Get to know the History Books

Introduction

“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these
last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom
he also created the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1-2). The ways God spoke to our ancestors long ago
are an integral part of our story – a history of salvation. This long and complex history is told
in detail in the books of the Old Testament known as the History Books. These books follow
the Books of the Law of Moses, the Pentateuch. Sixteen books make up the collection of the
History Books in the Catholic Bible (whereas there are only twelve in the Protestant Bible)
and they tell the dramatic story of the people of God in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ
emerges from this long history as a son of the people of God. This story is also his history and
through our faith in him, this history becomes our history too. These History Books precede
the Books of Wisdom and the final part of the Old Testament, the Prophets.

According to the beautiful image of Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, we are grafted
onto the people of God of the Old Testament in order to “share the rich root of the olive tree”
(Romans 11:17). Grafted in and sharing the root, we learn to speak the language of the people
of God, a particular language of revelation that has its origins in God’s election of Abraham.
This language is the language of the Old Testament. The Fathers of the Church read and
reread the Old Testament in the light of the life of Jesus and understood how Jesus’ story
brought to fulfillment the story of the ancient people in the Old Testament. They also insisted
that it is impossible to deepen our understanding of Jesus without getting to know the long
chapters in the history of this ancient people, a preparation for Christ’s coming. These
chapters illuminate not only what Jesus did and why but also who Jesus is.

This booklet seeks to introduce the Historical Books to the Christian reader who is ever
deepening his or her knowledge of Jesus Christ. In order to comprehend the love story
between God and humanity, between God and the people who bring his light to the world, the
Scriptures must be read and reread in the light of Christ’s incarnation, life, death and
resurrection.

What are the Historical Books?

There are sixteen history books in the Old Testament of the Catholic Church. They appear in
the following order in the Catholic canon of Scripture: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2
Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther,
1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. (In Protestant Bibles, of the final five books, only one finds a
place in the Old Testament, a shorter form (the Hebrew version) of the Book of Esther).

Although these books were written by different authors over many centuries before Jesus was
born, the act of placing them side by side and binding them together in the canon of the Old
Testament is an act of the Church. This act produced a vast panorama of more than one
thousand years of history. The narrative begins from the entry into the land, promised by God,
after the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, which follows the exodus from Egypt and
the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai (events traditionally dated to the 13 th century BC). The
narrative ends with the aftermath of the persecutions of the Hellenistic monarch, Antiochus
Epiphanes IV, and the war against him to liberate and purify the Temple in Jerusalem (in the
second century BC).
These books tell the history of the people of God, the descendants of Abraham. History
follows Law. In the Books of the Law (the Pentateuch), God explicitly revealed his will to the
people at Sinai. The people were called to go from Sinai into the land, where they were to put
the Law into practice. Thus, God’s word in the law would take flesh in the life of a people
living according to that law. Thus, the people of God would become “a light to the nations”,
attracting all peoples to go up to the land and learn from them the will of God for all peoples.

In the New Testament, the Book of the Acts of the Apostles fulfills the same role as the
History Books in the Old Testament. In Acts too, the story of the Church is told in the light of
the life and death of Jesus Christ, the content of the first part of the New Testament, the
Gospel. The question foremost in the mind of the author of Acts was to what extent did the
Church live in the image and likeness of Christ in all she says and does.

The journey from Sinai to the borders of the land took 11 days. However, those 11 days
became another 38 years, as the people, incited by the ten faithless spies, not only refused to
enter the land but desired to return to Egypt (cf. Numbers 13-14). The known lord of Egypt,
Pharaoh, seemed to them preferable to the mysterious Lord, God of revelation. At the end of
the Pentateuch, those who had gone out of Egypt and stood at the foot of Mount Sinai were all
dead, having died in the wilderness, and Moses alone survived (with the two faithful spies,
Joshua and Caleb) in order to repeat again the Law (this explains the name of the book
“tathni’at al-ishtira’”) for the new generation that is about to enter the land.

The history books tell the story of the people’s living out the Law. The main question of this
section of the Bible is: to what extent were the people faithful to the Word of God? The story
is a complex one. Sixteen books divided into three series are needed to recount the winding,
twisting story that weaves its way between fidelity and infidelity. This is a story of sin and
salvation intertwined, a story told from the prophetic perspective of the sacred writers who
meditated on the people’s relationship with God.

History then and history now

What is the relationship between the kind of history we study in school and the narratives in
the Historical Books in the Bible? History in the modern world studies past events, gathering
names and dates and information about people, events and places. Everything is established
by careful research and putting events in an order that seeks to render the past alive. The
modern writing of history attempts to describe these events precisely as they occurred so that
modern readers can understand these events and their consequences. However, Biblical
history is a portrayal of the past that is not so much an accurate description of what happened
but rather a rereading of the past in the light of the urgent questions and pressing needs of the
present. In the Bible, the past has less value in its own right than being seen as helping make
sense of the present and orienting to the future. History in this sense is a teaching for the
present and a preparation for the future.

Today, those who study history spend much time interviewing eyewitnesses, reading old
documents, collecting material from archives, looking for artifacts that can help recreate the
world in which past events occurred and even digging under the present world in order to seek
out worlds that have been buried, a science called archaeology. These activities did not
characterize the authors who wrote the history books in the Bible. More than recreating the
past, they were concerned about how where the people were in the present and where they
might be are in the future can be usefully shaped by retelling the stories of the origins of the
people. This means that the past was told in a way that made the present understandable and
the future foreseeable.

It is not an easy task to establish the exact historical accuracy of what is called history in the
Bible. Often, the content of the texts tells us more about the world in which the texts were
written than about the world they describe. So, for example, the long narrative that stretches
from the time of Joshua and the entry into the Land of Canaan until the destruction of the
Temple in the days of King Nebuchadnezzar tells a lot more about the sixth century BC when
the text was edited in its present form than about the thirteenth century BC when the Israelites
purportedly conquered Canaan. The long story of the people’s origins tried to explain how the
people had lost their land, ended up in exile and needed to prepare for a return.

The aim of the texts is to tell the reader who God is and who the human person is from a
spiritual and religious point of view by referring in a general way to stories that were told
about the origins of the people and their life in the land.

Who wrote, for whom, when and why?

Six of the history books, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings are in continuity
with the Book of Deuteronomy, the last book of the Pentateuch. Tradition identifies the
authors of this work as Samuel and his successors, the prophets. Historical critical analysis
proposes that this work was composed in stages, edited from the second half of the seventh
century BC until the second half of the sixth century BC. These books retain older narratives
that constitute the memory of ancient times but are reformulated within the perspective of the
last years of the Kingdom of Judah, the Babylonian invasion in 597 BC, the destruction of the
Temple in 587 BC and the Exile in Babylon that lasted until 539 BC. The school of scribes
that produced the work is called the Deuteronomistic school. The major challenge that these
texts were dealing with was the destruction of the Temple, the Exile and the concomitant
suffering of the people.

Amidst the writings of this Deuteronomist school, the Christian canon inserted the Book of
Ruth. Its writer, probably living in the fifth or fourth century, the Persian period, clearly
sought to have his work recognized as a continuation of the Book of Judges, opening his work
with the words “In the days that the judges judged” (Ruth 1:1). Furthermore, he concluded his
work with the genealogy of King David, the central character in the Books of Samuel.

The four books that follow the Deuteronomistic books, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and
Nehemiah, are attributed by tradition to Ezra the scribe, who lived in the second half of the
fifth century, an important figure in the establishment of Judaism as a religion, after the return
from Exile. These books, although probably not produced by the same writer, do have
common themes and underline the importance of the priestly class. The school of scribes that
produced these books is called the Chronicler. This school reflected on the return from Exile
and the challenge of rebuilding a society in Jerusalem and its environs.

The last five books, Tobit, Judith, Esther and 1 and 2 Maccabees, were written by different
authors living in the late Persian and Hellenistic periods and read as narratives about great
heroes of the people, men and women of faith who despite all lived their lives according to
God’s word.
 A coherent structure

The History Books in the Christian canon of Scripture are divided into three clearly
demarcated series. Each series tells the story of the people of God. In fact, the three series
might even be called “synoptic” as the basic story line is similar in each series, detailing the
life of the people and their practice of the word of God that is in the Law, given to the people
by God at Sinai.

A first series contains seven books – Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2
Kings. The narrative begins where Deuteronomy ended, Joshua succeeded Moses in the land
of Moab, just before the crossing of the Jordan, in order to lead the people into the land,
promised by God to the people. The narrative ends in exile in Babylon after all that God gave
to the people was lost. The central question that is formulated in these books is how did the
people, who received their heritage from God, a land flowing with milk and honey, lose
everything and come to be buried in exile in Babylon? The answer to this searing question can
be summed up in one word: sin. Although there were moments in this complex narrative in
which the people lived in fidelity to the word of God in the Law, most of the time the people
went astray, alienated themselves from God and finally lost the gifts that God had given. At
the center of the long narrative in the Christian canon of the Bible, is the story of Ruth, a
Gentile Moabite woman, who brought the light of her faith to a people called to be light to the
nations but who had sunk into the darkness of sin and death. The overwhelming importance of
this series is how it teaches us to confess sin.

The second series contains four books – 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah. The
narrative begins with the name of Adam, going back before the beginning of the first series, to
the moment of the creation of the human person. Much of the narrative in 1 and 2 Chronicles
repeated the history already told in the books of Samuel and Kings. However, the narrative
also stretched beyond the end of the first series and went on to the event of the return from
Exile and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. At the very center of this series stands
the figure of Cyrus, King of the Persians and his letter to the exiles in Babylon informing
them that whoever among them sought to return to Jerusalem could go up to the holy City.
The letter appears at the end of 2 Chronicles and is repeated at the beginning of Ezra. The
most important theme throughout this series is not sin that leads to death but rather the
faithfulness of God that brings grace and resurrection. These books are a long meditation on
grace that opens up the horizons allowing for new beginnings because God is a God of life
and will not allow death to be victorious. The overwhelming importance of this series is how
it teaches us to give thanks for God’s grace.

