Here are two clips that I dropped from the 1 Chronicles reading this week. In the first, the Israelite slave labourers that the Chronicler airbrushed out of the record hint at a kingdom fractured long before it finally divided under Rehoboam. In the second, we look at the Chronicler's unique record of the Levite musicians portrayed as serving in the first temple.


fractured kingdom


second temple refrain

There was so much cool stuff in this week's readings that I had to pare the show right back to really focus on the central themes. I liked these two snippets because of what they reveal about the story of ancient Israel. It really shines a spotlight on the fact that the biblical narratives don't exist in a vacuum - they are intrinsically connected to the world (and the world-view) in which they were produced.

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