ספר דברי הימים: כתיבה היסטורית ואמצעים ספרותײם [The Book of Chronicles: Historical Writing and Literary Devices] (review)

The Jewish Quarterly Review, XCIII, Nos. 3-4 (January-April, 2003) 605-608 Isaac Kalimi. ?»??a? o'jisbni rmioo'n ?3'?3 :??'? '337 iùv [The Book of Chronicles: Historical Writing and Literary Devices]. The Biblical Encyclopaedia Library 18. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2000. Pp. xix + 477 (in Hebrew). The book of Chronicles has been the subject of renewed scholarly interest in recent decades, and many studies on it have been published. Unlike studies stressing the textual aspect of the book, such as M. Rehm's Textkritische Untersuchungen zu den Parallelstellen der Samuel-Königsbücher und der Chronik (1937), or its ideological perspective, the most prominent example being S. Japhet's The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles and Its Place in Biblical Thought (2nd ed., 1997), Kalimi's work focuses on the literary aspect of Chronicles. While this is not the only scholarly work with such an orientation, it is unique in its treatment of the smallest details, that composes a complete and comprehensive picture. This book is an expanded and revised version of a study that was originally published in German, Zur Geschichtsschreibung des Chronisten (1995); we can only hope that it will also appear in English. Kalimi states his aim at the beginning of the introduction: "This book seeks to reveal the rich array of forms and structures, literary techniques and means, editorial methods and historiographical adaptation applied by the Chronicler to the early texts" (p. vii). The first nineteen chapters of the book are devoted to a systematic examination of different types of historiographie and literary changes in Chronicles, as compared with its parallels. The twentieth and last chapter presents the "negative"—the lack of methodicalness and the flaws in Chronicles' changes as compared with the versions in the books of Samuel and Kings. 1 will present three examples of Kalimi's explanations to characterize his methodology. 2 Chr 10:16 presents the declaration of those rebelling against Rehoboam: "We have no portion in David, no share in Jesse's son! Every man (vh) to your tents, O Israel!" The text of the proclamation is a verbatim repetition of the parallel in 1 Kgs 12:16, with the exception of the addition of one word: vh. Kalimi cites the view of Curtis and Madsen in their commentary in the ICC series that vh is a dittograph from the preceding word ->v "Jesse." Kalimi offers an alternative explanation: the word vh appears in a parallel verse in the book of Samuel, in the narrative of the rebellion by Sheba son of Bichri against David (2 Sam 20:1). Its recurrence in 2 Chr 10:16 is an intentional addition by the Chronicler in order to expand the analogy between the two rebellions, and thereby imply that the northern tribes are inveterate rebels against the Davidic line (pp. 131-132). This is 606THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW one example of what Kalimi defines as "textual harmonization." Anyone doubting this explanation would ask if the addition of the word vh suffices to create a linkage between the texts, while the following word, t>pt)hp "to your tents," remains in Chronicles as it appears in Kings, without being changed to correspond to the version in Samuel: i>bnNi> "to his tent." If, however, we closely examine Kalimi's explanation, it would seem that his argument is for an intensification of the linkage between the texts, and not for its very creation, and that a connection between the two uprising narratives can already be discerned between the original narrative in Kings and that in Samuel. A second example concerns the fashioning of the characters. Considering the Chronicler as a creative author leads Kalimi to examine the subject of the appellations given the characters in the book. According to Kalimi, a reference to a character by his first name in contrast with the title that denotes his function in the parallel text, expresses the prominence afforded the character and a favorable attitude towards him. Two examples of this phenomenon are of special interest. The first, in the narrative in Samuel (2 Samuel 24) of the census conducted by David, there are 15 references to him by name, and 14 with the term...