War narratives in the book of Chronicles: A new proposal in respect of their function

Abstract

Research has shown that the majority of the narratives on war in the book of Chronicles have been created by the Chronicler himself. This article offers a fresh proposal that war narratives in the book of Chronicles are to be read and explained as a reflection of the factual military impotence of Yehud during the Persian period. This military weakness has been transformed into a theological concept in which it is God who wages war in favour of the people seeking God. The outcome of these divine actions depends on the people of Judah’s attitude, whether they “seek the Lord” or “abandon the Lord”. Therefore, these war narratives should not be traced back to the concept of holy war

Recent Research on Warfare in the Old Testament

“…Wright 1997). Many scholars speculate about the purpose of the war reports: enforcing ethnic boundaries between Judaeans and the other nations (Siedlecki 1999); encouraging the militarily impotent post-exilic community to trust Yhwh (Beentjes 2003); fortifying Israelite identity against their Transjordanian neighbors (P. Davies 1992); or establishing a narrative norm of a united Israel at peace under the historical Davidic monarchy, which was accompanied by proper personnel in the Jerusalem Temple, and was dependent upon the faithfulness of Yhwh (J.W. Wright 1997; see also Knoppers 1993).…”