The third series contains five books – Tobit, Judith, Esther 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees.
These are separate narratives about great heroes in the life of the people of God. Tobit, living
during the Assyrian exile, Judith living under the shadow of the Babylonian invasion of the
land, Esther, living in the Persian Diaspora, the Maccabees and the great martyrs, living
during the anti-Jewish decrees of the Hellenists, all show themselves to be exemplary in their
fidelity to the Law and their faith in the promises of God. These books affirm that in every
generation there are saints who show the rest of the people of God the way to observe the
commandments and radiate the light of God’s word to the society around them. The
overwhelming importance of this series is that it inspires us to live faithful lives like the
heroes of old.
Sin, grace and heroism are then the three lenses that differentiate the three series of History
Books in the Christian Old Testament. These three themes emerge from the story of Israel told
three times, a synoptic history of Israel.

Jesus, the authors of the New Testament and the earliest hearers of the story of Jesus knew the
Historical Books well and repeatedly recounted the stories of the ancestors and the wonders
God had done for them. Those who recorded the life of Jesus, the evangelists, and those who
founded communities of believers, the apostles, were intimately familiar with the story of the
ancient people of God. Disciples of Jesus must familiarize themselves with the History Books,
learning not only the narratives but also the language in which they are woven so as to
identify all the ways in which they help to deepen our comprehension of Jesus’ life and
message. Here, I will focus on three groups of words: firstly sin, death and confession, then
grace, resurrection and thanksgiving and finally heroism, fidelity and the saints.

Sin, death and confession

The first series of History Books (from Joshua to 2 Kings) follows the Five Books of the Law.
In those books, blessing and promise accompany the commitment to live the Law revealed by
God. The Law was given at Sinai and repeated in the land of Moab. By the end of the books
of the Law, Moses had completed his role as lawgiver and died in the land of Moab. Joshua,
Moses’s faithful assistant, succeeded him.

The Christian reader should be aware that the Hebrew name Joshua (Yashou’) was translated
into Greek as Jesus (Yasou’). Indeed, Joshua, successor of Moses, and Jesus of Nazareth have
more than their name in common. They both begin their ministry on the banks of the Jordan
River, leading the people through the waters into the Kingdom of God. Both these men will
have to purify the land of evil spirits in order to prepare a people that can radiate God’s light
to the extents of the earth. The first Joshua/Jesus prepares the Christian for the second
Joshua/Jesus.

The Book of Joshua underlines the fulfillment of the promises given by God to the Patriarchs
in the first of the Books of the Law. God had promised that the people would have a land and
it is the task of Joshua to lead the people into the land after their forty years of wandering in
the wilderness. Joshua, like Moses before him, is guided by God and is informed right at the
beginning of his ministry that God will be with him. The Book of Joshua begins with the
emphasis on the fidelity to the Torah rather than on military strategy in the campaign to
conquer the land. Israel’s strength and courage would be manifest in the strict observance of
God’s commandments. “Only be strong and very courageous being careful to act in
accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you” (Joshua 1:7). The
people’s courage was manifest in their willingness to live lives of holiness and righteousness.

The big surprise of the Book of Joshua comes in the second chapter when the two spies
Joshua had sent into the land to spy out Jericho, the first objective in the conquest of the land,
found refuge in the house of Rahab, a local Canaanite prostitute. In the book of Deuteronomy,
it seemed that the fate of the indigenous inhabitants of the land was sealed: their sinfulness,
reaching its peak in the sacrifice of their own children to idols, would be punished and they
would be destroyed. “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to
enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you (…) and when the Lord your
God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no
covenant with them and show them no mercy” (Deuteronomy 7:1-2). However, the encounter
with Rahab revealed her faith and she became an instrument of salvation for herself and those
who believed with her.

Entering the land by crossing the Jordan River that parted like the Red Sea at the time of the
Exodus, the people followed the Ark of the Covenant, borne aloft by the priests. They
sanctified themselves for this moment of crossing in as they had before meeting God at Sinai
(3:2-5, cf. Ex 19:10-25). This crossing was initiated by “the feet of the priests bearing the ark”
being baptized in the water (Joshua 3:15). The first acts of the people in the land were not
military as befits a conquest but rather liturgical as befits a people at prayer: first, the people
were circumcised and then they celebrated the feast of Passover. Read in this light, the first
battle to be fought, at Jericho, was described like a liturgical procession around the city.
Although the order to destroy the residents of the city was chilling, “the city and all that is in
it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction” (Joshua 6:17), its focus was on the saving of
Rahab and all those gathered in her home: “Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with
her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers we sent” (Joshua 6:17).

Another surprise in the book was revealed during the battle for Ai, the second city to be
conquered. This time, God withdrew from the people and they were defeated in the first round
of the battle. After the stunning victory in Jericho, why this crushing defeat at Ai? The reason
for the defeat, the people discovered, was that one of the Israelites, Akhan son of Carmi, had
disobeyed the commandment of God and taken loot from Jericho. The sin of Akhan had led to
God withdrawing from the people and the consequence was defeat in the battlefield. Akhan
and his household were sentenced to death, a fate echoing that of the people of Jericho.
Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute, was saved by faith and Akhan, an Israelite, was damned
through his infidelity. Israel had to learn that God has no favourites and expects faithfulness
from all.

Throughout the History Books, the contemporary reader might be shocked by the violence
that fills the narratives. The story of the violent conquest of the land in the Book of Joshua is
indeed a preparation for the violence the people faced when the land was lost, first to the
Assyrians and then to the Babylonians.

Ultimately, the Book of Joshua recounted the fulfilment of God’s promise: by the end of the
book, the people had established their presence in the land. After a long description of the
contours of the land won with God’s help and that is a gift to the people, the book concludes:
“Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to their ancestors that he would give
them; and having taken possession of it, they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on
every side just as he had sworn to their ancestors; not one of all their enemies had withstood
them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the good
promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass” (Joshua
21:43-45). The final narratives tell of the renewal of the covenant in Sichem (Nablus), as the
people committed themselves once again to the Word of God. “We will serve the Lord”
(24:21), promising to purge themselves of idolatrous practices (24:15-17).

The Book of Joshua tells the story of the fulfilment of God’s promise and the words “Not one
of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to
pass” (Joshua 21:45) should perhaps be the end the story. However, the Book of Judges that
follows makes clear that the people did not remain faithful to their covenantal promise.
Indeed, like the story of Adam and Eve, the people were tempted to abandon the Word of God
and sinned gravely against God. In the Book of Judges, twelve times a basic narrative repeats
itself. The people sinned; the enemies of the people were able to oppress them; the people
cried out in their suffering; God heard their cry and sent a savior (known as a judge); the
judge was victorious, liberating the people; as long as the judge lived, the people renewed
their fidelity but when the judge died, the people sinned once again. The most important of the
judges was Gideon, whose resounding victory over the Midianites liberated the people from
oppression and suffering.

When Gideon was old, the people came to him and said, “Rule over us, you and your son and
your grandson also; for you have delivered us out of the hand of Midian” (Judges 8:22).
Gideon understood the catastrophic nature of this request. It clearly implied that the people
had forgotten that they had a king, the God who had brought them forth from Egypt to realize
the Kingdom of God. He replied, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you;
the Lord will rule over you” (Judges 8:23). However, after his death, Gideon’s illegitimate
son, Avimelekh, made himself king, ruling in Sichem (Nablus). His first act as king was to
murder his brothers; only one escaped to denounce him. Whereas Sichem was the place where
the people had sworn covenantal fidelity to God at the end of the Book of Joshua, in Judges
the city became synonymous with the sin of refusing the kingship of God. Avimelekh was the
first in a series of kings who led the people into sin.

Whereas in the Books of the Law, the central figure is the priest, in the History Books, the
central figure is the king. When the people crossed the Sea on leaving Egypt, they heard
Moses proclaim, “The Lord will reign forever and ever” (Exodus 15:18) – a proclamation of
the kingship of God. Just before entering the land, Moses, teaching the people once again the
law, had given them the laws of the king. These laws began with the fact that the request for a
king would come from the people. “When you have come into the land that the Lord your God
is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "I will set a king
over me, like all the nations that are around me” (Deuteronomy 17:14). This request would
reveal that not only had the people forgotten that they had a king, God their Redeemer, but
that they also sought to be like other nations. Instead of being “a light to the nations”, the
people followed the false light of the nations, seeking to imitate them in having a king of flesh
and blood. In the law, Moses explained that God would allow the people to have a king, on
condition that the king would not have too many horses, too many wives or too much wealth
(all obstacles to trust in God). Furthermore, the king would be an example to the people:
“When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law written for him
in the presence of the Levitical priests. It shall remain with him and he shall read in it all the
days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, diligently observing all the
words of this law and these statutes” (Deuteronomy 17:18-19). The first king in Israel,
Avimelekh son of Gideon, was a catastrophic initiation of kings in Israel, representing the
very opposite of a God-fearing leader, whose life reflected the word of God.

The last five chapters of the Book of Judges recount the descent of the people into darkness.
These are among the most violent chapters in the Bible, recounting a violence within the
people as they sink into a reality of idolatry, murder and civil war. The repeated refrain in
these chapters, as well as the last verse of the book, is, “In those days there was no king in
Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25 cf. 17:6, 18:1, 19:1).
Clearly, there was no king in Israel however the clear implication is that the people had
rejected God as their king. An important place emerges in this history of sin – the town of
Bethlehem, hometown of both the idolatrous priest (Judges 17:7) and the ravished concubine
(Judges 19:1). An Israelite Bethlehem reflected the Gentile Jericho as a place of chaotic sin.
Both foreshadowed a too often sinful Jerusalem.
Following this horrific tale of Israel’s descent into the darkness of sin, the Christian Bible
continues with the magnificent story of Ruth, the Moabite woman, who entered the covenant
with God by choice and came to live in Bethlehem, redeeming it so that it could become the
city of David and of the son of David. Ruth was a Gentile pagan whose faith in the God of
Israel provided a model for conversion just like Abraham’s, as she too left her land, her tribe
and her father’s house. According to the Torah, Moabites and Ammonites were never to be
included in the people of God (cf. Deuteronomy 23:4). Ruth, like Rahab, was a great surprise
as they become models of a faith, lived in obedience to a God. These two women challenged
the idea of the people of God, too often assimilated to simple ethnicity or nationalism. The
people of God, who should have been an example for the nations, was at times unfaithful to
their vocation. The nations, called to follow the example of Israel, could then offer Israel
Rahab and Ruth, two models to be followed. When the people of God were not a light to the
nations, those from among the nations might be a light to Israel. Both these remarkable
Gentile women featured in the genealogy of Jesus according to the Gospel of Saint Matthew
(cf. Matthew 1:5).

