1 & 2 Chronicles:

I absolutely love the Brazos Theological Commentary series. Generally, it is pastoral and winsome, pressing the text into our everyday lives by sharing the fruit of technical academic scholarship married to the spiritual meditations and reflections of those very scholars. I have utilized many of the volumes in this series, but Peter Leithart's “1 & 2 Chronicles” was (I believe) the first I have read cover to cover.

Leithart is an interesting choice. He is a theologian more than a scholar of biblical studies, yet is incredibly well-versed in relevant scholarship and displays a great facility with Hebrew. Having contributed the 1 & 2 Kings volume for this same series, I can see the logic in inviting him back to do Chronicles. It helps him highlight the continuities and discontinuities in each text, and maintain a firm grasp on the overall purpose of the writings in the life and identify formation of Israel. His opening discussions introducing the book and walking through the opening genealogy of the book are incredible contributions in and of themselves.

Leithart maintains a tether to his heart as a minister, and his connections to Christianity, his distillation of scholarly and technical findings, and linking of the text to one's own spiritual and sacramental life are beautiful, moving, and helpful. He does not get bogged down with trying to “reconcile” contradictions or “defend” the text. He takes it as it is received, walking chapter-by-chapter, unfolding the narrative for us, putting things in historical and canonical context very helpfully and (at times) beautifully.

However, it is difficult to recommend this book as a commentary to read from front-to-back. Leithart really gets into the weeds of each chapter in a way that is helpful if you have been studying the text or are turning to this commentary among others to study a particular part of the biblical book. I admit, having read this book all the way through, I can't say I remember anything specific from the first half (or more) of the book. There are a few running threads thematically, but they are broad enough that they don't serve as a framing to keep things in order. The book feels less like a whole and more like an essay collection, or at times something worse: a text where all the parts just kind of blend together in one's mind.

There are a couple of other quirks specific to academic biblical studies-types that make this difficult to read at times. Yes, the Hebrew is transliterated into English, but there's a lot of it, as well as a lot citations. I appreciate this in scholarly works, but it clutters up a page you may be trying to read for pleasure. There are also no section headers beyond naming the section of the text being discussed.

Most irritatingly, Peter J. Leithart never seems to have met a text out of which he cannot pull out some sort of chiastic structure. EVERY SINGLE section of biblical text discussed in this book has significant page space devoted to the chiastic breakdown of a text, whether it helps in understanding it or not, and whether the structure seems legitimate or not. He seems to simply assume that this is the shape of the ancient Hebrew mind, and every written creation is fundamentally shaped around chiasms. Biblical scholarship, however, has long shown this not to be the case and, what's more, it has shown that even when there is a chiastic structure, it is not as necessary to meaning as once thought–it may just be how it's organized and has no deeper meaning.

There was one last frustration I had with this text, and I admit some of it may be my fault. Throughout, Leithart writes as if you have the specific chapter in question either right in front of you or mostly internalized. I do not. I read this commentary because of my lack of familiarity with Chronicles. But most all the time he speaks as if you just read the section under discussion or know what he's talking about. I probably should have read the text beside this book, but it just wasn't feasible most times.

But more to the point, that's not been how this commentary series usually has worked. It is a “theological” commentary series, not a “biblical” one, meaning it's not so much about the ins and outs of Hebrew grammar and historical context (though those play a role for sure), but MORE about how these ancient texts shape our theological imagination and spiritual lives. And for that end, I find this lacking. Most other volumes summarize the text being discussed or include longer quotations of a verse or section. They recognize that the book is not supposed to be a verse-by-verse close examination of the text, but an application of the text to the theology and life of the reader. The Christian connections here, when present, are beautiful and profound, but they are not frequent (even when they'd seem obvious!). I wish there were more.

But still, as one among other commentaries you turn to when studying, teaching, or preaching through anything in Chronicles, this book is invaluable and helpful. I think it deviates somewhat from the overall mission of the commentary series, but not at all in a way that makes it bad or unhelpful overall.