. 😦 Am waiting to see if others have tried it and feel the price is justifed for the advantages.
 
ajecphotos said:
But doesnt those 2 books summarize what has gone on in the books before them?
Click to expand...
It is a restatement of 1 and 2 Kings but from a different perspective. Chronicles also goes further forward in time.

It helps to understand the background and context. Solomon rules harshly. When Solomon died, his son promised to rule even harsher. The result was that the ten northern tribes succeeded from the two southern tribes of Benjamin and Judah. The northern nation was called Israel and the southern nation was called Judah.

Chronicles alternates, back and forth, between the northern nation of Israel and the southern nation of Judah. It lists each kings reign in terms of who was king in the other nation, good kings and bad kings. It is also where we read all the queen mothers, twenty nine of them, mother’s of the king, a rich source of typology about Mary.

I recommend the Bible Timeline study from Great Adventure/Jeff Cavins to anyone who wants to begin to understand the Bible and struggles with reading it. It is an outstanding study, authentically and organically Catholic, not a Protestant retread. ascensionpress.com/t/category/study-programs/catholic-bible-study/adult-bible-study/timeline

-Tim-
 
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