The Books of Samuel and Kings tell the story of the kings of Israel (in the Greek Bible they
are called the four books of the Kingdoms). They mark the slow deterioration of the people in
the land, a deterioration that will ultimately lead to the Exile. Leadership of the people in the
time of the Judges was charismatic, meaning a gift from God. God poured his spirit on the
judges who were filled with wisdom, strength and courage. However, the people demanded a
king, meaning a leader according to dynastic principles. Inevitably, the leader would no longer
be one God chose but rather the son of the previous king. Samuel was the last charismatic
leader before the institution of the monarchy. His predecessor as leader, Eli, had had worthless
sons, corrupt and cruel. Samuel’s own sons were not men of God either. Whereas this fact,
saintly fathers having sinful children, should have averted the people to the dangers of the
dynastic principle, they came to Samuel and demanded a king. They were motivated by the
fact that Samuel’s sons were corrupt and therefore unworthy to follow him, but they expressed
the desire to be like other peoples in the world as well. “Appoint for us then a king to govern
us like other nations” (1Samuel 8:5). For Samuel, the tragedy was twofold. He, the exemplary
judge, had to endure the disgrace of unworthy sons as well as see the people rejecting the
kingship of God, preferring a king of flesh and blood.

At God’s command, Samuel ceded to the people’s desire. However, God ordered him to warn
them of the danger of having a king. The king would inevitably become like Pharaoh in Egypt
and the kings of the nations, tyrannical and cruel. He would transform the people into slaves:
“He will take one tenth of your flocks and you shall be his slaves” (1Samuel 8:17). God then
warned the people: “When that day comes, you will cry out on account of the king… but on
that day the Lord will not answer you” (1Samuel 8:18). God had saved his people from a
foreign king in Egypt and tyrannical kings in the land, yet from the hands of an unjust king the
people has chosen themselves, God would not save them. Yet the elders insisted and repeated
their refusal of God’s kingship. “No! but we are determined to have a king over us” (1Samuel
8:19).

Thus begins the long history of the kings. Although some are presented as righteous and just
(particularly Hezekiah and Josiah), the Biblical historian judged the vast majority severely.
The first of the kings in this series was Saul from the tribe of Benjamin. He is one of the most
tragic figures in the Bible. Saul began as a good king, humble and courageous, chosen by God
and consulting him at every step of the way. However, Saul did not remain faithful to God and
the consequences would be terrible. Saul’s disobedience was crowned when he refused to
destroy the Amalekites, defeated in battle, according to the commandment given in
Deuteronomy, “You shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; do not
forget” (Deuteronomy 25:19). Instead of following the Torah, Saul spared Agag. King of the
Amalekites. Therefore, God told Samuel, the one who had anointed Saul, “I regret that I
made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not carried out my
commands” (1Samuel 15:11). The change was immediate: “Now the spirit of the Lord
departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him” (1Samuel 16:14).

God ordered a hesitant and reluctant Samuel to go and anoint David son of Jesse in Bethlehem
to replace Saul as the next king. Following David’s anointing and introduction into the court,
Saul was plunged into a profound state of desolation, consumed by jealousy as he watched
David succeed in slaying Goliath the Philistine and bring victory to the people. Even those
closest to Saul went over to David’s side, Saul’s own son, Jonathan, who should have been the
next king, and his daughter, Michal, both expressing love and support for David. Long
chapters describe Saul’s tragic descent into madness and finally he and Jonathan were killed
in battle, provoking the dramatic lament of David (2Samuel 1).

Undoubtedly, the most important of the kings was David. However, the first series of history
books recorded that even he, beloved by God (his name is derived from the Hebrew word for
love), was a great sinner. After successfully vanquishing multiple enemies, revealing that God
was with him, filling him with wisdom, courage and the ability to lead, he drifted away from
God. Having conquered Jerusalem and built himself a large palace, he remembered that God
still dwelt in a tent, the Tent of Meeting. Imagining God to be in his image and likeness, he
immediately decided to build God a palace too, a great Temple. However, God reminded
David that God is not in the image of a king of flesh and blood. “Are you the one to build me
a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel
from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle” (2Samuel
7:5-6). Instead, God promised that he would build a house for David, a dynasty, and that
David’s son would “build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom
forever” (2Samuel 7:13). Solomon, David’s son would succeed him and build the great
Temple but it would be another “son of David”, a thousand years later, who would be the one
whose kingdom would have no end and who would realize the Temple that God truly desires:
a body that was the Word made flesh, that accomplished every word of the Law and the
Prophets, the Temple of the Spirit.

The descent of David into the darkest of sins was a direct consequence of David’s success.
When he was at the pinnacle of his power, he forgot the Law, the word of God he was
supposed to implement. While his soldiers were engaged in yet another war, David coveted
the wife of one of his soldiers, a beautiful woman named Bathsheba. David’s eyes devoured
her as she bathed on a rooftop under David’s window. Eyes that wander the world tempt us to
forget the word of God we have heard with our ears. David took Bathsheba in an act of
flagrant adultery and when he learnt that she was pregnant, he tried to cover up his sin by
inviting back her husband Uriah from the battlefront, hoping that the unsuspecting husband
would spend time with his wife and thus believe that the child in her womb was his own.
When the faithful soldier refused to go to his home, remaining in solidarity with the soldiers at
the front, David sent him back into battle with instructions that he be abandoned on the
battlefield and thus be killed by the enemy. David then took Bathsheba as his wife. David’s
eye had led him into the darkest regions of sinfulness: adultery, lying and ultimately murder.
However, it was then, when he was at his lowest, that David also revealed his greatness.
Nathan the prophet, sent to chastise David, told him a parable, reflecting his terrible deed.
David’s ability to hear the parable and understand what it meant provoked his profound
remorse and confession. The Church adopted the words attributed to David as he confessed
his sin, making them a well-known confession for all who seek to repent: “Have mercy on me,
O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my
transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I
know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:1-3).

David would know much tragedy in his later life as king. The first child conceived by
Bathsheba would die because of David’s sin and the second son, Solomon, would be his
successor. However, among his sons were sinners and one of them would even revolt against
his father. Absalom, beloved son of David, made a bid to overthrow his father, succeeding in
expelling him from Jerusalem. David’s painful retreat as Absalom advanced on Jerusalem,
would see David ascending the Mount of Olives in disgrace, cursed by one of his subjects.
This tragic scene would be reversed when “the son of David” descended the Mount of Olives,
acclaimed as king, a week before his crucifixion, many centuries later. Towards the end of
David’s life, the question raised again and again was whether it was God who ruled over the
land or rather a man led by his passion for power and domination.

David was succeeded by his son Solomon despite the unrest and intrigue that marked the end
of his reign. Solomon, at the beginning of his reign, was a wise and faithful king. When God
offered Solomon anything he wanted, the humble and discerning king responded, “Give your
servant therefore a hearing heart to govern your people, able to discern between good and
evil; for who can govern this your great people?” (1Kings 3:9). God therefore gives Solomon
“understanding to discern what is right” (1Kings 3:11) and this king became the exemplary
wise man in the Biblical tradition. It was Solomon who built the great temple in Jerusalem.
Even though God had said to David that he did not need a Temple but was satisfied in a “tent
and a tabernacle” (2Samuel 7:6), Solomon did build a magnificent edifice that would serve to
remind the people of their vocation to be a holy people, a kingdom of priests. When the
Temple was completed, Solomon officiated at its dedication and prophetically proclaimed that
the Temple also had a universal vocation. It was not to be only a house of worship for
Solomon’s subjects, but a place where all nations would come. Solomon prayed, “Likewise
when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your
name - for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm -
when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling
place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the
earth may know your name and fear you” (1Kings 8:41-43).

However, when Solomon reached the pinnacle of success, like his father David, he forgot the
word of God that was supposed to be at the centre of his life. The description of his last years
were in stark contrast to the laws for a king that God had revealed through Moses in the Book
of Deuteronomy. Whereas the Law said, “He must not acquire many horses for himself, or
return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses” (Deuteronomy 17:16), Solomon
“gathered together chariots and horses” and his “import of horses was from Egypt” (1Kings
10:26-28). Horses were a sign of military strength, but the people of God were supposed to
rely on the strength of God. Whereas the Law said, “he must not acquire many wives for
himself, or else his heart will turn away” (Deuteronomy 17:17), Solomon “loved many
foreign women” and “his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred
concubines; and his wives turned away his heart” (1Kings 11:1-3). Foreign wives were a sign
of diplomatic relations with kings and emperors but the people of God were supposed to be a
nation apart, pure of the idolatry these wives would bring. Whereas the Law said, “Silver and
gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself” (Deuteronomy 17:17), “the weight of
gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold, besides that
which came from the traders and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of
Arabia and the governors of the land” (1Kings 10:14-15). Enormous wealth enabled self-
sufficiency, but the people of God were supposed to trust in God’s providence.

Upon the death of Solomon, his son and heir, Rehoboam, provoked the division of the
kingdom by his likeness to Pharaoh. When he was challenged by the rebel, Jeroboam son of
Nebat, who had fled to Egypt in the time of Solomon, demanding that Rehoboam lighten the
heavy load of work and taxes Solomon had imposed, Rehoboam responded like a true
Pharaoh. “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined
you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions” (1Kings 12:14). Thus, the kingdom
was divided at Sichem (Nablus); the city which had been the place of the covenant of fidelity
at the end of the life of Joshua and had then become the locus of the sinfulness of Avimelekh.
The northern part of the kingdom came under the rule of Jeroboam, whose successors were all
kings who did evil in the sight of God, a refrain that punctuated the history of the northern
kingdom. Jeroboam inaugurated this descent into darkness with the attempt to win the people
away from worship in Jerusalem. To substitute the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he constructed
two golden calves in two shrines erected in Bethel and in Dan, proclaiming to the people,
“Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (1Kings 12:28).
These words were a perfect echo of the words that Aaron proclaimed after he formed the
Golden Calf at Sinai (cf. Exodus 32:4), the terrible sin of idolatry that had left a stain on the
people. From this point on the two books of Kings followed the two kingdoms until their
ultimate destruction, first of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 at the hands of the
Assyrians and then of the southern kingdom of Judah in 587 at the hands of the Babylonians.

