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Neriah Klein, War in Chronicles: Temple Faithfulness and Israel’s Place in the Land. By Troy D. Cudworth, The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 70, Issue 2, October 2019, Pages 764–765, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flz058
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Extract
This revision of Cudworth’s Oxford D.Phil. thesis, which offers a clearly written analysis of the narrative of the book of Chronicles (i.e. 1 Chron. 10–2 Chron. 36), joins many literary and theological studies on Chronicles from the last decades. Contrary to what its main title may imply, the focus of this research is not on wars in Chronicles in general (e.g. the wars in the genealogical section of Chronicles are not discussed) but on the strong interactions between the faithfulness of kings towards the temple and their rewards or punishments—of which victory or loss in wars is one of the most common—which show the temple as the most significant element in securing Israel’s place in its land. Cudworth’s analysis reveals that, according to the Chronicler, each king’s faith is measured according to two complementary elements: not only should he care for the temple and its proper management, but another important element—not previously treated in scholarship—is his duty of gathering ‘all-Israel’ to worship God in the temple.