An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 74: Because we really needed to know who guarded King David’s oil cellars (1 Chronicles 26-29)


1 Chronicles 26-29
Because we really needed to know who guarded King David’s oil cellars.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

1 Chronicles 26
“Concerning the divisions of the porters: Of the Korhites was Meshelemiah the son of Kore, of the sons of Asaph.”

Some more numbering in this chapter, mainly of the porters of the temple, including those responsible for guarding all the tribute and treasures. At the end, David appoints wardens over some of the tribes as well.

1 Chronicles 27
“And over the olive trees and the sycomore trees that were in the low plains was Baalhanan the Gederite: and over the cellars of oil was Joash”

This chapter lists the captains of David’s military forces, and then later then various office-holders in his court, mostly those overseeing some form of agriculture. The military list seems to suggest that a different officer is in charge for each month.

1 Chronicles 28
“Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building:”

David announces his plans for the new temple, but he is not allowed by God to build it, having been involved in bloodshed. So David passes the plans on to his son Solomon, whom he proclaims before all the assembled dignitaries. The descriptions of the temple given here are less detailed than those given in Samuel; no measurements, just descriptive details. The only other thing of note is that David proclaims his tribe, Judah, to be paramount over the others.

1 Chronicles 29
“Furthermore David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the LORD God.”

David leads by example, offering large amounts of god and silver to become part of the temple, and the leaders of the Israelites follow him in this. Solomon is officially anointed king, suggesting that David abdicates his rule while still alive (but old). He offers up a prayer to sanctify the temple, which sounds a lot like the Lord’s Prayer to begin with and is pretty typical in what it says – God is great, all we have and are is because of God and not our own actions, and then he asks that Solomon be granted a “perfect heart”. When David finally dies the last few verses tell us that his deeds can be read in the writings of the prophet Samuel (check), the prophet Nathan (nope) and the prophet Gad (also nope). These last two feature occasionally, but evidently their versions didn’t make the final edit.

Well that was all pretty dry. Hopefully Second Chronicles will be less of a slog through endless lists, but I’m not holding up much hope.

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