Among a series of evil kings in the north, the pinnacle is reached with Ahab. He is described
as the one who “did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. And as if
it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he took as his
wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and
worshiped him” (1Kings 16:30-31). In his days the city of Jericho was rebuilt, contravening
the oath made by Joshua that whoever would rebuild the city would be cursed. It was in the
days of Ahab that Elijah the great prophet of God appeared to accuse the king and reprove
him. The tales of Elijah and his fearless struggles against Ahab and his pagan wife Jezebel
constituted an important part of the narrative. Evil continued unabated in the north until the
Assyrians laid waste the kingdom. “This occurred because the people of Israel had sinned
against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the
hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods and walked in the customs of
the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the
kings of Israel had introduced” (2Kings 17:7-8). In the lament for the kingdom, the sins of the
people were retold in detail, focusing on how the people had become the image and likeness
of the peoples which had inhabited the land before the Israelites, even to the point of copying
their abominable acts, sacrificing their own children to idols.

Whereas all the kings of the northern kingdom were described as doing evil in the sight of the
Lord, in the southern kingdom some of the kings did good. One of the most important good
kings of Judah, Hezekiah, reigned in the south at the time of the destruction of the northern
kingdom. “He did what was right in the sight of the Lord just as his ancestor David had done.
He removed the high places (…) He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel; so that there was
no one like him among all the kings of Judah after him, or among those who were before him.
For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following him but kept the
commandments that the Lord commanded Moses” (2Kings 18:3-6). Isaiah, the great prophet,
informed Hezekiah that God had heard his prayers and would indeed save the southern
kingdom. Later, Hezekiah’s prayers also resulted in the king being healed from mortal illness.
However, this righteous king had a son, Manasseh, who was the worst of the southern kings.
“He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, following the abominable practices of the
nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that
his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal, made a sacred pole, as King
Ahab of Israel had done, worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them” (2Kings 21:2-3).
The comparison with Ahab underlines the evil behavior of Manasseh, who is also accused of
making “his son pass through fire” (2Kings 21:6), the very peak of sinfulness: child sacrifice.
It was in the time of Manasseh that God revealed to the prophets that the southern kingdom
and its capital, Jerusalem, would soon be destroyed.

Manasseh was succeeded by his son, Amon, who walked in the evil ways of his father,
however Amon’s son, Josiah, was the last righteous king. Josiah became a reformer king who
renovated the Temple. During these renovations, a book of the law (some believe this to be
the central part of the Book of Deuteronomy) was found and brought to the king. “When the
king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes” (2Kings 22:11). The king was
distraught as he heard the words of the law and realized how far from these words the people
had strayed. Josiah’s reform was recorded as a real holy war, not unlike that of Joshua’s.
Joshua and Josiah seek to purify the land of the stain of idolatry. At the end of this
purification, Josiah calls for a mass celebration of Passover like had never been celebrated
before. Josiah was remembered as a true king and his justice and righteousness delayed the
judgment of God on the southern kingdom. “Before him there was no king like him, who
turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all
the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him” (2Kings 23:25). He conformed to the
law of the king given to the people before it entered the land whereby a king should “have a
copy of this law written for him (…) and he shall read in it all the days of his life”
(Deuteronomy 17:18-19). The great tragedy however was that Josiah was killed in battle at
Mount Megiddo by the Egyptians. Josiah’s death was a catastrophe for the people and the
name of the place of his death, Mount Megiddo, in Greek “Armagedon”, became synonymous
with the apocalyptic wars at the end of time (cf. Revelation 16:16).

Josiah would be succeeded by three of his sons and a grandchild who would all be added to
the list of those who did “evil in the sight of the Lord” (2Kings 23:32.37, 24:9.19) as the
kingdom hurtled towards destruction. First the Egyptians exiled Jehoahaz, Josiah’s heir, and
appointed his brother Jehoiakim in his place. During his reign, the Babylonians moved against
the kingdom and Jehoiakim became a Babylonian vassal. “Surely this came upon Judah at the
command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, for all that he
had committed, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed; for he filled Jerusalem with
innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to pardon” (2Kings 24:3-4). Jehoiakim’s son,
Jehoiachin, after a reign of only three months, was carried off to exile and replaced by his
uncle, renamed Zedekiah. Zedekiah did not accept the judgment of God and rebelled against
the Babylonians, who had been sent to punish the people of God. This rebellion provoked the
Babylonians to destroy the city and the holy Temple in its midst. Zedekiah, after having to
watch his sons being killed before his eyes, was blinded and led into exile. For the author, it
was clear that sin brings terrible consequences that result from the anger of God.
The destruction at the hands of the Babylonians meant the exile of the people: an exile that
implied the collective death of the people. God, who had foreseen that the people would be an
instrument of salvation for all the nations, tragically worked through the nations to punish a
rebellious people. The terrifying description of the fate of Jerusalem had already been
recounted at the end of the Book of Deuteronomy, where it appears as part of the curses if the
word of God be ignored. “The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the end of the
earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a
grim-faced nation showing no respect to the old or favour to the young” (Deuteronomy 28:49-
50). The land meant for the people’s rest reverted to be a primordial wilderness (like the world
before creation, “a formless wasteland” (Genesis 1:2), and the people, in writing these texts,
recognized their responsibility. At the end of 2Kings the conclusion of what had begun in the
Book of Joshua is reached, not a glorious tale about the entry into a land but ultimately the
tragic saga of the exit from the land. The land had been gained as a gift from God, but it was
lost through the sins of the people. Writing this account, the author taught how to confess sin
and take responsibility for its consequences.

Grace, resurrection and thanksgiving

After the end of the long saga telling the people’s history, why is it necessary to repeat the
story again? This is exactly what a second series of books, from 1Chronicles until Nehemiah,
does. However, this time the focus is not on the confession of sins but on the breathtaking
grace of God and the need to praise him and offer thanks. Whereas the first series had ended
with the death of the people in Exile, the second series has at its center the exhilarating and
surprising testimony to the resurrection of the people. Whereas the first series of history books
had been edited under the influence of the destruction of the Temple and the exile, the second
series was edited in the light of the return and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

1Chronicles goes back right to the beginning of history. The first word in the book is “Adam”
(1Chronicles 1:1), the inauguration of ten chapters that contain the genealogy of the people of
God, from their origins until the time of the return from the exile in Babylon. The continuity
of the generations, despite all the vicissitudes of history, bears witness to the fidelity of God
that has preserved the people throughout the generations.

1Chronicles focused on the character of King David. Passing very hastily over the figure of
King Saul, the writer commented: “So Saul died for his unfaithfulness; he was unfaithful to
the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord; moreover, he had consulted a
medium, seeking guidance, and did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore, the Lord put
him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse” (1Chronicles 10:13-14).
David is the hero of Chronicles but was characterized very differently from the David
described in 2Samuel. Rather than a man of war, a political leader, embroiled in conflicts with
myriad enemies, David in 1Chronicles was a spiritual leader, a religious innovator and a
model of praise and thanksgiving. After having been made king in Hebron, David set off to
conquer Jerusalem, the city that would be the central place of worship and thanksgiving.

Having united the people around him, David turned his attention to the Ark of the Covenant.
The transferal of the Ark from Kiryat Yearim to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite and from
there to the City of David in Jerusalem is recounted with much more detail than in 2Samuel.
The pageantry of the processions with the special role of the Levites in the transfer to
Jerusalem underlined the significance of worship in the Chronicler’s writing. David said to the
Levites: “You are the heads of families of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, you and your
kindred, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I
have prepared for it. Because you did not carry it the first time, the LORD our God burst out
against us, because we did not give it proper care" (1Chronicles 15:12-13). Once the Ark was
installed, David in 1Chronicles took special care to appoint those whom would minister
before the Ark. Of particular importance were those who would sing the praises of God.
“Then on that day David first appointed the singing of praises to the Lord by Asaph and his
kindred. O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the
peoples. Sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wonderful works” (1Chronicles 16:7-
9). The various ministers of song and praise, Asaph and later Heman and Yedutun (cf.
1Chronicles 25:1) are known also from the Book of Psalms, as composers of some of the
psalms of praise and thanksgiving.

The rest of the of the story of David in 1Chronicles included many of the episodes that had
been told in 2Samuel, but the Chronicler did not repeat the tragic stories about David’s sin
with Bathsheba, the problems with David’s sons and their acts of rebellion. However, it was at
the end of the narrative about David that the Chronicler made the most significant alteration to
the previous account. Chapters 22 to 29 in 1Chronicles detailed the plans David made at the
end of his life for the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. In an act that paralleled the
gathering of materials for the construction of the Ark and the Tent in Exodus 25, in the days
of Moses, David too gathered material for the Temple that would be built by Solomon. “For
David said, "My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for
the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorified throughout all lands; I will
therefore make preparation for it." So, David provided materials in great quantity before his
death” (1 Chronicles 22:5). Furthermore, David called Solomon and explained to his
successor, “My son, I had planned to build a house to the name of the Lord my God. But the
word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'You have shed much blood and have waged great wars;
you shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood in my sight on
the earth. See, a son shall be born to you; he shall be a man of peace. I will give him peace
from all his enemies on every side; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and
quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name. He shall be a son to me, and I
will be a father to him, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever” (1Chronicles
22:7-10).

David, in 1Chronicles, paralleled Moses in the Pentateuch. Like Moses, who gave the law that
would govern the life of the people in the land although he did not enter the land himself, so
David laid out in detail the plans for the Temple (cf. 1Chronicles 28:11-21) although it would
be his son who would implement them. Like Moses in his farewell discourses, David too gave
instruction to the people and their leaders. “Set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your
God. Go and build the sanctuary of the Lord God so that the ark of the covenant of the Lord
and the holy vessels of God may be brought into a house built for the name of the Lord”
(1Chronicles 22:19). The chapters that follow detailed not only the instructions to build the
Temple but also the organization of the people around it, with special attention devoted to the
Levites and priests. Instructing the Levites, David explained that their ministry was one of
praise and thanksgiving. “They shall stand every morning, thanking and praising the Lord,
and likewise at evening” (1Chronicles 23:30). The Levites were to assist the twenty-four
classes of priests.

