Month 13 - 1 Chronicles

1 Chronicles marks the start of something new for "Through the Bible in Five and a Half Years". For those of us that have been doing this since the start, we're now a year through. I don't know about you guys, but it doesn't seem that long since we sat down to look at Genesis.

But it's also the start of a new group, so welcome to any of you guys who are joining us for the first time. Despite being the 13th book of the Bible, 1 Chronicles is actually quite a good place to start. It's obviously not quite as good as Genesis or Matthew, but there is something to be said for it. I'll say more about that at the sessions.

This month's sessions are happening as follows: Next Thursday 27th March, and the following Monday 31st March. Both kick off at 7:30 at 5 Meadow Lane. The idea is to keep the Monday group going as is, and starting the Thursday group up as fresh, so the content will be slightly different in two sessions to reflect that. By the time we hit Nehemiah, they'll be pretty much identical though.

In terms of resources, Chronicles is not the most over-done book. Other than the text itself there is also 2 Samuel which covers many of these events in its own way. In terms of commentaries there's Peter Ackroyd's on I and II Chronicles which also covers Nehemiah and Ezra. There's actually been a resurgence in interest in Chronicles in recent years so there are a good number of recent commentaries out there. Tyler Williams has a good list of them with some useful comments. Lionel Windsor's online notes are also useful.

Film-wise most films follow Samuel rather than Chronicles which tends to miss out the exploits of David's mighty men and focus on the affair with Bathsheba. There are two films in production about David so it will be interesting to see if either of them reverses the trend.