Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 23:3 (Sep 1980)
Article: The Reign Of Asa (2 Chronicles 14-16): An Example Of The Chronicler’s Theological Method
Author: Raymond B. Dillard

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JETS 23:3 (September 1980) p. 207

The Reign Of Asa (2 Chronicles 14-16):
An Example Of The Chronicler’s Theological Method1

Raymond Dillard*

For the most part the books of Chronicles have not received attention proportionate to their length in the history of OT study. The benign neglect of Chronicles is no doubt due in part to its inauspicious beginning (those nine chapters of genealogies) and also the fact that it largely repeats, sometimes verbatim, much of the earlier record of Samuel/Kings. This attitude toward Chronicles is one of considerable antiquity shown even in the LXX title for these books, Ta Paralei-pomena, “The Things Omitted,” a title that itself relegates Chronicles to a position as a supplement to the earlier accounts. Chronicles has also been the object of extreme skepticism regarding its historical worth, as exhibited in the statement of Wellhausen that it is hard to find a grain of good corn among the chaff, or that of R. H. Pfeiffer who says of the Chronicler that “the fantasy and picturesque detail of his tales would make him an eligible contributor to the Arabian Nights.”2

Happily a flurry of activity in the last couple of decades in monographs and journals has called attention to the uniqueness of the Chronicler’s,3 own theology and led to a redress of the skepticism surrounding his historical trustworthiness.4

*Raymond Dillard is associate professor of Old Testament language and literature at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.

JETS 23:3 (September 1980) p. 208

The relationship between the Deuteronomic history and the Chronicler constitutes the synoptic problem of the OT. The issues of redaction and textual history, the author’s audience and theology, dates and principles of composition, historical reliability—all so familiar in the NT synoptic problem—are here exaggerated to a new intensity.

In this paper we will examine the Chronicler’s treatment of the reign of Asa (2 Chronicles 14–16) as an example of his theological method and as an entrance into several related problems.

I. Retribution Theology And The Chronicler

The Chronicler sets himself to the task of taking the data of redemptive history and organizing them in such a way as to answer the burning theological questions of the post-exilic community. The basic question that must be answered if the faith of the restoration community is to survive is the question of continuity with t...

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