What was striking in the organization of the ministers in the Temple according to 1Chronicles,
was the central place accorded those who would sing the praises of God. The focus was
clearly no longer on the cult of sacrifices (‫ )عبادة القرابين‬alone but rather on the worship of the
lips (‫)عبادة الشفتين‬, prayer and song. “The sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Yedutun, who
should prophesy with lyres, harps, and cymbals” (1Chronciles 25:1), were set apart for this
ministry. This worship praise and thanksgiving was identified by the Chronicler as an act of
prophecy. Saint Augustine reminded the Church, ““For he that sings praises, not only
praises, but praises with gladness: he that sings praises, not only sings, but also loves him of
whom he sings. In praise, there is the speaking forth of one confessing; in singing, the
affection of one loving” (Commentary on Psalm 73). The twenty-four groups of singers
corresponded to the twenty-four classes of priest.

Once David had completed his instructions, he blessed God. “Blessed are you, O Lord, the
God of our ancestor Israel, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the
glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours;
yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honor come
from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to
make great and to give strength to all. And now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise
your glorious name” (1 Chronicles 29:10-13). This magnificent doxology was part of David’s
heritage to the people of God, teaching the people how to say thank you to God. The planning
of David and his instructions to Solomon and the people were cause of an outpouring of joy.
The final scene of David’s life in 1Chronicles recalls the intimate moments of communion
during the life of Moses (cf. the vision of God following the Sinai covenant, cf. Exodus 24:9-
11 and the vision of God following the inauguration of the cult, cf. Leviticus 9:22-24). “Then
David said to the whole assembly, "Bless the Lord your God." And all the assembly blessed
the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before
the Lord and the king. On the next day they offered sacrifices and burnt offerings to the Lord,
a thousand bulls, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, with their libations, and sacrifices
in abundance for all Israel; and they ate and drank before the Lord on that day with great
joy” (1Chronicles 29:20-22). The Chronicler’s David represented a luminous model of a
believer, teaching how to praise and give thanks.

2Chronicles begins with the reign of King Solomon. He came to carry out the instructions of
his father, David. In some senses, he was like Joshua, who led the people into the land to
fulfill the instructions given through Moses. The book began with the affirmation, “Solomon
son of David established himself in his kingdom; the Lord his God was with him and made
him exceedingly great” (2Chronicles 1:1). After an affirmation of his wisdom and wealth, the
Chronicler described the construction of the Temple, a palace for the king and public works
for the benefit of the people. The darker side of Solomon and the heavy sinfulness of his last
years were not intimated to in the Chronicler’s narrative. Rather, Solomon’s piety was
underlined: “Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord that he
had built in front of the vestibule, as the duty of each day required, offering according to the
commandment of Moses for the sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual festivals-- the
festival of unleavened bread, the festival of weeks, and the festival of booths. According to the
ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and
the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry alongside the priests as the duty of each day
required, and the gatekeepers in their divisions for the several gates; for so David the man of
God had commanded” (2Chronicles 8:12-14).

At the end of his reign, not only the Queen of Sheba but “all the kings of the earth”
(2Chronicles 9:23) came to bear homage to Solomon. He was described as having many
horses and much wealth (the multitude of wives was left out), however no sin was imputed to
these possessions. Therefore, Solomon died in good standing with God. The duo, David and
Solomon not only recalled Moses and Joshua, but also prepared for a future duo, Ezra, the
priest, and Nehemiah, the governor, from the Persian period, when the Books of Chronicles
were written.

Although 2Chronicles did recount the split of the kingdom at the time that Jeroboam
challenged Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, from then on 2Chronicles almost completely ignored
the fate of the northern kingdom except where it intersected with the history of the southern
kingdom. Only the history of the line of David in the southern kingdom was recounted with
special attention being paid to the Temple, the priesthood and worship.

2Chronicles retold the narrative of 1 and 2Kings in an abbreviated form not only omitting the
history of the northern kingdom but also shortening the political and military history of the
southern kingdom. Wherever the narrative was lengthened and embellished, it touched upon
worship in the Temple and the defense of the true priesthood. A first example of this was
during the reign of Rehoboam. The Chronicler reported the flight of priests and Levites from
the northern kingdom, who desired to remain faithful to the Temple in Jerusalem. “Those who
had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel
to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. They strengthened the
kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam son of Solomon secure, for they
walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon” (2Chronicles 11:16-17). Similarly,
King Abijah son of Rehoboam battled the northern kingdom, accusing it of having expelled
the true priests. “Have you not driven out the priests of the Lord, the descendants of Aaron,
and the Levites, and made priests for yourselves like the peoples of other lands? Whoever
comes to be consecrated with a young bull or seven rams becomes a priest of what are no
gods. But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not abandoned him. We have priests
ministering to the Lord who are descendants of Aaron, and Levites for their service”
(2Chronicles 13:9-10).

2Chronicles emphasized the care of the Temple and the cultic reforms of the good kings like
Asa, Jehoshaphat and Joash. Among the most extensive additions of the Chronicler were the
reforms carried out by King Hezekiah. Succeeding his evil father, Ahaz, Hezekiah undertook
these extensive reforms, including of the priests and Levites. “Listen to me, Levites! Sanctify
yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and carry out the
filth from the holy place. For our ancestors have been unfaithful and have done what was evil
in the sight of the Lord our God; they have forsaken him and have turned away their faces
from the dwelling of the Lord and turned their backs. (…) Now it is in my heart to make a
covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My
sons do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence to minister
to him, and to be his ministers and make offerings to him” (2Chronicles 29:5-6.10-11).
Hezekiah convoked a great rite of expiation and then promulgated a celebration of the
Passover one month late because of the need to purify the Temple. Hezekiah’s righteousness
saved the kingdom from the hands of the Assyrians and he ended his days wealthy, honored
and beloved.

The most surprising embellishment regarded the figure of King Manasseh, son of Hezekiah.
Remembered as the evilest of the kings of the southern kingdom, 2Chronicles told the tale of
his conversion. 2Chronicles echoed the harsh judgment of 2Kings, even noting that he
“misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than the nations
whom the Lord had destroyed before the people of Israel” (2Chronicles 33:9). However, when
Manasseh was taken captive by the Assyrians, he repented of the evil he had done, and God
took pity on him. “While he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and
humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. He prayed to him, and God received
his entreaty, heard his plea, and restored him again to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then
Manasseh knew that the Lord indeed was God” (2Chronicles 33:12-13). Restored to his
kingdom, Manasseh became a religious reformer, a great builder and, like his ancestor David,
a model of conversion. However, his son Amon continued in the evil ways of his father.

Amon’s son and heir, Josiah, like in 2Kings, was a good king. 2Chronicles insisted on his
righteousness, noting that his reforms began even before the Book of the Law was discovered
in the Temple. “For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a boy, he began to seek
the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and
Jerusalem of the high places, the sacred poles, and the carved and the cast images”
(2Chronicles 34:3). 2Chronicles also added a much more detailed description of the great
Passover celebrated by Josiah, like that of his great-grandfather Hezekiah. Josiah’s death at
Megiddo was not simply retold in 2Chronicles but was imputed to a sin on his part, ignoring
the word of God, who told him to stay out of the battle. “He did not listen to the words of
Neco (the Egyptian pharaoh) from the mouth of God but joined battle in the plain of Megiddo”
(2Chronicles 35:22).

Josiah was successively followed by the last four kings of the southern kingdom. The last of
these kings, Zedekiah (the Chronicler identified him as the grandson of Josiah although
2Kings had identified him as Josiah’s son, was described in the terms that had been used for
Pharaoh in the time of Moses. “He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning
to the Lord, the God of Israel” (2Chronicles 36:13). The Chronicler also added a reflection on
the final destruction of the southern kingdom, resulting from the corruption of the priesthood.
“All the leading priests and the people also were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the
abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the Lord that he had consecrated
in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent persistently to them by his
messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place; but they
kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until
the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy”
(2Chronicles 36:14-16).

Unlike 2Kings, 2Chronicles did not end with destruction. For 2Kings the exile was a black
hole of despair provoking a heartfelt confession. For 2Chronicles the exile was the fulfillment
of a prophecy of Jeremiah, a time of Sabbath rest and had to last seventy years. The exile
happened “to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made
up for its sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years”
(2Chronicles 36:21). The seventy years might be the period that stretched from the death of
Josiah in 609 BC, a beginning of the great tragedy, until 539, when Cyrus brought the exile to
an end. Alternatively, it may refer to the time between the destruction of the Temple in 587
BC and the dedication of the new Temple in 515 BC. Deftly leaping over the years of exile,
2Chronicles ended with the return. “In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in fulfillment of
the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of
Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom and also declared in a written
edict: "Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the
kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in
Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him! Let him go
up"” (2Chronicles 36:22-23).
The exile was undoubtedly one of the most important events in the history of the ancient
people, leaving traces on the future development of both Judaism and Christianity. However,
it was hardly mentioned at all in the Biblical narrative. Ezra, the book that follows Chronicles,
began by citing the very same epistle of Cyrus, King of Persia, who permitted the people to
return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. In ancient tradition, the Books of Ezra and
Nehemiah were regarded as one single book, marking the time of transition of over one
hundred years after Cyrus’s epistle authorizing the return.

The first part of the Book of Ezra described the return from exile. First, the return was
recorded with special attention given to the priests and Levites. Leaving behind their
neighbors in exile, they received from them many gifts that would serve to rebuild the Temple
and King Cyrus entrusted to those returning, the Temple utensils that had been taken by the
Babylonians. This recalled the wealth that the Israelites had carried forth from Egypt at the
time of the exodus. Those returning restored the altar and celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles.
Then, the rebuilding of the Temple began in earnest. The laying of the foundations was the
occasion for an outpouring of praise and thanksgiving. “The priests in their vestments were
stationed to praise the Lord with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals,
according to the directions of King David of Israel; and they sang responsively, praising and
giving thanks to the Lord, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward
Israel." And all the people responded with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because
the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid” (Ezra 3:10-11). However, there was sadness
mingled in with the joy as those that remembered the Temple of Solomon realized that what
they were building was much less glorious than the Temple that had once been. “Many of the
priests and Levites and heads of families, old people who had seen the first house on its
foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, though many shouted aloud for
joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the
people's weeping, for the people shouted so loudly that the sound was heard far away” (Ezra
3:12-13).

