A Synoptic Harmony of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles: With Related Passages from Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezra

Students of the Old Testament have long recognized that in the two histories of the Hebrew monarchies, Samuel/Kings and Chronicles, a literary relationship exists which is akin to that of the Synoptic Gospels of the New Testament. That is, more than one extended narrative have come down to us from antiquity, each of which exhibits distinctive characteristics, while at the same time demonstrating a more than casual relationship with the other(s). Unlike their colleagues in Synoptic Gospel studies, however, students of Samuel/Kings and Chronicles have not had easy access to English-language harmonies in which the principal texts are laid side-by-side in such a manner that comparison is facilitated not just of large blocks of text, but of individual words and phrases as well. . . . The text is that of the Revised Standard Version, Samuel/Kings in the left column, Chronicles in the right (except where noted). At all times, however, the standard of reference has remained the Masoretic Text, and occasionally I have ventured to introduce minor adjustments to the RSV text in order more accurately to demonstrate the relationship betwween the received Hebrew text of our sources. --from the Foreword

James D. Newsome is Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary (Decatur, Georgia). He is also the author of ’By the Waters of Babylon’; ’Exodus’; ’Greeks, Romans, Jews’; ’1 Samuel / 2 Samuel’; and ’Hebrew Prophets.’