This time, we'll look very briefly at a few scattered passages from 1 Chronicles. Since the books of Chronicles are pretty much a rehash of the earlier history books, there's not very much new material to look over.
1 Chr 9:1 – So all Israel was enrolled by genealogies; and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.
1 Chr 12:16-18 – Some Benjaminites and Judahites came to the stronghold to David. David went out to meet them and said to them, "If you have come to me in friendship, to help me, then my heart will be knit to you; but if you have come to betray me to my adversaries, though my hands have done no wrong, then may the God of our ancestors see and give judgment." Then the spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the Thirty, and he said, "We are yours, O David; and with you, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to the one who helps you! For your God is the one who helps you." Then David received them, and made them officers of his troops.
1 Chr 21:1 – Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to count the people of Israel.
The first verse is interesting to me because it helps date the time the book was written. The writer knew of the Babylonian exile as part of his past, so we can easily see that much of the material he was writing about was far-removed from him, time-wise.
Secondly, we'll note several differences between Chronicles and the other books of history, namely a very different mythos. In the first chapters, dedicated to listing geneologies, we see mention of Adam and Noah for instance -- the first mention of them outside of Genesis. Also, we see in the second passage above, a new item -- the concept of "the spirit" taking over a person's actions. Such a thing hasn't been mentioned up to now.
The third passage shows the first mention in the Bible of this character "Satan," here playing the role of an adversary against Israel. More on him as we enter the books of poetry and drama.
All these things give the appearance of religious elements that were borrowed from the Babylonian (or possibly other) captors, and were not parts of the Hebrew religion when earlier writings took place.
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