The building project met with opposition from people in the land who had not been in exile,
whom many have taken to be Samaritans, although they were not mentioned by name. They
asked to be part of the rebuilding, but the returnees refused and so those who were refused
became enemies of those building. The Persian authorities stopped the building process for
some years until it was renewed again, encouraged by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, in
the time of King Darius. Darius not only reaffirmed that the Temple must indeed be rebuilt
without delay, but he also provided revenues and sacrifices for Temple worship. The first part
of the Book of Ezra ended with the communal celebration of the Passover.

Ezra the scribe, a descendant of Aaron, for whom the book was named, entered the scene only
in chapter 7, the events of which are often dated as having unfolded sometime in the middle of
the fifth century or even perhaps the beginning of the fourth century BC. Due to the leading
role he played in relaunching the religion of the people of God, Ezra was considered a new
Moses, who had given the Law, and a new David, who, according to Chronicles, had planned
the Temple. Historians have commonly held that Nehemiah’s mission preceded Ezra’s
historically, yet, perhaps because of Ezra’s prominence, Nehemiah’s mission is placed after
Ezra’s.

Ezra’s mission, described in Ezra 7-10, is at the center of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
First, Ezra, still in Babylon, provoked King Artaxerxes to promulgate a new decree that
renewed the call of Cyrus for the people to return to Jerusalem. Once again, the king made
generous contributions for the Temple. Ezra then led a delegation from Babylon to Jerusalem
and the narrative continued in first person as Ezra told of the delayed departure because there
was no Levite among those who constituted the returnees. When a group of Levites finally
joined them, they prepared themselves with prayer and fasting and departed, reaching
Jerusalem without problem. “The hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the
hand of the enemy and from ambushes along the way” (Ezra 8:31).

On Ezra’s arrival, he discovered that the people in Jerusalem had not remained faithful to the
Law and had intermarried with foreigners. These foreigners were called by the names of the
ancient peoples who had dwelt in the land before the time of the conquest in the days of
Joshua, “the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the
Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites” (Ezra 9:1), peoples that brought with them
idolatry and sinfulness. Ezra’s prayer of petition included at its center the praise of God for
the merciful restoration of the people to Jerusalem. “For a brief moment, favor has been
shown by the Lord our God, who has left us a remnant, and given us a stake in his holy place,
in order that he may brighten our eyes and grant us a little sustenance in our slavery. For we
are slaves; yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his
steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to give us new life to set up the house of our God, to
repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judea and Jerusalem” (Ezra 9:8-9). However, the
moment of mercy was preceded by generations of sinfulness and Ezra condemned the people
for again disobeying God. “And now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have
forsaken your commandments, which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying,
'The land that you are entering to possess is a land unclean with the pollutions of the peoples
of the lands, with their abominations. They have filled it from end to end with their
uncleanness” (Ezra 9:10-11). The language of Ezra was a reminder of the law in
Deuteronomy and a renewal of the vocation of those who must live holy lives in the land. The
response of the people was immediate, seeing Ezra in despair at their sinfulness, they
undertook to send away their foreign wives and renew their covenantal fidelity.

Ezra insisted on the purity of the people and his insistence that foreign wives be sent away is
troubling in moral terms and sounds like racism. Perhaps someone living through those events
wrote the Book of Ruth in reaction to these ideas in the Book of Ezra. The Book of Ruth
reminds the Biblical reader that some of the foreign wives of the people were great women
and shining examples of faith. A similar message is to be found in the Book of Jonah, where
the foreigners (the sailors and the people of Nineveh) were the ones who believed and
reformed their ways whereas Jonah remained unrepentant.

Nehemiah, a cupbearer in the court of the Persian king in Susa, was to Ezra what Joshua was
to Moses and Solomon to David (in Chronicles). Although historically he might have lived
before Ezra, in the Biblical story, he came after Ezra and continued the mission of
consolidating the people around the Temple and in Jerusalem. The narrative began with a
lament of Nehemiah, who had heard about the pitiable state of those who lived in Jerusalem.
“The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and shame;
the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire” (Nehemiah
1:3). King Artaxerxes, having noticed Nehemiah’s low spirits, agreed to send Nehemiah to
visit Jerusalem and bring relief to its residents. On arriving in Jerusalem, Nehemiah surveyed
the city and set out to repair the walls. Again, hostility was aroused, and the enemies of
Nehemiah were identified as Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the
Arab, who accused Nehemiah of seeking to rebel against the king by fortifying the city.
Nonetheless the repairing of the walls continued although increasing opposition meant that the
work force had to be split between builders and guards against enemy attacks.

Nehemiah was recorded in the book as a just governor, who responded to the cry of the poor
being oppressed by the rich. He made no profit from his great responsibilities but rather joined
the laborers in their daily work, particularly the building of the walls. Nehemiah’s enemies
continued to try and stop his project and even sought to do him harm physically, however,
displaying courage and great wisdom, he continued until the walls were rebuilt and the new
doors installed.

The last part of the narrative, in Nehemiah 7 to 13, listed again the returnees and then
described a new Sinai event. “Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was
standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra
blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their
hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground”
(Nehemiah 8:5-6). The assembled people represented the fulfillment of new life bestowed by
God on a people that had died and had been reborn. Blessing God, worshipping the One who
had raised them from the dead, the people bowed down before they listened to the words of
the law. These final narratives in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah placed the two
protagonists, Ezra and Nehemiah, side by side. “So, they read from the book, from the law of
God, with interpretation (perhaps translation into Aramaic as their language was no longer
the Hebrew of their ancestors). They gave the sense, so that the people understood the
reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the
Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law”
(Nehemiah 8:8-9). The people wept as they heard the law just as Josiah had done when he
heard the recitation of the book of the law that had been found in the Temple. Like Josiah, the
people realized that their lives did not correspond to what was written in the law and they
wept. However, Ezra said to the people, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and
send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord;
and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). This was a
time of conversion and communion, a renewal of the Sinai covenant. Like Moses, Aaron, his
sons and the seventy elders who gazed on God at the time of the Sinai covenant (cf. Exodus
24:11), so too at this event, the people must eat and drink, rejoicing in the renewal of fidelity.

The people gathered in Jerusalem then celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles and after the feast
again the people repented of their sins. Ezra recited for the people the events of the past, a
long summary of the events in the people’s history from the time of the Patriarchs, through
slavery in Egypt, the exodus, the receiving of the law at Sinai, the wandering in the
wilderness, the entry into the land and its conquest and the loss of the land through sin. At the
end of this retelling of history, Ezra turned to God and said, “Many years you were patient
with them, and warned them by your spirit through your prophets; yet they would not listen.
Therefore, you handed them over to the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great
mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful
God” (Nehemiah 9:30-31). Here again the grace of God shone through. This statement of
God’s acts for the people became a text signed and sealed by the leaders, priests and Levites, a
text that included the obligations of the people, ending with the undertaking: “We will not
neglect the house of our God” (Nehemiah 10:39).
At the end of the book of Nehemiah, one in every ten of the residents of the land was brought
to live in Jerusalem. The text recorded the names of the priests and Levites in the Holy City
too. However, when Nehemiah went to Susa to visit the king, the priests and the people
quickly forgot the ways of God. On Nehemiah’s return. He discovered their apostasy and
became very angry. “In those days I saw in Judah people treading wine presses on the
sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys; and also wine, grapes,
figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day; and I
warned them at that time against selling food” (Nehemiah 13:15). Till the end, Nehemiah
acted as a good leader, reproving the wicked and trying to bring about their conversion. “I
cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites,
each in his work” (Nehemiah 13:30).

The books of this second series, 1 and 2Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, teach how to thank
and praise God for the grace poured out on the world. The themes of thanksgiving and joy are
omnipresent, particularly in the focus on the planning, reform and restoration of the cult in the
Temple.

Heroism, fidelity and the saints

The last five history books in the canon of the Catholic Church (the Protestant canon has only
one of these books, Esther) focused on heroic figures, whose lives were models of courage
and fidelity to God. These books were organized according to the narrative development of
the story of the people: Tobit, who lived in the Assyrian period, Judith in the Babylonian
period, Esther in the Persian period and the Maccabees in the Hellenistic period. The first
series focused on the sin of the people, the second on the grace of God and the third brought a
vision of the small remnant of the faithful and righteous ones, individuals who can inspire
future generations.

The Book of Tobit tells the story of a righteous man who was among the deportees of the
northern kingdom and lived “in the days of King Shalmaneser of the Assyrians” (Tobit 1:2).
Tobit was a just man from the tribe of Naftali, maintaining the law both before he was exiled
and after, when he lived in Nineveh. When still in the northern kingdom, he continued to go
alone on pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem and when exiled he refrained from eating
impure food. His righteousness demanded courage too as he buried the members of his people
killed by the king, contravening the king’s command. An informer told the king what Tobit
was doing and as a result he lost all his possessions and was reduced to poverty. After his
possessions were restored due to a change in regime, Tobit continued his life of fidelity but
one day was struck blind. In his great suffering, Tobit recognizing the justice of God, also
prayed for an early death. Unbeknown to Tobit, in the city of Ecbatana, a young woman,
Sarah was suffering too, being tormented by a demon who killed off, one after the other, the
young men she married. She too prayed that that she might die.

God heard the prayers of Tobit and Sarah. “Raphael was sent to heal both of them: Tobit, by
removing the white films from his eyes, so that he might see God's light with his eyes; and
Sarah, daughter of Raguel, by giving her in marriage to Tobias son of Tobit, and by setting
her free from the wicked demon Asmodeus. For Tobias was entitled to have her before all
others who had desired to marry her” (Tobit 3:17). The rest of the book recounted the journey
of Tobit’s son, Tobias, to the city of Ecbatana to claim money his father had left there with a
kinsman. After Tobit had instructed Tobias on how to live a good and holy life, Tobias went
out and found the Archangel Raphael, who presented himself as a man who knew the roads
from Nineveh to Ecbatana and thus could guide Tobias on the way. Raphael, disguised as an
ordinary person named Azariah, helped Tobias bring salvation and healing not just to his
father Tobit, who regained his sight and his wealth, but also to Sarah, who liberated from the
demon becomes Tobias’s wife. The beautiful tale presented a luminous example to the people:
a wise and faithful man, Tobit, who suffered much and yet who prevailed against all
adversity. At the end of the book, Tobit and Tobias died after long lives and Tobias was able
to witness the destruction of Nineveh (an event that took place in 612 BC), seeing this as a
victory for God.

