Index: 1 Chronicles

1 Chronicles is historical narrative that likely served as a focal point for the returning exiles. It perhaps served the function of a "manifesto" intended to inspire devotion.

1 Chronicles 1:32
Was Keturah a wife, as this verse says, or a concubine (per 1 Chr. 1:32)? The use of "wife" is a KJV error. The Hebrew word is ishshah, which means any woman and includes the meaning of "wife".
1 Chronicles 2:13-15
Seventh son, or eighth?
1 Chronicles 2:17
Who was Amasa's father? Jether or Ishra (2 Sam. 17:25)? The two names in Hebrew are actually yithra (meaning "excellence" or "wealth") and yether (meaning "excellency") and are thus variations of the same name (like "James" and "Jim" or "Bob" and "Robert").
1 Chronicles 2:18, 50
Was Caleb the son of Hezron or Hur? This is another of those cases of a shortened genealogy; see here for explanation.
1 Chronicles 3:15
And the sons of Josiah were, the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum. The problem: 2 Kings 23-24 seems to put these in the wrong order. Braun (Chronicles commentary, 51-2) notes that there are textual issues which suggest a confusion, and that there were two Zedekiahs (out of a total of 6 in the OT, so hardly improbable; the name means "Yahweh is righteous") is the best answer: Hebrew 2 Kings and Greek 2 Chronicles says that Zedekiah was the son of Josiah, but Hebrew 2 Chronicles and Greek 2 Kings says that Zedekiah was Jehoachin's brother and son, respectively. Braun therefore hypothesizes, in what is far from a stretch, two Zedekiahs who were confused by later copyists.
1 Chronicles 3:22
And the sons of Shechaniah; Shemaiah: and the sons of Shemaiah; Hattush, and Igeal, and Bariah, and Neariah, and Shaphat, six. There are only five sons listed here. It is not difficult to suggest a copyist error, with either a name being dropped out (very common in list transmissions) or a six being mistaken for a five.
1 Chronicles 6:66, 69
Who got Aijalon and Gathrimmon, Ephraim or Dan (Josh. 21:23-24)? They were indeed given to Dan -- but reassigned by Chronicles to Ephraim. Why? Because this is Chronicles' way of snubbing the tribe of Dan, which brought idolatry into the Northern Kingdom: by assigning their land to others "in your face." This is an open, purposeful, and polemical contradiction to the previous record, perfectly in accord with how the ancients did their business.
1 Chronicles 8:33, 9:39
Versus 1 Samuel 9:1
1 Chronicles 9:27
1 Chronicles 10:6, 13-15
Is this contradictory about Saul's death? -- also addresses the matter of all his house perishing.
1 Chronicles 11:11
Could one man kill this many people at once?
1 Chronicles 13:9
Was God unfair to Uzzah? [Off Site] -- part of a larger article. Also, was he killed at the place of Nachon (2 Sam. 6:6) or Childon?
1 Chronicles 13:19-20
And the sons of Pedaiah were, Zerubbabel, and Shimei: and the sons of Zerubbabel; Meshullam, and Hananiah, and Shelomith their sister: And Hashubah, and Ohel, and Berechiah, and Hasadiah, Jushabhesed, five.There are eight kids listed here. It is not difficult to suggest a copyist error,of an eight being mistaken for a five.
1 Chronicles 18:4
700 (per 2 Samuel 8:4) or 7000 horsemen? Keil and Delitzsch have a most convincing solution, that the word for chariotry ( rekeb ) was inadvertently omitted by the scribe in copying 2 Sam 8:4, and that the second figure, seven thousand (for the parasim "cavalrymen"), was necessarily reduced to seven hundred from the seven thousand he saw in his Vorlage for the simple reason that no one would write seven thousand after he had written one thousand in the recording of the one and the same figure.

The omission of rekeb might have occurred with an earlier scribe, and the reduction of seven thousand to seven hundred would have followed by chain reaction when the defective copy was next copied by a later scribe. But in all probability the Chronicles figure is right and the Samuel numbers should be corrected to go with it.

1 Chronicles 19:18
700 or 7000 charioteers? Horsemen or footmen?
1 Chronicles 20:5
Who killed Goliath?
1 Chronicles 21
Who moved for the census -- God or Satan? [Off Site]
1 Chronicles 21:5
Why the divergency in numbers for the armies?
1 Chronicles 21:11
Were there three years of famine offered, or seven (per 2 Samuel 24:13)? Three is the more likely reading, favored by the LXX and by symmetry with the other punishments offered (three months of flight from enemies, three days of plague). Samuel was hit by a copyist error. See our foundational essay on copyist errors for general background.
1 Chronicles 21:25
Did David pay 50 shekels of silver (1 Samuel 24:24), or 600 shekels of gold?
1 Chronicles 22:14
Is this an excessive amount of gold and silver, etc.?
1 Chronicles 25:3
Of Jeduthun: the sons of Jeduthun; Gedaliah, and Zeri, and Jeshaiah, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, six... There are only five sons listed here. It is not difficult to suggest a copyist error, with either a name being dropped out (very common in list transmissions) or a six being mistaken for a five.
1 Chronicles 27:24, 29:29
Refers to Annals of David and material written by Nathan alleged to be "lost books" of the Bible. See the article on the OT "Lost Books" -- part of a larger article on the OT canon.