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"This text claims that Chronicles provides a distinct perspective on much of Israel's past, especially the monarchy. The author discusses how the chronicler's introduction to the people of Israel redefines Israel itself; explains and defends the transition from Saul to David; and shows how the Davidic-Solomonic monarchy was not only a time of incomparable achievement and glory, but also the period during which the nations most important public institutions--the Davidic dynasty, the Jerusalem Temple, the priests, and the Levites--took formative shape. This text also systematically employs the Dead Sea Scrolls to reconstruct the biblical author's text. In doing so, the author reveals how Chronicles is related to and creatively drawn from many earlier biblical books, and presents a look at its connections, in both compositional style and approach, to the historical writings of ancient Mesopotamia and classical Greece."
"What was the place of the monarchy in the history of ancient Israel? Was Israel{u2019}s first king Saul a hero or a disaster? Was David a highly gifted leader and accomplished king or a murderer and a cheat? Did Solomon preside over the most glorious epoch in Israelite history or did he lead the nation into a fateful decline? Knoppers show how the Bible itself contains a variety of fascinating perspectives on major events and characters. One of the most misunderstood books of the Bible, Chronicles presents a distinctive and important viewpoint on much of Israel{u2019}s past, especially the monarchy. Knoppers shows how Chronicles defends the transition from Saul to David and upholds the Davidic-Solomonic monarchy as a time of incomparable Israelite achievement and glory, a period in which the nation{u2019}s most important public institutions{u2014}the Davidic dynasty, the Jerusalem Temple, the priests, and the Levites{u2014}took formative shape. I Chronicles 10-29, part of a two-volume set on I Chronicles, is the first to employ systematically the witness of the Dead Sea Scrolls to reconstruct the biblical author{u2019}s text. Knoppers shows how Chronicles is related to and creatively drawn from many earlier biblical books and presents a fascinating look at its connections in both compositional style and approach to historical writings attested in ancient Mesopotamia and classical Greece. Gary N. Knoppers is the Head of the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University."