Whereas Tobit lived in exile in the time of the Assyrians, Judith, the next heroic figure, lived
in the land in the time of the Babylonians. Judith appeared for the first time in the middle of
the book, in chapter 8. Until that point, the scene was laid, describing the wars waged by King
Nebuchadnezzar, strangely called the King of the Assyrians although he was King of the
Babylonians. The king’s chief of the army, Holofernes, was victorious wherever he went, and
the dread of the Babylonians fell on the people in the land. According to the Book of Judith,
the fate of the country was to be determined by the town of Bethulia (a location that has not
been identified geographically). The high priest in Jerusalem, Joachim, sent a letter to the
people of Bethulia, ordering them “to seize the mountain passes, since by them Judea could
be invaded; and it would be easy to stop any who tried to enter, for the approach was narrow,
wide enough for only two at a time to pass” (Judith 4:7). Meanwhile, the entire people
undertook to repent of their sins and engage in prayer and fasting.

Holofernes held council with the enemies of the people of God, the Moabites and the
Ammonites, in order to discern how to vanquish them. The Ammonites and the Moabites had
not offered the people of God hospitality as they passed through the wilderness in the days of
Moses and were characterized as peoples cursed by God. The Bible spoke of them derisively,
claiming that they were descended from the incestuous union of Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and
his two daughters. The Book of Deuteronomy had ordained, “No Ammonite or Moabite shall
be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their
descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 23:3). Ruth was a
Moabite and her entry into the history of salvation provoked surprise early on in the History
Books, and in the Book of Judith an Ammonite would emerge as a surprising figure in his
turn. In the council Holofernes convened, he asked about this people that refused to come out
and submit to him. Akhior, the chief of the Ammonites, stood up and retold the story of the
people. He explained the principle of the people’s existence, “As long as they did not sin
against their God they prospered, for the God who hates iniquity is with them. But when they
departed from the way he had prescribed for them, they were utterly defeated in many battles
and were led away captive to a foreign land. The temple of their God was razed to the
ground, and their towns were occupied by their enemies” (Judith 5:17-18). Akhior’s profound
understanding of the identity and vocation of the people of God was at the basis of his advice
to Holofernes, “So now, my master and lord, if there is any oversight in this people and they
sin against their God and we find out their offense, then we can go up and defeat them. But if
they are not a guilty nation, then let my lord pass them by; for their Lord and God will defend
them, and we shall become the laughingstock of the whole world” (Judith 5:20-21).

Akhior’s testimony would be echoed later by Gamaliel in the Acts of the Apostles, speaking
out in the Sanhedrin, when the apostles were on trial. “If this plan or this undertaking is of
human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them-- in that
case you may even be found fighting against God” (Acts 5:38-39). Akhior’s declaration was
ridiculed by the other chiefs present in the council and these words enraged Holofernes who
pronounced that on his return from conquering this “this race that came out of Egypt” (Judith
6:5), Akhior would be put to death. The scene between Holofernes and Akhior recalled the
story of Balaam, who blessed the people, and an enraged King Balak, who had ordered the
people cursed (cf. Numbers 22-24). Akhior was taken, bound and left outside Bethulia, where
the townspeople took him in. Holofernes then laid siege to Bethulia, cutting the town off from
its water sources. As the townspeople weakened, they rebuked their leaders for not having
surrendered to the powerful Assyrian army, after all, they said, “It would be better for us to be
captured by them. We shall indeed become slaves, but our lives will be spared, and we shall
not witness our little ones dying before our eyes, and our wives and children drawing their
last breath” (Judith 7:27). Their words echoed the words of the people in the wilderness,
misled by the spies who had given a bad report about the land, forgetting the promises of God
(cf. Numbers 13-14).

At this point in the narrative, Judith appeared. A beautiful and pious widow, her courage and
wisdom made her the instrument of salvation for her people. Rebuking the people for having
put God to the test, she encouraged them to have faith and trust God completely, like Joshua
and Caleb before her. Judith herself withdrew to pray and fast, begging God, “Give to me, a
widow, the strong hand to do what I plan. By the deceit of my lips strike down the slave with
the prince and the prince with his servant; crush their arrogance by the hand of a woman”
(Judith. 9:9-10). She then set off to seduce Holofernes and bring about his defeat. Enchanted
by her beauty, the invaders gave her access to the chief of the army. Judith confirmed the
words of Akhior, saying, “Indeed our nation cannot be punished, nor can the sword prevail
against them, unless they sin against their God” (Judith 11:10). However, she explained that
the people had already sinned and was about to sin even more. Holofernes only needed to wait
a little while and then he would be able to accomplish his purpose and destroy the people as
God would be angry at their sins. Judith waited, going out of the enemy camp each night to
pray with her servant woman, who accompanied her. Her chance came when Holofernes
invited her to a banquet, where he got exceedingly drunk. Left alone with him, she beheaded
him with his sword and departed as she usually did to pray, carrying with her his severed
head.

Returning to Bethulia, Judith was acclaimed by the head of the city, “O daughter, you are
blessed by the Most High God above all other women on earth; and blessed be the Lord God,
who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to cut off the head of the leader of
our enemies. Your praise will never depart from the hearts of those who remember the power
of God” (Judith 13:18-19). Akhior the Ammonite, brought in to testify that this was the head
of Holofernes, recognized what God had done for his people, and like Ruth the Moabite
before him, joined the people. “He believed firmly in God. So, he was circumcised, and joined
the house of Israel, remaining so to this day” (Judith 14:10). Judith, like a new Moses, sang a
song of victory (cf. Exodus 15), and like a new Miriam, sister of Moses, led the people in
dance. “Begin a song to my God with tambourines, sing to my Lord with cymbals. Raise to
him a new psalm; exalt him and call upon his name. For the Lord is a God who crushes wars;
he sets up his camp among his people; he delivered me from the hands of my pursuers”
(Judith 16:1-2).

Whereas Judith lived in the land in the time of the Babylonians, the next heroic woman of
faith, Esther, lived in the diaspora in the time of the Persians. The Book of Esther tells the
story of a great persecution that arose in the time of the Persian king Ahasuerus because of his
evil vizier Haman. Esther, who married the king, and her cousin Mordekhai succeeded in
foiling the evil plan to destroy the people of God throughout the Persian empire.
At the beginning of the book (in the Catholic Bible), Mordekhai, after a dream of war against
the people of God, uncovered a plot to assassinate the king. The Catholic version of the book
is longer than the version found in the Jewish and Protestant Bibles because it includes texts
written in Greek that were added to the book after its initial composition in Hebrew. The king,
during a drunken feast, deposed his wife and then had to search for another. The beautiful
Esther pleased the king more than the other women brought to his court for approval and she
became the queen.

Haman, the king’s vizier, was, according to the Book of Esther, an Agagite, a descendant of
Agag, the king Saul had spared, angering God and provoking Saul’s rejection (cf. 1Samuel
15). Agag had been a descendant of Amalek, the ferocious enemy of the people of God, who
had attacked the people when they were tired and weary as they left Egypt (cf. Exodus 17).
Haman’s hatred for Mordekhai was aroused when Mordekhai refused to bow down to him,
acknowledging his status. This hatred was not restricted to Mordekhai but all Mordekhai’s
people and so Haman drew a lot to decide on which day the people should be destroyed. Then
Haman persuaded King Ahasuerus to agree to his wicked plan. Mordekhai, on learning of the
king’s decision, put on sackcloth in mourning and sent word to Esther that she must intercede
for her people. Both Mordekhai and Esther prayed for God’s help as all their people fasted for
three days. (The prayers of Mordekhai and Esther exist only in the longer version of Esther,
which includes the Greek texts.)

Esther, taking her life into her own hands but trusting in God, went to see the king without a
royal summons, an act that could have led to her being sentenced to death. The king received
her (the Greek version of Esther specifying that God softened the heart of the king). Esther
then invited the king and Haman to a series of banquets. After the first banquet, Haman
decided to take vengeance on Mordekhai and have him hanged on gallows he had prepared,
however the king foiled this plan when he remembered that Mordekhai had saved his life.
Instead of hanging Mordekhai as he desired, Haman had to lead a horse upon which was
seated Mordekhai, proclaiming that “This is what is done for the man whom the king wishes to
reward” (Esther 6:9).

At the second banquet, the king asked Esther what she desired, and she begged the king for
her life and that of her people. The king, astonished that Esther believed her life was in
danger, asked who was threatening her and her people and she pointed to Haman. The king
ordered that Haman be hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordekhai. He reversed the
royal decree against Esther’s people, not only making Mordekhai his new vizier but also
giving the people the right to defend themselves against all their enemies.

The last two history books tell the tale of the Maccabees in two different forms. In a time of
ferocious persecution by the Greek king, Antiochus Epiphanes IV (175-164 BC), a man
named Mattathias the priest and his five sons rebelled against the Hellenistic imposition of
idolatry and foreign laws. The courage of the five brothers and those that resist the imposition
of foreign laws and customs were the heroes of these two books.

1Maccabees begins with a description of the attempts of the Hellenists to wipe out the
religious specificity of the people in Jerusalem. Some of the people agreed with this process
of assimilation and the war that resulted was as much a civil war among the people as a war
against the foreign enemy. The peak of the repression of the true religion was the halting of
Temple sacrifices and the erection of what the author calls “the horrible abomination” upon
“the altar of holocausts” (1Maccabees 1:54). Those that insisted on studying the law or
circumcising their children were harshly punished and even put to death. “But many in Israel
stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. They chose to die rather
than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die” (1 Maccabees
1:62-63). In this context, Mattathias rebelled, and he was described in terms that evoke the
zealous defenders of the law, especially Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, who slew an idolatrous
Israelite and a pagan woman. God said of him, “Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the
priest, has turned back my wrath from the Israelites by manifesting such zeal among them on
my behalf that in my jealousy I did not consume the Israelites. Therefore say, 'I hereby grant
him my covenant of peace. It shall be for him and for his descendants after him a covenant of
perpetual priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the
Israelites” (Numbers 25:11-13). Elijah, the great prophet at the time of evil King Ahab, was
another paradigmatic figure of the zeal that consumed those fighting to preserve the law. This
zeal characterized Jesus of Nazareth too when he came to purify the Temple.

