therefore to make allowance for the strength of his convictions, for his conception of the course of history and for the intentions with which he wrote. How far these considerations affect the historical value of his work will be dealt with below (§ 7).
This discussion of the sources may conclude by emphasising the remarkable skill of the composition. The passages taken direct from the earlier Scriptures have been so admirably combined with the new material that the component parts have been wrought into a real unity. It is evident we are dealing with an author of strong personality. What the aim and purpose of this writer were we may now proceed to consider.
§ 6. The Purpose and Method of the Chronicler
(1) In the time of the Chronicler the position of the orthodox party in Jerusalem, whose interests, civil and ecclesiastical, were bound up with the worship at the Temple on Mt Zion, was one of considerable difficulty. During the Greek period (from 330 B.C.) the mental horizon of the Jews in Jerusalem had expanded even more than under the Persian rule (538-330 B.C.). They were now able to realise their isolation and political insignificance, whilst at the same time the communities of Jews scattered in all the leading countries of the ancient world were rapidly growing in size, influence, and in cosmopolitan outlook. Even the religious supremacy of Jerusalem was threatened. We now know that there was an important Jewish Temple at Elephantine in Egypt, which the Jewish community there was eager to maintain. But far more serious was the Samaritan schism and the Temple to Jehovah erected by them on Mt Gerizim. We can well imagine that a rival Temple on Palestinian soil claiming, no doubt with some show of justice, that there were true Levitical families among its priests, that its ritual was correct and its observance of the Law every whit as sound as that in Jerusalem, was a matter of vital importance
