In vain had De Wette, at the outset, protested against
such a procedure, contending that it was not only possible, but
conceded that Chronicles, where at variance or in contradiction,
was following older authority, but that the problem still really
was, as before, how to explain the complete difference of general
conception and the multitude of discrepancies in details; that
the hypothesis of "sources," as held before Movers by Eichhorn,
was of no service in dealing with this question, and that in the
critical comparison of the two narratives, and in testing their
historical character, it was after all incumbent to stick to what
lay before one (Beitr., i. pp. 24, 29, 38). For so ingenious
an age such principles were too obvious; Movers produced a great
impression, especially as he was not so simple as to treat the
letters of Hiram and Elijah as authentic documents, but was by way
of being very critical. At present even Dillmann also
unfortunately perceives "that the Chronicler everywhere has
worked according to sources, and that in his case deliberate
invention or distortion of the history are not for a moment to be
spoken of" (Herzog, Realencyk.
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