Now, 480 years are twelve generations of forty years, and in
1Chronicles v. there are twelve high priests reckoned to the period
during which there was no temple (ver. 36b to come after ver. 35a),
and thence eleven down to the exile; that is to say, twelve generations,
when the exile is included. The historical value of the genealogy
in 1Chronicles v. 26-41 is thus inevitably condemned. But if
Chronicles knew nothing about the priestly princes of the olden
time, its statements about ordinary priests are obviously little
to be relied on.
VI.III.3. To speak of a tradition handed down from pre-exilic times
as being found in Chronicles, either in 1Chronicles i.-ix. or in
1Chronicles x.-2Chronicles xxxvi., is thus manifestly out of the
question. As early as 1806 this had been conclusively shown by
the youthful De Wette (then twenty-six years of age). But since
that date many a theological Sisyphus has toiled to roll the
stone again wholly or half-way up the hill--Movers especially, in
genius it might seem the superior of the sober Protestant
critic--with peculiar results. This scholar mixed up the inquiry
into the historical value of those statements in Chronicles which
we are able to control, with the other question as to the probable
sources of its variations from the older historical books of the
canon.
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