1Maccabees proceeded to tell the story of the five courageous sons of Mattathias, who waged
war against the Hellenist occupation and were ultimately victorious, three of the sons
becoming leaders of the people. A first part of the book told the story of Judas (1Maccabees
3-9:22), a second part, that of Jonathan (1Maccabees 9:23-12) and a third part, that of Simon
(1Maccabees 13-16). Unlike the books of Tobit, Judith and Esther, the narrative in
1Maccabees can be inserted clearly into the actual history of Palestine and its people. The
events that began with a description of the policies of Antiochus Epiphanes whose rule began
in 175 BC, end with the death of Simon in 134 BC. The major events in the book do
correspond to the actual events that took place.

In 1Maccabees, a central event is the purification of the Temple that had been desecrated by
the Hellenists. The Maccabees liberated Jerusalem and rushed to the Temple where they found
the sanctuary desolate. Consecrating himself to the work of restoring the Temple while his
men fought the Hellenists, Judas gathered the people for the rededication of the Temple and
the renewal of sacrifices. “At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had
profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals. All the people fell
on their faces and worshiped and blessed Heaven, who had prospered them. So, they
celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and joyfully offered burnt offerings; they
offered a sacrifice of well-being and a thanksgiving offering” (1Maccabees 4:54-56). Judas
then gave the order that an annual feast of the rededication of the Temple should be celebrated
every year (cf. John 10:22).

1Maccabees provokes again the question of violence in the Bible. The multiple wars that were
fought, in which God strengthened the Maccabees against their enemies, remains a difficult
issue when the Christian reader approaches these texts in the light of the teaching of the
Gospel. Judas strengthened his companions at the beginning of the campaigns, echoing the
holy warriors of the past, “Do not fear their numbers or be afraid when they charge.
Remember how our ancestors were saved at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh with his forces
pursued them. And now, let us cry to Heaven, to see whether he will favour us and remember
his covenant with our ancestors and crush this army before us today. Then all the Gentiles
will know that there is one who redeems and saves Israel” (1Maccabees 4:8-11). These “holy
wars”, which echoed the wars in the time of Joshua, provided an important backdrop for the
wars that Jesus would wage against the demons he had come to expel. However, a Christian
can never assimilate the real power of the Evil One with human beings of flesh and blood.
Towards the end of 1Maccabees, Simon, who took the title High Priest, is described in poetic
verse as a new Joshua. “The land had rest all the days of Simon. He sought the good of his
nation; his rule was pleasing to them, as was the honor shown him, all his days. (…) He
established peace in the land, and Israel rejoiced with great joy. All the people sat under their
own vines and fig trees, and there was none to make them afraid. No one was left in the land
to fight them, and the kings were crushed in those days” (1Maccabees 14:4. 11-13). However,
at the end, Simon was murdered and his son John (known as Hyrcanus) reigned in his stead.

2Maccabees is a parallel account of the events at the time of the persecutions and the rebellion
of the Maccabees. The historical scope of the book was less expansive, beginning with the tale
of the pious high priest Onias in about 180 BC and ending with Judas’s successful defeat of
the Hellenist army in 161 BC. 2Maccabees did not focus on the great campaigns of the
Maccabees but rather on the miraculous interventions of God in the history of his people and
on the inspiring fortitude of those persecuted. The stories of the martyrs who died because of
their fidelity to the law inspired the later Christian martyrs who died for their faith.

2Maccabees began with an epistle from Jerusalem to the community in Alexandria about the
Feast of the Dedication. The epistle recounted the story of miraculous fire in the Temple at
various times in the past, a miracle renewed in the time of the Maccabees so that the Temple
could be restored. As the actual narrative got under way, the author recounted the story of
God defending the Temple treasury. The story’s conclusion set the tone for the rest of the
book, where God’s direction intervention guided history. “They recognized clearly the
sovereign power of God (…) They praised the Lord who had acted marvelously for his own
place. And the temple, which a little while before was full of fear and disturbance, was filled
with joy and gladness, now that the Almighty Lord had appeared” (2Maccabees 3:28.30).

Long chapters in 2Maccabees told of the terrible persecutions in the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes IV. The Temple was desecrated, and the law was abolished. However, this served
as a preface to the stories of the heroic martyrdom of an old man, Eleazar, and a woman and
her seven sons, all insisting on remaining faithful to God and God’s Law. “The mother was
especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Although she saw her seven sons
perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. She
encouraged each of them in the language of their ancestors. Filled with a noble spirit, she
reinforced her woman's reasoning with a man's courage, and said to them, "I do not know
how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set
in order the elements within each of you. Therefore, the Creator of the world, who shaped the
beginning of humankind and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and
breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws”
(2Maccabees 7:20-23). These chapters gave the clearest testimony there is in the Old
Testament about the resurrection of the body.

Judas Maccabee appeared only in chapter 8 of 2Maccabees and his origins were not
mentioned. Judas was victorious in pushing back the Hellenists and liberating the people from
persecution however the battle was an ongoing one. All along the way, God intervened to
bring victory to the people. Antiochus Epiphanes met a terrible end, minutely described in
chapter 9, as God ravaged his body with disease and decay. Jerusalem was liberated and the
Temple restored but, a short time, later, persecution was renewed. As history went on, there
was a constant need for the heroic testimony of men and women of faith. These faithful
witnesses radiate God’s presence in the world.
 Appendix; What about the violence?

As we conclude our study of the History Books in the Old Testament, it is necessary to say a
word about the violence that permeates the narratives in these books. Reading about the
violence, especially violent acts which according to the narrative were ordered by God, the
reader might indeed remain perplexed. Should violence be incorporated into our lives as it
seems to be such an integral part of the books, we consider the living Word of God?
Unfortunately, these texts have also been exploited to justify violence in history. However, the
Fathers of the Church reminded Christian readers that the struggles depicted in the Bible are
spiritual struggles and that the real war is against the evil that dwells within each one of us. A
complete study of this theme cannot be offered here, yet, a few points of clarification are
necessary:

1. Violence permeates the whole of Scripture, the Old Testament as well as the New. It has its
narrative origins in the murder of Abel by Cain his brother (cf. Genesis 4). However, the
theological problem is not the violence of the evil against the just but rather the use of
violence by the just, often directly ordered by God. This is not just an issue in the Old
Testament as one of the most violent books in the Bible is the Book of Revelation with its
apocalyptic wars. Even Jesus incorporates violence into some of his parables and teachings
(for example the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22:7, parable of the ten gold coins
in Luke, cf. 19:27).

2. Violence is part and parcel of the human reality. The Bible reflects a violent world in which
it was written and continues to be read. The descriptions of wars of destruction, sometimes
even ordained by God, reflects what we know about Assyrian and Babylonian warfare in the
ancient world. Violence was very much part of the world in which the Bible was written and
the wars that are described in the biblical texts reflect the wars that were experienced in the
life of the people. The Bible is literature that emerges from that reality and seeks to form it
rather than ignore it.

3. The people of the Old Testament was more often victims of violence than perpetrators of
violence. In fact, the texts that describe violence perpetrated by the people (particularly in the
conquest of the land (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings) and in the liberation of the land
(Maccabees) are preparation for understanding the events that will violently dispossess the
people, particularly the Assyrian, Babylonian and Hellenistic invasions. Furthermore,
archaeologists and historians have developed serious doubts about the historical character of
some of these texts, like those in the Books of Joshua and Judges.

4. The Bible is first and foremost describing a spiritual reality: humanity’s life with God. The
believer knows that in the struggle to remain faithful to God and God’s word, a real struggle
against the Evil One must be undertaken. This spiritual warfare was described in crystal-clear
terms by Origen. “If these carnal wars were not the figure of spiritual wars, I think that these
historical books of the Jews would never have been transmitted to the disciples of Christ, who
came to teach peace; they would never have been transmitted by the Apostles as a reading to
be read out in the assemblies. What purpose do these descriptions of wars have for those who
hear Jesus say: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you” (John 14:27).For those who
see the Apostle give the command: “Never avenge yourselves” (Romans 12:9) and “Why not
be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded” (1Corinthians 6:7). The Apostle knows only too
well that we must no longer give ourselves over to war according to the flesh but rather that
we must combat with great effort against our spiritual adversaries in our souls. He gives to
the soldiers of Christ like a chief of the army, the precept: “Put on the whole armour of God,
so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil” (Ephesians 6:11). So that we
might draw models for spiritual wars from the acts of the elders, he wanted us to read the
accounts of their exploits” (Homilies on Joshua, XV, 1.).

5. Finally, the Bible is clear that the aim of human life is to reach a state of peace and
harmony rather than remaining within the violence that too often engulfs humanity. Isaiah, the
great prophet of the Old Testament, envisioned a peace that would finally prevail. “For a
child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is
named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority
shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his
kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time
onward and forevermore” (Isaiah 9:6-7). Jesus instructs those who follow him, seeking to
build the Kingdom of God, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of
God” (Matthew 5:9). The end of violence is indeed not only a final goal but also part and
parcel of the mission of the people of God as it seeks to live the teaching of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion: Sin, grace and heroism

The History Books of the Old Testament are rich in teaching as the people of God seeks to
discover its identity, vocation and mission. Out of this long and complex history, emerged
Jesus of Nazareth according to the flesh. His parents, Mary and Joseph, were among the
heroic figures who were faithful to the Law and lived according to the word of God. His
disciples reflected both the light and darkness of this people, living through moments of sin,
grace and heroic fidelity, deepening the teaching of confession, thanksgiving and prayer for
courage.

In the New Testament, this history of the people of God continues in the Acts of the Apostles,
developing the story after the coming of Jesus and the recognition of him as the Christ. It is in
him that the history of the descendants of Abraham becomes the history of all who believe in
him as they are grafted onto the domesticated olive tree of the people of God (cf. Romans
11:17-24). The History Books teach us how to discern God’s activity in our lives and how to
journey with him in order to spread his word and make manifest his kingdom.