Searching for the Self: Classic Stories, Christian Scripture, and the Quest for Personal Identity

by Adrian T. Smith

Here are some of the storytelling devices that Chronicles uses to emphasize the continuity of Jewish identity: • The present is linked to antiquity, via nine (yes, nine!) chapters of genealogies . . . going all the way back to Adam. • The past is mined for patterns of history, to generate a script for the present. The script is summarized in 2 Chr 7:14 (a verse that—for some reason—often appears in bumper-sticker form on American automobiles): “If my people . . . humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their evil ways—then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” In retelling Israel’s story, Chronicles delights in showing how this pattern (repentance à restoration) repeats itself. • The present is anchored to the past by glorifying those institutions that persist. The Jews of Chronicles’s day no longer have a king—but they do have the rebuilt temple and its rituals. Chronicles’s narrative glorifies the temple and its rites.