Chapter 3 - OBSERVATIONS ON ANCIENT MODES OF READING OF CHRONICLES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS, WITH AN ILLUSTRATION OF THEIR EXPLANATORY POWER FOR THE STUDY OF THE ACCOUNT OF AMAZIAH (2 CHRONICLES 25)

Summary

1. General Considerations

How did ancient readers and rereaders of the book approach this historiographical book? In which ways did they read it? Which reading strategies played prominent roles in these literati's reading of the book, and particularly in relation to which passages? These types of questions are crucial for an understanding of the message of the book and the significance of its narrative subunits as they were construed by these ancient literati. Moreover, explorations of these questions bear clear implications for the study of genre attributes and genre expectations of historiographical works that existed within the circles that accepted the book of Chronicles as an authoritative book. This contribution advances some observations on these matters and then illustrates how they inform the study of particular accounts or sections of accounts within the historical milieu in which and for which they were composed by dealing with particular elements of the report of Amaziah's reign.

It must be said from the outset that full, definitive, unequivocal answers to the opening questions cannot be achieved easily, if at all. This being said, preliminary considerations and observations that are limited to some narrow issues can be very helpful. For instance, heuristic models that assume that the ancient literati approached the book of Chronicles, through all their rereadings, with one single and ‘pure’ reading strategy are most likely to be misleading and unnecessarily restrictive.