CHRONICLES

The name of two books in the canon of scripture. They consist of an abridgment of sacred history from its commencement down to the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, and are called by the Septuagint ■rtx.^ocXu^rofjt.ivce. (lit. things omitted), because they contain many supplemental relations omitted in the other historical bool is. It has been generally supposed that the Chronicles were compiled by Ezra, though circumstances are not wanting to diminish the probability of this conjecture. Eichhorn (Einleitung, vol. ii.) gives as his reasons for attributing them to Ezra their similarity in point of style, idiom, and orthography to the books of Kings and Ezra; while the opponents of this view base their opinion on the discrepancies that occur throughout Chronicles and Kings, in regard to facts, dates, numbers, names, and genealogies. (For a learned exposition of this subject, see the Penny Cyclopcedia, and the authorities there referred to.) [s. 245]