{Thank you to Sharon K. for this week’s book review!}
The books of Kings and Chronicles are full of exciting stories, however it can be difficult sometimes to put them together. Most kings are recorded twice, once in Kings and once in Chronicles, and we don’t tend to read the stories together so the details can be confusing. This book pieces the history together and makes a very readable bedtime story. The book was written in 1868 and a number of publishes have reprinted it for us to enjoy 150 years later!
In the preface, the author (A.O.B.) suggests that you “sit around the table, one of you with a Bible open at Chronicles, another with a Bible open at Kings, and a third with some good Map of the Holy Land”, which could make for a great family bible study.
The text is fully referenced in the margins and lists are inserted to aid in remembering the order of kings. There are archaeological details (from 1868, probably there are many others that could be mentioned today!) For example on page 61 it says, “about 20 years ago, an English gentleman went to Nineveh, the old capital of the kings of Assyria, and getting men to dig in the sand, found ruins of beautiful temples and palaces. He brought them away and placed in a museum in London a great many very large and very fine statues or figures of kings and idols, and also huge flat stones, on which are cut long lines of writing. In one of these writings in stone, it is said that Jehu had, at such and such a time, brought presents to the king of Assyria.”
The book follows the history of the Jews through Ezra and Nehemiah, and a short history of the Maccabees, all the way to Christ. You could use it in addition to your Kings and Chronicles readings to help bring the stories together!
There is one comment at the end about Jews not accepting Christianity because “they have heard that we believe in Father, Son and Holy Ghost and so they think that we worship three gods; and they have heard that Christ walked upon earth as a man and was crucified and so they think that we have made a God out of a mere man like ourselves and are therefore idolaters”… but that’s the closest it gets to false doctrine that I saw.
An online version of the book can be viewed here.
A paperback and hardcopy version can also be bought from Indigo Books or Amazon.